University of Connecticut School of Law (Hartford)
Contact/ Disability Resource Center
Disability Services
Thomas J. Meskill Law Library
65 Elizabeth Street, Room 221B
Hartford, CT 06105
(860) 570-5132
Clinics
Students work under the supervision of lawyers at Disability Rights Connecticut to provide legal advocacy for people with disabilities. They address such matters as discrimination in housing, education, employment and public accommodations; access to health care; individual rights; abuse and neglect; and mental health law.
Courses
This seminar examines intersections between law and the mental health system, focusing particularly on the ways in which American law responds to evolving conceptions of mental disorder. Topics will include the implications of mental disorder for crime and punishment, such as determinations of criminal responsibility and competency to be tried and sentenced; civil commitment; the right to treatment and its refusal; protection against discrimination for the mentally ill; legal regulation of the psychotherapist-patient relationship; and the legal treatment of mentally disordered sex offenders. Readings and discussions on these issues will incorporate medical, historical and cultural perspectives as well as analysis of legal doctrine.
This seminar will review the evolutionary process by which the civil right to receive a free and appropriate public education has been expanded to include people with disabilities. The class will discuss issues such as the standards used to define "disability," physical access to schools and other buildings/grounds, appropriate classroom instruction, the provision of ancillary services in the least restrictive environment, and topics such as discipline and safety in the special education setting. The readings and discussions will include cases involving special education, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Educational Improvement Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, Every Student Succeeds Act, pending legislation, and a review of the international perspective toward special education and related services.
This course focuses on a rapidly growing aspect of labor and employment law. The course introduces the concept of discrimination by examining Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, The Age Discrimination in Employment Act and Section 1981 of the Civil War Reconstruction Statutes. After exploring the process of proving and defending against individual and systematic discrimination claims, the course considers special problems in discrimination law that may include pregnancy, sexual harassment, sexual preference, religious discrimination and retaliation. The course also examines the alternative approach to discrimination adopted in the Americans with Disabilities Act. Fundamentals of statutory construction, litigation strategy, and statistical methods of proof are emphasized. Numerous unresolved issues are addressed throughout the course. Procedures and remedies may also be considered.
Health Services and Wellness
Yale University Law School (New Haven)
Contact/ Disability Resource Center
Yale Law School seeks to accommodate students with disabilities, whether temporary or permanent, to enable them to participate fully in the University community.
Yale University’s Student Accessibility Services (SAS) provides a wide variety of services for Yale students with disabilities. The office works with all Yale students, including Yale Law School students, to facilitate necessary accommodations. All accommodations and services are individualized and based on students needs, course requirements, and appropriate documentation. Frequently requested accommodations include adaptive computer technology, classroom accommodations, and examination and testing modifications, among others. SAS works with the Registrar's Office to provide academic accommodations, OSA to provide accommodations for students outside of the classroom, and Dean Thompson for facilities-related accommodations such as elevator access or carrels for students with disabilities. Students should call the SAS office at 203-432-2324 to schedule a meeting to learn more about the accommodations process.
Clinics
Students in the Mental Health Justice Clinic will work on a mental health justice project in Connecticut, either through representation of an individual in the criminal legal system, the civil detention system, or other civil rights areas or through representation of a community group engaged in local or state-level advocacy. The seminar component of the course will cover lawyering skills, social justice lawyering theory, including disability justice lawyering, and disability rights law.
Courses
This course is offered in collaboration with the Consortium for the Advanced Study of Brain Injury (CASBI) at Weill Cornell Medical College. Students study and work collaboratively on group-authored legal scholarship on the rights of individuals with brain injury and the legal, scientific, and societal barriers that can limit their maximal integration into society. Past iterations of this collaboration have generated more than a dozen student co-authored publications with excellent placement in legal journals.
This course examines federal law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of disability. Laws addressed include the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (as amended by the ADA Amendments Act of 2008), the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. This course will also briefly touch on the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act and the Fair Housing Act. If time permits, we will also touch on disability welfare laws such as Social Security Disability Insurance, disability health care laws like Medicare and Medicaid, and comparative and international disability rights law.
Student Organizations
DLSA is a law student affinity group comprised of communities situated within a broad disability umbrella. Our community includes disabled students, neurodivergent students, students with learning impairments or non-traditional learning styles, deaf students, hard-of-hearing students, blind students, deaf-blind students, students with chronic illnesses, students with mental health conditions or emotional disorders, and other students who receive or would like to receive accommodations. We define our affinity group broadly, welcoming anyone who identifies as a member. Our aim is to foster a sense of community and increase the legal profession’s accessibility and cultural competency surrounding disability. We provide individualized support to our members in accessing accommodations and ensuring their needs are being met at the law school, in internships, and across other contexts. It is our hope that, through our organization, our members can support each other in navigating the legal profession. Email: [email protected]
Health Services and Wellness