Law 538 - Seminar: Disability Rights (Prof. Sears)

This seminar will explore the complex relationships between disability and the law. In the first few sessions, the course will explore the ways in which law, society, and people with disabilities define "disability." Who is disabled? Is disability the basis of identity like race, gender, or sexual orientation? Are the disabled a coherent social or political group? The course will then look at how different areas of law impact the lives of people with disabilities. The course will survey relevant cases, statutes, articles, and legal doctrines and explore how this area of law reflects societal expectations of people, both with and without disabilities. A primary focus of the course will be on laws relating to disability and income. To what extent does the law define disability in terms of the ability to work? If the norm in the United States is that people are to earn a living through work, to what extent do public benefit programs for the disabled exempt certain people from that norm? How do these benefit programs relate to anti-discrimination laws, such as Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibit employment discrimination on the basis of disability? The course will take a similar approach to laws regulating education, access to public services and medical care, and the sexual and reproductive choices of people with disabilities. The requirements for the course will include a class presentation and either a research paper or a project for a legal services organization. While the course will include materials regarding people with a wide range of disabilities, there will be an emphasis on people living with HIV/AIDS.