Questions people ask first

The Americans with Disabilities Act covers any qualified individual with a disability. The statute defines disability broadly: a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, a record of such an impairment, or being regarded as having one.

Many people who qualify do not know it. Others know and feel ashamed to say so. Neither changes the law. If an impairment affects how you work, learn, or deal with institutions, the ADA very likely applies to you.

No. Jay Shore is a Certified ADA Advocate. He does not practice law and does not give legal advice. What he does is the documentation, correspondence, and accommodation work that attorneys are often hesitant or unwilling to take on, and he trains attorneys who want to learn it.

Courts are public entities covered by Title II of the ADA, and judges are among the most frequent violators of it. A judge can appear to have deniability until someone in the courtroom invokes the Act. Once it is invoked, two provisions matter:

• 42 U.S.C. § 12202 removes a state's immunity from suit for violations of the ADA.
• 42 U.S.C. § 12203(b) makes it unlawful to coerce, intimidate, threaten, or interfere with any individual exercising a right the ADA protects.

A great deal of ordinary court operation, from denied continuances to refused auxiliary aids, falls within what § 12203(b) prohibits. Invoking the ADA turns the tables: the question is no longer whether you will be accommodated but whether the court will comply with federal law.

Jay helps litigants with disabilities prepare and document accommodation requests, and trains advocates to do the same.