March 26, 2015
Officials of the Antioch Unified School District have announced a groundbreaking effort to identify the causes of disparities in school discipline by examining the subtle, complex, and often unintentional ways in which race, disability and discipline intersect.
March 25, 2015
Long-time DREDF champion, staffer, and former member of the board of directors, Kitty Cone died at her home in Berkeley, California on Saturday, March 21, 2015. She was 70. Kitty was closely aligned with DREDF for nearly two decades, endorsing and supporting our use of law and policy as instruments for long-term reform.
February 12, 2015
DREDF and co-counsel filed a complaint against Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), on behalf of the National Association of the Deaf and four individuals to gain equal access for deaf and hard of hearing individuals to the videos that the university makes available on the Internet — including courses offered through MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW), videos on the MIT Video website, much of which lacks proper captioning. [...]
February 12, 2015
The National Association of the Deaf (NAD) and three deaf and hard of hearing individuals filed federal class action lawsuits today against Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), charging that the schools discriminate against deaf and hard of hearing people by failing to caption the vast and varied array of online content they make available to the general public, including massive open online courses (MOOCs).
February 9, 2015
DREDF comments on the draft Federal Transit Administration (FTA) Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Circular, Amendment 2, are now available.
February 6, 2015
DREDF commented on the urgent need to track disability status, specific functional impairment, and reasonable accommodation or policy modifications needed as a first critical step needed to measure and understand the health disparities experienced by people with disabilities.
February 6, 2015
On behalf of the National Association of the Deaf, DREDF and co-counsel, Lewis, Feinberg, Lee, Renaker & Jackson, PC., negotiated an agreement with VUDU, a wholly-owned streaming entertainment subsidiary of Walmart, for VUDU to close caption 100% of its programming streamed through its Video on Demand service. [...]
January 12, 2015
We urged NAIC to strengthen its proposed Network Adequacy Model Act by calling for physical and programmatic access criteria to be included in evaluating the capacity of health care provider networks to adequately serve diverse patient populations.
January 9, 2015
San Francisco has long been recognized for its leadership in disability rights. From Mayor Moscone's support of the 1977 Section 504 sit–in that led to the implementation of the Rehabilitation Act, to the Department of Public Health's commitment to persons with HIV, to its ongoing efforts to enhance accessibility in museums and other tourist destinations, San Francisco is viewed in many ways as a model of disability-friendly policies and politics.
December 26, 2014
DREDF submitted comments on HHS proposed rules affecting implementation of portions of the Affordable Care Act that directly affect people with disabilities. In addition to supporting comments submitted by the Consortium for Citizens with Disabilities (CCD), we urged HHS to issue comprehensive language access standards and technical support for navigator and non-navigator assistance personnel to ensure that people with communication disabilities have equal access to the Health Insurance Marketplace.