From the Los Angeles Times:

Harlan Hahn, a longtime USC professor of political science and champion of disability rights who successfully sued the university to improve access for disabled people campuswide, died April 23 at his Santa Monica home. He was 68.

The cause was a heart attack, said his daughter, Emily.

Hahn was already in the vanguard of the disability rights movement when he joined the USC faculty to teach political science in 1972. He pushed for the U.S. Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibited discrimination against the disabled, and the more sweeping Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990.

Hahn, who had polio as a child, brought a lawsuit against USC in 1998 to remove physical barriers that limited the mobility of disabled individuals. The suit was settled in 2001 when the university agreed to embark upon a major barrier removal effort.

He also wrote or co-wrote a dozen books, and filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the 1983 case of Elizabeth Bouvia, a woman who was paralyzed and petitioned the court to let her starve to death. Hahn argued that disabled people needed better support, not help in dying.

“Ultimately, a disability is not an organic deficiency,” Hahn wrote in the Los Angeles Times in 1983, “it is the product of a disabling environment. . . . To deprive any member of the disabled population of the mental and emotional strength that he or she can contribute to others would be an unforgivable act.”

See also the press release from USC: In Memoriam: Harlan Hahn, 68; The USC College political scientist was a major force in the disability rights movement

Attorney says she could die if she’s sent to a nursing home

From the Tulsa [Oklahoma] World:

Lindsey Easton, of Glenpool, Oklahoma, has lived at home most of her life under the care of her mother and 16 hours a day of skilled nursing care provided by a Medicaid program. Easton has infantile onset Pompe’s Disease, and is dependent on a ventilator and feeding tubes.

Easton’s Medicaid coverage ended when she turned 21 in September. She was subsequently denied coverage by Oklahoma’s Advantage Waiver program when it was determined that her care would exceed the program’s cost cap. She is now challenging that decision in court, arguing that the state’s action is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act.

Easton has led a full and engaging life as an avid reader, Girl Scout and co-valedictorian of her graduating class at Glenpool High School in 2005. … Housing her in a nursing home could lead to medical complications, extended hospitalizations and premature death, according to her legal brief, which cites statements from Easton’s doctor and nursing case manager.

… Laurie Easton, Lindsey’s mother, said she’d never put her daughter in a nursing home and is turning to the courts because she sees no other option. She has had to fight many bureaucratic battles over the years, she said.

“We’re just normal people trying to do the right thing,” she said. “We love our kids.”

From the Palm Beach Post:

Former Riviera Beach city councilman Allen Fox is on a crusade to make businesses accessible, filing lawsuits challenging barriers that make it difficult or impossible for him to navigate their premises in his wheelchair. He’s filed 139 lawsuits personally, with the help of lawyer Samuel Aurilio. Eight lawsuits with nearly identical claims were filed on one day last month alone.

Critics say the passage of the ADA has created a cottage industry for unscrupulous lawyers, who can cash in because the law requires the losing side to pay attorney fees. Fox’s lawsuits rarely go to trial because business owners generally agree to renovate and pay Aurilio’s fees. “It’s a racket,” said an attorney who has represented business owners against the pair.

Another attorney who represents people with disabilities blames Congress for crafting a measure that has no enforcement mechanism and no penalty for violating it — an anomaly among civil rights laws.

From the Detroit Free Press:

Metro Airport and Northwest Airlines dropped disabled passengers to the floor, failed to provide boarding assistance to the disabled, damaged wheelchairs by tossing them in baggage storage and failed to provide an area for seeing-eye dogs to relieve themselves, a lawsuit filed today in Detroit says.

Five disabled travelers sued the Wayne County Airport Authority and Northwest Airlines in U.S. District Court in Detroit. The suit seeks no monetary damages, but asks that the airport and Northwest follow basic federal laws and rules.

From tampabay.com (St. Petersburg Times):

Seven nursing home residents backed by the AARP Foundation have filed a class-action lawsuit against the state of Florida under the Americans with Disabilities Act. They say the state’s Medicaid program is biased toward institutional placements, and want the right to determine where they live.

Florida spends 87 cents of its Medicaid dollar on nursing homes when caring for the frail and disabled. Only nine other states commit a smaller portion to home-based care. [The Florida practice] “perpetuates the segregation of persons with disabilities,” the suit says.

From the Dallas News:

Clay Boatwright, who serves on the board of the Arc of Dallas and the Arc of Texas, says he fears that federal budget tightening will reduce services for people with disabilities and prevent them from reaching their fullest potential.

Among the problems he sees:

– A plan to prohibit school systems from billing Medicaid for administrative services;

– A plan for major reductions or elimination of services in vocational rehabilitation and training; and

– A plan to drastically reduce funding for caseworkers who help people move out of state institutions into the community.

Boatwright backs the ADA Restoration Act, along with a bill that requires medical schools to teach doctors about disability, and another that will help the states increase wages for direct support workers.

Just as people’s value should not be based on their sex or the color of their skin, nor should it be based on a disability.

‘Now is the time to act to protect the disabled’

From the Chicago Tribune:

Lynne Landsberg, a rabbi who sustained a traumatic brain injury in a car accident, urges speedy action on the ADA Restoration Act of 2007. It is needed to close loopholes in the ADA and ensure the comprehensive civil rights protections the 1990 bill was meant to provide, she writes.

Before my brain injury, I belonged to one minority that was strong and articulate — the American Jewish community. Now, I belong to a second minority that is daily the victim of discrimination yet remains powerless and barely heard — people with disabilities.

… Even with résumés that indicate they are qualified for the job, [people with disabilities] must convince employers that the discomfort disability engenders will not impede their work ethic.

Unfortunately, thousands of Americans face unconscionable acts of disability-related discrimination in the workplace every day.

… We must encourage Congress to recognize that people with disabilities are human beings with full civil rights who want to work, support their families and live their lives.

More on Lynne Landsberg from Washington Jewish Week.