Teaching Disability Employment Discrimination Law: Accommodating Physical and Mental Disabilities

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-1722.2012.01110.x
• Date: 01 June 2012
• Published date: 01 June 2012

Journal of Legal Studies Education

Volume 29, Issue 2, 335–362, Summer/Fall 2012

Teaching Disability Employment

Discrimination Law: Accommodating

Physical and Mental Disabilities

Marianne DelPo Kulow*

Introduction

When teaching a course on the legal environment of business,1a professor

must make strategic choices regarding topical emphasis as there is rarely

sufficient time to thoroughly cover every topic in the course. One topic that

is often either elided or abridged is disability employment discrimination,

particularly discrimination based on mental disabilities. Many legal environ-

ment courses include a unit on employment law,2a topic that in turn may

include coverage of employment discrimination.3However, in this author’s

∗Associate Professor of Law, Bentley University.

1The subject matter of this article may also be appropriate for other courses, such as human

resource management or business law. On the difference between courses entitled “Business

Law” and those entitled “The Legal Environment of Business,” see Carol J. Miller & Susan J.

Crain, Legal Environment v. Business Law Courses: A Distinction Without a Difference?,28J. Legal.

Stud. Educ. 149, 203 (2011) (concluding that while the content of courses varies widely, business

law courses tend to place greater emphasis on the law of contracts, sales, negotiable instruments,

and secured transactions, while legal environment courses tend to cover a broader array of

topics, consider a broader array of stakeholders, and place greater emphasis on international

aspects of the subject matter).

2See id. at 204, app. I.

3Many legal environment and business law textbooks include employment discrimination as a

component of the employment law unit or chapter. See, e.g.,RogerLeRoyMiller&FrankB.

Cross, The Legal Environment Today (7th ed. 2012) (including a chapter on employment

discrimination that follows a chapter entitled “Employment, Immigration, and Labor Law”);

Richard A. Mann & Barry S. Roberts, Smith & Roberson’s Business Law (15th ed. 2012)

(including employment discrimination in a chapter on employment law); Henry R. Cheese-

man, Business Law 801 (8th ed. 2013) (including an employment discrimination chapter in

a three-chapter unit on employment law). Textbooks for related subject areas, such as inter-

national business law, may similarly include coverage of disability discrimination law. See, e.g.,

C2012 The Author

Journal of Legal Studies Education C2012 Academy of Legal Studies in Business

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336 Vol. 29 / The Journal of Legal Studies Education

experience, most professors give a cursory overview of the three primary

relevant federal statutes4and, among these, focus most of the classroom time

on Title VII, which addresses discrimination based on race, color, national

origin, gender, and religion. Little or no time is devoted to age or disability

discrimination, under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA)5

or Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA),6respectively, and even less time is

spent on discrimination based on mental disability.

Disability discrimination is worthy of greater emphasis as many students

will become managers with employees seeking accommodations for their

various disabilities. Inappropriate managerial decisions regarding disabled

employees have led to substantial disabilities litigation awards or settlements.7

For this and other reasons, this article makes the case for placing greater

emphasis on disability employment discrimination in a legal environment

course and offers a succinct and practical approach to its coverage.

The suggested approach includes a session referred to as “Accommodat-

ing Physical and Mental Disabilities,” which provides students with a hands-on

Richard Schaffer et al., International Business Law and Its Environment (8th ed. 2012)

(including employment discrimination in a chapter on employment law).

4Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Pub. L. No. 101-336, 104 Stat. 327 (codified as amended

at 42 U.S.C. §§ 12101-12213 (2012)) [hereinafter ADA]; Age Discrimination in Employment Act

of 1967, Pub. L. No. 90-202, 81 Stat. 602 (codified as amended at 29 U.S.C. §§ 621-634 (2012))

[hereinafter ADEA]; Civil Rights Act of 1964, Pub. L. No. 88-352, Title VII, 78 Stat. 241 (codified

as amended at 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2000e-17 (2012)) [hereinafter Title VII].

5See ADEA, supra note 4. In my nearly twenty years of experience teaching legal environment

courses in different universities, conversations with colleagues, departmental meetings, and

class visits to junior colleagues have made it clear that most legal environment courses merely

acknowledge that the statute exists, that one must be over the age of forty to use the federal

law, and that mandatory retirement is now largely outlawed. Some courses do address the most

common exceptions to this law.

6See ADA, supra note 4.

7See, e.g., Tobin v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., 553 F.3d 121 (1st Cir. 2008) ($1.3 million); E.E.O.C. v.

E.I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co., 480 F.3d 724, 727 (5th Cir. 2007) ($391,000); Brady v. Wal-Mart

Stores, Inc., 455 F. Supp. 2d 157 (E.D.N.Y. 2006) ($600,000); see also Howard Law, P.C., Veri-

zon’s Class Action Disability Discrimination Lawsuit Settles for $20 Million, CAL, EMP. LAW.

BLOG (July 11, 2011), http://www.californiaemploymentlawyersblog.com/2011/07/verizons-

nationwide-class-action-disability-discrimination-lawsuit-settles-for-20-million.html. Damages in

some cases might be even higher if not for the ADA’s provisions limiting certain aspects of

the amount of the awards. See 42 U.S.C. § 1981a(b) (2012).