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For the past several years, Wisconsin has ranked near the top of the country for racial disparity in nearly every category related to the juvenile justice system.1

State and national trends also support that there is a particular group of youth of color that are uniquely susceptible to involvement in the juvenile justice system: those who have a disability. Nationally, children with disabilities are removed from school and referred to and involved in the juvenile justice system at…
Continue Reading Interrupting the School to Prison Pipeline at the Intersection of Race and Disability

Many organizations, including hospitals and other health care organizations, are embracing peer support networks to tackle the extreme levels of burnout being felt by many employees in the workplace. Employees can get trained or certified as Mental Health Fist Aid responders to serve as a peer support person. When done right, peer support can be very helpful to the mental well-being of employees. See e.g., https://www.mhanational.org/peer-workforce and https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2165079919873934.

However, inserting a peer support program into a workplace wellness…
Continue Reading Is Your Mental Health Peer Support Program ADA-Compliant?

As people grow older, they tend to become more vulnerable to a wide range of physical injuries. Falls are one of the most common causes of injuries among elderly adults. Unfortunately, fall injuries can often be attributed to nursing home neglect or abuse. For family members of nursing home patients, it is crucial to understand when and how fall injuries can occur due to abuse or neglect. Some common issues that can lead to falls in nursing homes include:…
Continue Reading Fall Injuries Can Occur Because of Nursing Home Neglect or Abuse

The safety of individuals with disabilities that are not immediately apparent may be at risk during encounters with law enforcement and first responders.

To reduce these safety risks, a person may now voluntarily designate a nonapparent disability on a driver’s license, identification (ID) card, and vehicle registration. This way, individuals can be discreetly identified with a medically verified cognitive, mental, neurological, or physical disability.

The goal, according to the Invisible Disabilities Association, is to help alert law enforcement…
Continue Reading Tip of the Month: Disclosing Invisible Disabilities on IDs Can Increase Safety

One of the many things I have appreciated about becoming an attorney is working with people who care deeply about the clients they serve and the work they do.

It is a great honor to watch attorneys meet with clients, listen, and do their best to make clients feel comfortable. That includes working with disabled clients, who are often dealing with substantial barriers, ableism, and disrespect.

However, even though lawyers are making strides in accommodating individual clients, our systemic…
Continue Reading Accessible Content Broadens Your Client Base and Improves the Way You Work

There has been a trend recently in the state of Wisconsin, and elsewhere, for attorneys to file lawsuits against hotel owners alleging that their websites are in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) because they are not accessible to disabled individuals. Specifically, the complaints allege that the hotel websites are in violation of the ADA because they fail to identify accessibility features, do not allow for booking of accessible rooms, and do not provide sufficient information regarding…
Continue Reading Is Your Hotel Website in Compliance with the ADA?