Disability Rights Advocates in partnership with Public Counsel filed this lawsuit because Contra Costa County Juvenile Hall had a policy and practice of locking young people with disabilities in solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day and depriving them of education. In a video, parents of young people held at Juvenile Hall say […]
As a result of a lawsuit filed by Disability Rights Advocates (DRA), Oregon undertook extensive steps to modify its high stakes testing system to ensure that the tests do not discriminate against students with learning disabilities. The settlement is based on the findings of an expert panel that was convened by the parties to examine […]
This case received major national attention as it challenged the practice of “flagging” test scores for students with disabilities who ask for accommodations. Flagging is the practice by which administrators of standardized tests place notations on the score reports of people with disabilities who take the exams with accommodations for their disabilities. Since its implementation […]
DRA represented a class of all students in Alaska with learning disabilities who were required to take the Alaska High School Graduation Qualifying Examination (HSGQE). The parties reached a comprehensive settlement agreement on Monday, August 2, 2004. Among other critical new access features to the testing program, the settlement included a broad expansion of the […]
DRA reached a class action settlement with the University of California, Berkeley that is resulting in comprehensive access improvements to this leading national University. The Plaintiffs are a class of all students with mobility and/or vision disabilities at U.C. Berkeley. Under the settlement, U.C. Berkeley has been removing thousands of access barriers throughout its facilities. […]
DRA reached a class action settlement with the Santa Barbara School District in improved access to the District’s High School. DRA represented several students with mobility disabilities who had been subjected to discriminatory and dangerous conditions at this high school. One of the students, Liana Mitchum was struck three times by cars on her way […]
The Spieler v. Mt. Diablo Consent Decree negotiated in 2000, represents the most sweeping school access settlement to date under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Consent Decree created equal access to school buildings, educational programs, and social programs. Mt. Diablo School District has committed $20 million over ten years to ensure equal access for […]
The Hayward Unified School District has entered into a comprehensive agreement with nonprofit law firms Disability Rights Advocates and Disability Rights California (formerly Protection & Advocacy, Inc.) and several parents to expand its voter approved District-wide modernization and new building efforts into making all its schools accessible to students with disabilities. The agreement was negotiated […]
The Law School Admission Council’s (LSAC) website is the gateway for aspiring law students to apply to law schools and to register for the Law School Admission Test (LSAT). Yet, LSAC operated a website that was not accessible to blind law school applicants who use screen reader software. To challenge LSAC’s inaccessible website, DRA and […]
In January of 2011, the Ninth Circuit Court granted Stephanie Enyart, a blind law school graduate, the right to use assistive technology to take the Multistate Bar Exam and the Multistate Professional Responsibility Exam. The court issued a landmark ruling that established that testing entities are required to provide accommodations that best ensure exams measure […]