EdLawConnect Blog

Within the past month, California courts have issued rulings expanding the types of lawsuits that may be filed against website operators for failing to maintain certain accessibility standards.  Given these rulings and the U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights’ recent trend towards focusing on website accessibility for local educational agencies (LEA), it is more important than ever to assess whether your websites meet industry standards for accessibility.

A federal district court in Massachusetts recently ruled against Harvard University in an ongoing lawsuit filed on behalf of disabled individuals challenging the accessibility of online video content on the university’s websites. (National Association of the Deaf v. Harvard University (D. Mass. March 28, 2019) 2019 WL 1409302, No. 3:15-cv-30023-KAR.) On the same day, the court issued a similar ruling in a companion lawsuit against the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, relying on the rationale from the Harvard University decision. (National Association of the Deaf v. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (D. Mass. March 28, 2019) 2019 WL 1409301, No. 3:15-cv-30024-KAR.)

In the past, the IDEA’s exhaustion requirement has been applied in various parts of the United States to routinely bar lawsuits for injunctive relieve and/or money damages against school districts and their employees for violations of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (“Section 504”) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), when administrative due process procedures were ...

An individual has a disability under the Title II of the ADA (“ADA”) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (“Section 504”) if he or she has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, has a record of such impairment, or is regarded as having such an impairment.  (28 C.F.R. Part 35.108(a)(1))  Local educational agencies (“LEA”) must ...

Drug users and alcoholics are treated differently under employment disability laws. Under the American with Disabilities Act (ADA), alcoholism is recognized as a disability. Thus, individuals suffering from alcoholism are entitled to the same protections under the ADA as someone with another qualifying physical or mental disability. On the other hand, the ADA specifically excludes from protection ...

Your employee is diagnosed with epilepsy after suffering a seizure at work. After a period of leave, the employee is cleared by a physician to return to work. Under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), you must bring the employee back to work and provide reasonable accommodations to enable him to perform the essential functions of his job, as long as the employee does not impose a significant risk of ...

As discussed in our May 29, 2015 entry, “Website Accessibility Under the ADA,” the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), in the absence of regulations, recognized certain industry principles as guiding public accommodations when making websites accessible under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Relying on such guidelines, businesses and public agencies reasonably believed providing ...

Congress enacted the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, at a time when the Internet had a relatively minor impact on the daily lives of Americans. Today, the Internet plays a critical role in personal, civic, educational, commercial, and professional life. Public agencies increasingly rely on the Internet as an efficient and comprehensive method of communicating with and providing services to ...

A case out of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, C.W. v. Capistrano Unified School District, was decided on March 2, 2015 and involved the review of a district court’s award of attorney’s fees to a California school district upon a finding that the claims therein were frivolous, unreasonable, and without foundation.

The IDEA provides prevailing plaintiff families the opportunity to seek attorney’s ...