“The first step is acknowledging that a campus built on steep hills, with lots of staircases, which is subject to difficult-to-navigate weather conditions, is not inherently accessible,” Mcfarlane wrote. “(What’s) also important to assume is the constant, and not temporary, presence of people with disabilities. Ask disabled people what they need before the problem arises.”
Studying accessibility law at the European Court of Human Rights, she has found that the ADA’s most significant international influence has been conceptual rather than doctrinal: the foundational idea that disability is a rights issue, not a welfare issue and that the burden of accommodation belongs to institutions rather than individuals.
After Oakland University barred Micah Fialka-Feldman from living in student dormitories, he advocated for inclusive housing and established himself as a figure in the movement toward inclusive higher education.
A key moment occurred at a meeting of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), which hosted a panel by autistic librarians. “I thought, ‘other autistic people?!’” she said. Even though Cooke had grown up in a supportive environment, autism wasn’t widely recognized, particularly among girls, so this was the first time she met people with similar experiences.
In 2024, she launched the Goodwin-Oquendo Law Firm in New York City, dedicated to representing individuals with cognitive, physical and psychiatric disabilities who face discrimination or need accommodations in education for admissions tests, professional licensing exams, state bar exams and medical boards.
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is an anti-discrimination law, and the failure to provide reasonable accommodations is a form of discrimination under the ADA. When the process through which reasonable accommodations are obtained becomes so punitive that people would rather forego it and take on the labor themselves, civil rights law has failed to fulfill its intended nondiscriminatory purpose.
June 9, 2019. Ali Stroker wins Best Featured Actress in a Musical at the 73rd Annual Tony Awards. An actor, singer, and wheelchair user, Ali Stroker has been a trailblazer for disability representation on the stage. She was the first wheelchair user to graduate from the Tisch School of the Arts Drama Department at New York University. In 2015, she was the first wheelchair user to appear on Broadway, starring as Anna in the musical, Spring Awakening. For her performance as Ado Annie Carnes in the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical, Oklahoma!, Stroker became the first wheelchair user to win a Tony Award in 2019.
Take the quiz: Check Your Ableism!
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