Watertown Commission on Disability

ADA
City toughens ADA enforcement (Dubuque Telegraph Herald)
http://www.thonline.com/article.cfm?id=269429
Businesses will be fined if they are not in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act after 30 days of receiving notice.

Justice Department Reaches Three Settlements under the Americans with Disabilities Act (PR Newswire)
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/justice-department-reaches-three-settlements-under-the-americans-with-disabilities-act-regarding-the-use-of-electronic-book-readers-81337432.html
The Justice Department announced separate agreements under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) with Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Pace University in New York City and Reed College in Portland, Ore., regarding the use in a classroom setting of the electronic book reader, the Kindle DX, a hand-held technological device that simulates the experience of reading a book. Under the agreements reached the universities generally will not purchase, recommend or promote use of the Kindle DX, or any other dedicated electronic book reader, unless the devices are fully accessible to students who are blind and have low vision. The universities agree that if they use dedicated electronic book readers, they will ensure that students with vision disabilities are able to access and acquire the same materials and information, engage in the same interactions, and enjoy the same services as sighted students with substantially equivalent ease of use. The agreements that the ! Justice Department reached with these universities extend beyond the Kindle DX to any dedicated electronic reading device.

Basketball Camp’s Exclusion of HIV-Positive Boy Ruled Discrimination (The American Lawyer)
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202439364513&Basketball_Camps_Exclusion_of_HIVPositive_Boy_Ruled_Discrimination
An HIV-positive 10-year-old boy was discriminated against when he was denied admission to a Rockland County, N.Y. basketball camp, a federal judge has ruled. Judge Donald C. Pogue granted a motion for declaratory relief on the boy’s behalf against the Deer Mountain Day Camp, finding that the camp had violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). “The court agrees that defendants were obligated to protect other campers from a very serious, life-threatening viral infection,” Pogue said. “But this obligation does not excuse defendants’ actions when based on unsubstantiated fears.” Pogue, a judge on the Court of International Trade who was sitting by designation in the Southern District of New York, made his ruling in Doe v. Deer Mountain Day Camp (pdf), 07 Civ. 5495.

American Civil Liberties Union joins fight to allow girl with cerebral palsy to attend Napoleon elementary school with mobility assistance dog: updated
http://www.mlive.com/news/jackson/index.ssf/2010/01/american_civil_liberties_union.html
The American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan said today that Napoleon Community Schools is breaking the law by not allowing a 5-year-old student with cerebral palsy to attend school with her mobility assistance dog.

Justice Department settles Ala. RV Park incident (WTVM)
http://www.wtvm.com/Global/story.asp?S=11849357
The Justice Department has settled an Americans with Disabilities Act lawsuit against an Alabama RV park that barred an HIV-positive toddler from its swimming pool in 2007. The department announced Tuesday that Wales West LLC will establish polices, procedures and training practices to ensure families aren’t discriminated against because of disabilities.

Paralyzed Man Accuses Ohio Hotel of Discrimination (ABC News)
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=9613673
A man paralyzed from the waist down is accusing a hotel of discrimination, alleging management refused to give him a room because he can’t control his bowels and soiled linens during a previous visit. Shawn Pouliot said he sought a room at the Akron City Centre Hotel in December but was told by a desk clerk that he had been banned. Pouliot said his colostomy pouch broke while he slept at the hotel in August. To resolve the situation, he bagged the dirty linens, tipped the maid $100 and paid the hotel $377 for the bedding. Pouliot, who called the hotel’s response outrageous, filed a lawsuit Tuesday in U.S. District Court seeking unspecified financial damages under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Enforcement Bureau Takes Action to Enhance Access to Digital Wireless Service for Individuals with Hearing Disabilities
http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-10-93A1.doc
The Enforcement Bureau has taken action against several companies for their failure to provide information that helps individuals with hearing disabilities fully utilize wireless phone services – allowing them to communicate effectively on their wireless phones without excessive feedback and noise.

ADA Employment
ADA Does Not Permit Mixed-Motive Claims, 7th Cir. Rules
http://www.thompson.com/public/newsbrief.jsp?cat=EMPLOYLAW&id=2589
An employee who was terminated because of a disability — but who would have been terminated anyway even if she had no disability — had no claim under the Americans With Disabilities Act, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled.
Kathleen A. Serwatka filed an ADA claim against her employer, alleging it fired her because it believed she had a disability. The trial court found that while this was true, she would have been terminated anyway for other reasons. Following then-binding 7th Circuit precedent, the court awarded her declaratory relief, injunctive relief and attorney fees.

Serwatka v. Rockwell Automation, Inc.
http://www.morelaw.com/verdicts/case.asp?n=08-4010&s=WI&d=42511
Kathleen A. Serwatka filed suit against her former employer, Rockwell Automation, Inc. (“Rockwell”), under the Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 12101, et seq. (the “ADA”), alleging that Rockwell discharged her because it regarded her as being disabled, despite her ability to perform the essential functions of her job. A jury agreed with Serwatka, answering “Yes” to the following question on the special verdict form: “Did defendant terminate plaintiff due to its perception that she was substantially limited in her ability to walk or stand?” R. 115 at 1. But the jury also answered “Yes” to this follow-up question: “Would defendant have discharged plaintiff if it did not believe she was substantially limited in her ability to walk or stand, but everything else remained the same?” R. 115 at 1-2.

Is NYPD discriminating against disabled cop? (Examiner.com)
http://www.examiner.com/x-1417-Gun-Rights-Examiner~y2010m1d26-Is-NYPD-discriminating-against-disabled-cop
In yesterday’s Gun Rights Examiner column, we looked at retired detective Rick Cowan of the New York City Police Department, disabled in “a line of duty [head] injury” with the result that he has been forbidden by the department to carry a gun in retirement. The reason given is he may be prone to losing consciousness if hit on the head, and thus unable to retain his weapon.

PAM Asks Michigan Judge To Dismiss Lawsuit
http://www.nwaonline.com/news/2010/jan/25/pam-asks-michigan-judge-dismiss-lawsuit/?nwa-business
A Tontitown-based trucking firm wants to dismiss a federal lawsuit regarding the firing of a truck driver who was HIV positive.
Detroit attorney Michael J. Tauscher filed last month the motion to dismiss the lawsuit against PAM Transportation Services Inc.
The motion to dismiss contends the lawsuit didn’t state claims on which a federal court in Michigan could grant relief.
The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission sued PAM in September. The suit alleges that a Kalamazoo, Mich., driver wasn’t allowed to return to work after company administrators discovered the driver was HIV positive.

Manager fails to connect termination to discrimination (Workers Comp Forum)
http://www.riskandinsurance.com/story.jsp?storyId=323750685
An employer is not required to grant a disabled employee an indefinite leave of absence as an accommodation.
Case name: Connor v. Public Storage, Inc., No. 1:08-CV-3348-TWT (N.D. Ga. 11/16/09).

DCCir: Rehab Act claim failed because superiors lacked notice of employee’s mental disability
An employee’s claim that her employer violated the Rehabilitation Act by failing to accommodate her disability in refusing her request for a transfer from a facility housing mentally ill patients failed because her superiors did not have prior notice of her mental disability, and acted promptly and appropriately to assist her when she made the request, ruled the DC Circuit. The Rehab Act requires federal employers to make “reasonable accommodations to the known physical or mental limitations of an otherwise qualified individual with a disability.” To prevail on a claim for denial of a reasonable accommodation, an employee has to produce sufficient evidence that she was disabled, that her employer had notice of her disability and that the employer denied her request for a reasonable accommodation of her disability. In this instance, the employee acknowledged that she did not inform any of her supervisors of her disability. Further, the employer did not receive constructive no! tice since her behavior was not so obviously a manifestation “of an underlying disability that it would be reasonable to infer that the employer actually knew of the disability.” Although the employee was upset after a patient exposed himself to her, she told a supervisor that her distress stemmed from a personal matter. After the employee requested the transfer, the employer met with her promptly, and advised her that it would assist her as soon as she submitted the necessary paperwork. Thus, the employee failed to produce sufficient evidence that after she made the request, her employer refused to make an accommodation (Stewart v St. Elizabeths Hosp, January 5, 2010).

FMLA
DMass: Trip abroad with ill husband for faith healing was not FMLA-protected leave (CCH HR Management)
http://hr.cch.com/news/hrm/012010a.asp
An employee’s seven-week trip to the Philippines with her husband (who indisputably suffered from a serious health condition), ostensibly so that he could participate in a faith healing event at a Catholic “Pilgrimage of Healing Ministry,” was not protected under the FMLA, ruled a federal district court in Massachusetts. The employee requested seven weeks’ leave to care for her husband; she variously told her supervisors she wanted to take a vacation or that her husband was recovering from eye surgery, hip surgery, or angioplasty. The employer required her to obtain FMLA certification supporting the need for leave.

Fair Housing Act
Housing advocates settle suit for disabled renters (FIndLaw)
http://news.lp.findlaw.com/ap_stories/f/1310/01-13-2010/20100113002008_12.html
Thousands of renters with disabilities are poised to get extreme home makeovers thanks to a major settlement ending a federal lawsuit against a development company run by the sons of GOP donor and San Diego Chargers owner Alex Spanos. The settlement announced Wednesday by the National Fair Housing Alliance will require the A.G. Spanos Companies to retrofit 82 apartment buildings in 14 states with wheelchair-friendly doorways, graded walkways and other improvements to ease access for the disabled.