Disability Discrimination

A school district is not a "business establishment" for purposes of the Unruh Act (Civ. Code 51) and so cannot be sued under that act for discrimination, including discrimination forbidden by the Americans with Disabilities Act, which the Unruh Act incorporates by reference. Read More

Under 42 USC 12182(b), an owner violates the ADA if it fails to remove architectural barriers to handicap access in existing facilities where removal is readily achievable, or, if removal is not readily achievable, if it fails to make its goods or services available to a handicapped person through alternative methods, if they can be achieved without much difficulty or… Read More

Background music is not part of the normal overall experience at a bar, so the bar need not provide hearing-impaired patrons with listening aids in order to comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act or its California law counterpart. Read More

Although she taught a standard half-hour religion course each day, a fifth-grade teacher at a Catholic school was not a “minister” and so could sue the school for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by firing her after it learned she was diagnosed with cancer. Read More

Blind plaintiff alleged a viable claim for disability discrimination when he claimed that defendants’ aggressive unleashed guard dog attacked his seeing-eye dog on a public sidewalk outside their business establishment. Read More

Blind plaintiff alleged a viable claim for disability discrimination when he claimed that defendants’ aggressive unleashed guard dog attacked his seeing-eye dog on a public sidewalk outside their business establishment. Read More

Under the 2008 amendment to the Americans with Disabilities Act, it is no longer necessary for an employee to show that his perceived disability limited or was perceived to limit a major life activity in order to show evidence of “disability”; all that the employee need plead or prove is that the employer regarded him as physically or mentally impaired. Read More

An employer cannot require a disabled job applicant to submit to additional medical tests at his own expense as a condition of employment. Read More

There is no private right of action for violation of the Air Carrier Access Act of 1986, 49 U.S.C. § 41705, which prohibits air carriers from discriminating against individuals on the basis of a physical or mental impairment, although the Department of Transportation has authority to enforce the Act. Read More

Merchants are not required to design their parking lots in such a way that disabled patrons may access their stores without traveling behind parked cars. Read More