ADA

December 16, 2021
The undersigned are leaders and members of the disability community, and include representatives of key disability organizations. We write to urge the Los Angeles Community College District (LACCD) to abandon its dangerous plan to file a petition for certiorari with the United States Supreme Court in the Payan v. LACCD litigation. The proposed petition would challenge the very foundation of disability rights – that the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 504 prohibit unintentional forms of disability discrimination. The petition would conflict with LACCD's purported commitment to the inclusion of people with disabilities, and is not necessary to address and resolve the access problems demonstrated by the blind students who brought the case. Should the Supreme Court agree with LACCD that federal law prohibits only intentional forms of disability discrimination, more than 40 years of hard-fought-for civil rights of people with disabilities would be undone. [...]