Disability law experts highlight importance of ADA

“I hope we can all help to eliminate what has historically been segregation of people with disabilities,” said Senior Judge Donovan Frank ’77 during a recent CLE discussion of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) hosted by Mitchell Hamline School of Law.

This event, titled “An Unfinished Journey: The ADA’s History, Its Future, and Why You Should Care,” welcomed more than 100 guests in person and online to walk through this important topic with a panel of prominent voices in disability law. These panelists included Judge Frank, Chad Wilson ’17, who serves as the supervising attorney at Mid-Minnesota Legal Aid’s Minnesota Disability Law Center, Mitchell Hamline Professor David Larson, and Mitchell Hamline Assistant Professor Eleanor Frisch.

The panel discussion took place in conjunction with a series of 21 educational banners developed by the federal courts being displayed in the hallway outside of the Warren E. Burger Library at Mitchell Hamline School of Law. These banners tell the story—“and it is a story,” said special guest U.S. Magistrate Judge for the District of Minnesota Becky Thorson ’95—of disability rights in the country and Minnesota in particular. The banner series will be displayed throughout the month of April, and people can also walk through a digital exhibit.

“People with disabilities had virtually no civil rights until the passage of the ADA,” said Frisch. In Minnesota, they had been waiting for their rights since Minnesota became a state in 1858 until the ADA was passed in 1990—more than 130 years.

The group reviewed the history of disability rights, describing landmark court cases that shifted the tide, with several panelists being involved in this historical work firsthand. Larson started writing about disability issues in the 1980s and was at the forefront working on regulations and interpretive guidance when the ADA was being passed. Meanwhile, Judge Frank oversaw significant cases related to disability rights in Minnesota.

A critical piece of this development was the hands-on advocacy and work of the Minnesota Disability Law Center, such as helping to bridge gaps in the system to allow people with disabilities to leave group homes and live integrated into their communities.

But this work is by no means over, agreed the panel. “It concerns me that people still today question the need for the ADA,” remarked Judge Frank.

A number of challenges have emerged related to disability rights, including digital accessibility and artificial intelligence, which has given rise to algorithmic ableism, said Larson. There is also the risk of regressing backwards with proposed cuts to Medicaid and education budgets. It will remain important for people to continue working together through policy and advocacy to keep advancing the unfinished journey of disability rights forward.