PAGE 1 (COVER PAGE) DISABILITY RIGHTS ADVOCATES A NON-PROFIT CORPORATION www.dralegal.org 15th ANNIVERSARY 2008 ANNUAL REPORT “DRA is unique. DRA attorneys are not afraid to take on giant corporations and make them treat all disabled individuals with dignity and equality.” *Matt Roloff, star of “Little People, Big World”, a 2007 recipient of the DRA Eagle award. “Disability Rights Advocates continues to be a powerful force in creating access for people with disabilities. I’m glad we have them on OUR side!” *Dimitri Belser, Executive Director, Center for Accessible Technology “I want to thank DRA for tackling all of the things that I knew were wrong at San Francisco Airport, but did not know that it was okay to challenge and change.” *Colin Piotrowski, California School for the Deaf Career Center “DRA has made remarkable improvements in health care delivery to people with disabilities. What I appreciate most is that DRA continues to monitor Kaiser’s progress and address the disability community’s concerns as they arise.” *Gloria Broderick, Secretary of Friends in Art and Library Board Member, American Council of the Blind PAGE 2 DRA in its 15th Year DRA Moves to Berkeley DRA has come of age. After 15 short years that began with a borrowed office in downtown Oakland, DRA has moved to the forefront of this nation’s leading civil rights organizations. We have engaged in some of the most pressing social problems facing men, women and children with disabilities in the Bay Area and nationwide. Our efforts currently focus on people who are homeless, disabled veterans, emergency preparedness, health access and public services. DRA cases have set precedents followed thoughout the country in the areas of employment, housing, transportation, public accomodations and services, and other key areas of life. DRA has had the pleasure of co-counseling with some of the best plaintiff firms in California. We hope you will read about some of our precedent-setting cases in this 2008 report. PHOTO INSERT: DRA’s Executive Director, Larry Paradis, and Berkeley Mayor, Tom Bates, at the ribbon cutting ceremony at Disability Rights Advocates’ new of- fice in downtown Berkeley. Veterans for Common Sense v. Mansfield, et. al. When our troops come back from Iraq and Afghanistan they should be out of danger. Unfortunately, returning veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) face a new battle—this time with the Veterans Administration, the very organization charged with caring for them. Veterans with PTSD deal with a severe and unrelenting illness: haunting flashbacks, sleeplessness, severe anxiety, and moods that can shift between inexplicable rage and extreme emotional withdrawal. Consequently, these veterans are often unable to maintain employment, suffer broken relationships, and are at a much higher risk for homelessness and suicide. Because VA has virtually abandoned these men and women, DRA has teamed with Morrison & Foerster to file an unprecedented national class action requiring the VA to have a timely and accessible benefits application process, and to provide prompt and meaningful mental health treatment to all vets with PTSD. Our organizational plaintiffs are Veterans for Common Sense and Veterans United for Truth. When veterans with PTSD turn to the VA for help, the VA does not disclose that all combat veterans are entitled to two years of free medical care. Worse, some suicidal veterans have been turned away because the VA’s improperly trained staff do not recognize their plight. Veterans also face a 23-page, labyrinthine application for benefits, and a process that takes months for an initial determination and years for an appeal. Many give up. Unless they complete the process and obtain a disability rating, they are not entitled to health care after their two years of free care expires. Even if vets manage to complete their benefits application, they face a backlog of more than 600,000 pending applications. The complaint in Veterans for Common Sense is available on our website at www.dralegal.org together with the court’s order denying the VA’s motion to have the case dismissed. PAGE 3 Californians for Disability Rights v. California Department of Transportation Because sidewalks are an essential part of ensuring societal integration for persons with disabilities, Disability Rights Advocates has filed a landmark class action lawsuit against the California Department of Transportation (“Caltrans”) on behalf of Californians for Disability Rights, Inc., and the California Council of the Blind. The lawsuit is the first of its kind to address an entire state sidewalk system. Due to Caltrans’ consistent neglect of almost 2,500 miles of sidewalks, access barriers abound. These include lack of curb ramps, broken and uneven pavement, ramps that are too steep, and poles that narrow the sidewalks. The list goes on, all as a result of a systemic violation of the law by a callous statewide beauracracy. Caltrans extraordinary response has been to attack the law. They now claim that the Americans with Disabilities Act, which requires that state and local government entities make their programs and services accessible to persons with disabilities, is unconstitutional. The Caltrans assault on disability civil rights raises the stakes. If Caltrans is allowed to avoid its legal obligations under the ADA, every state and local government could subsequently claim that they are not legally required to consider the rights of persons with disabilities in their programs. National Federation of the Blind v. Target Leading the way in yet another cutting-edge area of disability rights law, DRA along with two other firms brought a lawsuit against Target Corporation to compel the retail giant to make its website – one of the most visited sites on the internet – accessible to people with vision disabilities. In a series of groundbreaking decisions, Federal Judge Marilyn Hall Patel held that Title III of the ADA and California’s anti-discrimination statutes apply to commercial websites like Target’s, and certified both state-wide and nation-wide classes to pursue the injunctive relief necessary to make Target’s website accessible. Target, for its part, has taken an aggressive and adversarial approach, making every conceivable argument for why it should be free to discriminate against blind consumers. This suit has already set a precedent for companies doing business on the internet. Amazon.com In sharp contrast to Target, Amazon.com – the nation’s largest online retailer – worked cooperatively with DRA and others to reach an unprecedented agreement under which Amazon.com, as well as the more than one dozen major websites that operate on web platforms provided by Amazon.com, would be maintained as accessible for people who use screen readers. Unlike Target, Amazon recognized that people with vision disabilities represent an important and viable market for goods and services. PAGE 4 Oakland Emergency Preparation DRA has developed a unique emergency preparedness project to make public entities aware of the critical importance of addressing the needs of people with disabilities when planning for disasters. When disasters occur, people with disabilities are among those most likely to suffer because they cannot access critical information, transportation, evacuation, or mass shelter services. For example, after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, emergency information was not broadcast in a form accessible to the deaf until 17 hours after the quake. De spite numerous instances of inaccessibility during past disasters, federal, state, and local governments consistently overlook the needs of people with disabilities when planning for emergencies. Disaster preparedness for people with disabilities requires reverse 911 emergency notifications sent in TTY/text form, architecturally accessible shelters, pre-arrangements to provide necessary medical supplies, accessible paratransit, disaster news and information in accessible format, sign language interpreters, and plans for transitional housing with provisions for people with disabilities. As part of this project, DRA sued Oakland for its failure to adequately plan to meet the emergency needs of people with disabilities. Oakland has offered to discuss settlement and thus far, talks have been productive. In addition to hiring a disability expert to help draft a care and shelter plan for people with disabilities and agreeing to survey shelters for architectural barriers, the City has asked for DRA’s recommendations with respect to its evacuation plan and emergency notification system. PHOTO INSERT Our New Fellows Stephanie Biedermann (left), a Yale Law School graduate, is our Arthur Liman Fellow. Her project focuses on ensuring that cities in California have emergency plans in place that address the needs of residents with disabilities at all stages of a disaster. The description above gives more details. Julia Pinover (right), a Georgetown University Law School graduate, is DRA’s David Boies/LD Access Fellow. Her two year fellowship focuses on eliminating discrimination against students with learning disabilities, including dyslexia and ADD/ADHD. Read more on page 5. Disabled Homeless Advocacy Project DRA will be filing several precedent-setting lawsuits this year to ensure that California cities embrace policies that treat mentally ill men and women with accommodations, shelter and human dignity. Politicians like to portray homeless people as voluntarily choosing to live a homeless life, but two thirds of any homeless population is disabled; many suffer from severe mental illness. Their needs are being shamefully neglected. Too often, the “solution” is to shift the disabled homeless from one place to another in a cruel game of musical chairs. Police have rousted the homeless and destroyed their meager possessions, forcing scores of men and women to move to other parts of the city with fewer resources for aid. They will be rousted again, in a pattern of cruel aggression harkening back to the days of Woody Guthrie. San Francisco has been named the 11th meanest city in American for this callous approach. It requires optimism bordering on delusion to believe these heavy-handed tactics will accomplish anything and DRA intends to help end such assaults on disabled people. Sending armed police to criminalize mentally ill men and women who have no place to live is inhumane and ineffective. PAGE 5 Chapman (Kidd) v. California Department of Education DRA is the leading firm in the country representing students with disabilities whose ability to graduate is being threatened by unfair standardized tests. DRA has brought successful suits in Oregon and Alaska and has saved countless diplomas for tens of thousands of disabled children. In California students with disabilities, particularly those with learning disabilities, are not given a fair opportunity to pass the California High School Exit Exam. They are often not exposed to the material being tested and are denied access to qualified teachers. For nearly a decade now, DRA has been protecting disabled high school students from being wrongfully denied high-school diplomas because of the Exit Exams. Early on in the California case, DRA, with co-counsel Mark Chavez, forced the State to delay the highstakes consequences of the Exit Exam for all students for two years. Thus, the classes of 2004 and 2005 were able to receive diplomas. When the Exit Exam was again implemented in 2006, DRA successfully obtained an exemption for over 50,000 students with disabilities in the graduating classes of 2006 and 2007. DRA will continue to fight to protect disabled students in the class of 2008 and beyond. Turner v. Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) The MCAT administrators are widely known for their practice of denying accommodations to successful students with learning disabilities based on nothing except a scientifically unsupported assumption that having a learning disability is inconsistent with achievement. DRA successfully challenged the AAMC’s discriminatory policies and criteria for reviewing requests for accommodations on the MCAT exam. In a groundbreaking decision, after a full trial in June 2006, the trial court held that this practice was discriminatory and that the AAMC was failing to comply with California law (which provides broader protection than the ADA). The Court ordered the AAMC to revise its policies to comply with California standards. This decision could have groundbreaking implications nationally, forcing other national standardized tests like the LSAT and the SAT to make long-needed changes to their accommodations, review policies and criteria, thus helping many students with disabilities throughout the country get the testing accommodations they need. The AAMC is appealing the trial court’s decision. Thompson v. Sutter Health DRA continues to pursue broad-ranging access improvements throughout all Sutter Health patient-care facilities. Sutter Health and its affiliates control 31 hospitals, clinics, medical office buildings, and related facilities in Northern California. At each of these, DRA is working to ensure that Sutter removes architectural barriers, acquires accessible medical equipment, and creates or upgrades policies to ensure that people with mobility and sensory disabilities can meaningfully utilize health care services. DRA is working with the firm of Goldstein, Demchak, Baller, Borgen and Dardarian on this matter. Sutter has been working cooperatively to negotiate a resolution for comprehensive accessibility improvements in each of the three areas of concern. A complaint was filed in the Superior Court of Alameda County, and the parties hope to seek court approval of a class action settlement in 2008. PAGE 6 Smith, Lewkowicz and AXIS Dance Co. v. Hotels.com Traveling can be a hassle. Lost luggage and long lines are realities of the modern journey. At the same time, planning a trip has become easier. With the advent of the internet, consumers now can comparison shop using travel websites to find the cheapest or most appropriate hotel. But if you happen to use a wheelchair, this service is not available to you because online travel agencies such as hotels.com do not provide information about accessibility and will not guarantee reservations for accessible rooms, even if you take the extra step of calling the customer care hotline for hotels.com. As a result, if an individual depends on a wheelchair or other assistive device and makes a reservation through hotels.com, he or she runs the real risk that – despite having prepaid for the room and made the reservation well in advance – she will literally not be able to enter or use the room upon arrival. AXIS Dance Company, a traveling performing arts group that performs contemporary dance through a collaboration of dancers with and without disabilities, is trying to remedy this problem by filing suit. DRA along with Chavez & Gertler and Public Justice is proud to represent AXIS and the thousands of other mobility-impaired individuals who confront this travel problem. Jantz v. Social Security Administration DRA, with a consortium of plaintiffs’ attorneys, is litigating a landmark national class action that seeks to represent approximately 2,000 employees with “targeted” disabilities at the Social Security Administration on pay, promotion, and hiring claims. The case is the first of its kind and is being pursued before the EEOC and its administrative courts that hear the discrimination claims of federal employees. Obtaining and maintaining gainful employment remains one of the most significant and pervasive challenges confronting people with disabilities. Though Congress directed the federal government to be a leader in this critical area, the government has failed to live up to this promise. Individuals with more severe or “targeted disabilities” – defined by the federal government as: deafness, blindness, missing limbs, paralysis, convulsive disorder, mental retardation, mental illness, and distortion of limb/spine – continue to face extraordinary obstacles in the employment arena, and the situation is getting worse. The number of people with targeted disabilities employed at federal agencies has dropped precipitously since 1994. Promotion rates during that same timeframe have decreased significantly and employees with targeted disabilities are separating from the federal workforce at more than twice the rate that they are being hired. 2008 Health Rights Publication, Through the Maze II: A Guide to Health Care & Insurance Rights & Resources for Californians with Disabilities (169 Pages) This book educates Californians with disabilities about their rights to accessible health care and provides information about the law and protections guaranteeing access to quality insurance. $10.00 per copy (includes tax, postage and handling) Order online at www.dralegal.org PAGE 7 Ten Years of Eagle Awards Each year DRA salutes businesses, organizations and individuals who have made significant contributions to the advancement of people with disabilities within society. The Eagle award recipients are nominated by the disability community and presented to those who have led the way in improving opportunity at work, at home, and in the community. Turkey awards are given to entities or individuals who demonstrate notable insensitivity to the needs of people with disabilities. DRA’s 10th Anniversary Eagle Award Recipients: Little People, Big World (Gay Rosenthal Productions), on The Learning Channel, for its commitment to realism and promotion of disability awareness through television. IBM, for its long history of commitment to improving the lives of people with disabilities through innovative technology, workplace practices and philanthropy. Fiskars, makers of scissors and gardening tools, for designing its tools with people with disabilities in mind, especially those with arthritis. Starbucks, for agreeing to implement the California access standards in all of its stores throughout the country, thus exceeding the national access requirements. PHOTO INSERT: Left to Right: Gina Marino of Starbucks, Kalexin Bao of IBM, Matt Roloff & JeffreyWeaver of “Little People, Big World”, and Brent McHenry of Fiskars PAST DRA EAGLE AWARD WINNERS: 1997 Nordstrom, Inc.; Marriott International, Inc.; NBC “Dateline”, Noah’s Bagels 1998 Sun Microsystems, Inc.; Sears, Roebuck and Co.; NBC “Dateline”, U-Haul International, Inc. 1999 Safeway, Inc.; Jeremy Alliger, Work Incentives Improve. Act, Breast Health Access for Women with Disabilities 2000 Microsoft Corporation, Bank of America, Pacific Bell Park, ADAPT 2001 Wynd Communications Corp.; New Mobility Magazine, Cingular Wireless, Casey Martin 2002 J. Paul Getty Museum, Portland International Airport, AlphaSmart, Fannie Mae 2004 OXO Corp.; Verizon, Sorenson Media, Liane Yasumoto 2005 Mitsubishi Electric & Electronics USA, ABC’s Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, Shane’s Inspiration, Wilderness Inquiry 2006 Microtel, Merrill Lynch, Sesame Workshop, Interpretype DRA is supported by generous friends like you. Please donate online at www.dralegal.org or contact Pat Kirkpatrick at (510) 665-8644 PAGE 8 SAVE THE DATE! Disability Rights Advocates’ GALA DINNER CHAMPAGNE RECEPTION, DINNER AND PROGRAM AT THE PALACE HOTEL IN SAN FRANCISCO THURSDAY, OCTOBER 16, 2008 6-9pm 15th ANNIVERSARY GALA DINNER Our Early Dinner Sponsors (as of January 20, 2008) Westrec Marinas Chavez & Gertler Goldstein, Demchak, Baller, Borgen & Dardarian LD Access Foundation, Inc. Splice Communications AAA of Northern CA, Nv & UT Ann Nejamich, Hon. Steve Dylina Anonymous Donna Furth Gerston Family Charitable Trust Kaufman Construction, Inc. Law Offices of Paul Rein Lou Barber & Associates Nordstrom, Inc. Pat Kirkpatrick & Sid Wolinsky Peter Margen & Associates Professional Strategic Alliances CA Foundation for Independent Living Centers Hersh & Hersh 2001 Center Street, 4th Floor Berkeley, CA 94704 510-665-8644 (V), 510-665-8716 (TTY), 510-665-8511 (F) www.dralegal.org Layout and Design by Kelly Correll