Disability Discrimination in Higher Education: Symposium on Higher Education and the Courts

Nineteen ninety-eight and early 1999 witnessed major developments in the law of disability discrimination as it relates to higher education. The Supreme Court decided a cluster of cases on whether persons whose impairments are ameliorated by treatment are individuals with disabilities covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act. Other courts handed down important decisions concerning the definition of a qualified person with a disability, accommodation and its limits, the reach of the discrimination laws with respect to some classes of defendants, Eleventh Amendment questions, and a variety of procedural matters. Some court decisions also suggested a number of emerging issues of disability law in higher education: the measure of damages for discrimination, attorneys' fees, government benefits matters, disability harassment, and retaliation claims. This paper will discuss 1998-99 cases on all of those issues in the order listed. The federal laws at issue in nearly all of the cases are the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504).