Disability Law

Professor Kat Macfarlane Speaks with The New York Times on Workplace Accommodations

Professor Kat Macfarlane, director of the College of Law’s Disability Law and Policy Program, was interviewed for The New York Times article “What a Human-Centered Approach Can Do for Workers With Disabilities.”

In the article, Macfarlane discusses her challenges getting accommodations as a faculty member of another law school. Even with the Americans with Disabilities Act, there are many obstacles to gaining needed accommodations.

“There’s a huge gap between what the law was intended to do and what the experience of employees with disabilities really are,” said Macfarlane.

Read about Macfarlane’s challenges in her Fordham Law Review paper “Disability Without Documentation.”

Professor Arlene Kanter Speaks with Bloomberg Law on How Remote Work is Impacting Disability Law

Professor Arlene Kanter, director of the Disability Law and Policy Program, spoke with Bloomberg Law for their article “Covid’s Remote Work Experience is Slowly Changing Disability Law.”

Federal judges are somewhat less likely to side with employers that deny requests for telework as a disability accommodation after the Covid-19 pandemic sparked a remote work revolution.

Employers prevailed in nearly 60% of federal court rulings over the past two years on whether they could reject employees’ disability-related remote work requests, according to a Bloomberg Law review of cases.

That’s a drop from employers’ 70% win rate in a previous Bloomberg Law analysis of cases in a two-year pre-pandemic period spanning from February 2017 to February 2019.

In the article, Kanter says “The Covid experience has taught people to question whether in-person attendance is essential.”