Media, Law & Policy

Disability Law & Policy Program Marks 10th Anniversary with Spring Lecture Series

Wednesday, January 27, 2016, By Robert Conrad

The ’s Disability Law & Policy Program is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year with a Spring Lecture Series. The series will bring to campus six noted experts in domestic and international disability rights law and policy.

A disability law class, with Professor Arlene Kanter, founder of the Disability Law Policy Program seated at left

A disability law class, with Professor Arlene Kanter, founder and director of the Disability Law Policy Program seated at left

Sue Swenson, deputy assistant secretary in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services, U.S. Department of Education, kicks off the series on Tuesday, Feb. 2, at 4 p.m. in Fallon Lecture Hall, Dineen Hall. She will present on “Making Progress Toward Inclusion in Education.”

Other speakers scheduled to appear as part of the series are:

  • Eric Rosenthal, executive director, Disability Rights International, Feb. 25, on “A Call for the End of Institutionalization and Trafficking of Children under International Human Rights Law”
  • Professor Michael Waterstone, Loyola Law School, March 3, on “Olmstead Exceptionalism”
  • Stephanie Ortoleva, president, Women Enabled International Inc., March 22,  on “The Rights of Women with Disabilities: An International, Legal, Disability Rights, and Feminist Activist Approach”
  • Professor Samuel Bagenstos, University of Michigan Law School, April 5, on “The Politics of Disability Identity, at ADA+25”
  • Professor Sagit Mor, University of Washington & Haifa University, April 12, on “From Misfortune to Injustice: Disability, Torts and Inequality”

The lectures are open to the public. CART and sign language interpretation will be provided. Additional details about each speaker, along with specific locations and times of their events, can be found at .

“While we are celebrating the accomplishments of the Disability Law & Policy Program over the past 10 years, it’s even more important to prepare for the challenges ahead. These speakers offer their perspectives on how we, as a university, society and world, must continue to work to achieve equality and full inclusion for all people with disabilities. They also provide models to our students of the role of lawyers and educators in reaching this goal,” says Professor Arlene Kanter, founder and director of the Disability Law & Policy Program.

Co-sponsors of the Spring Lecture Series are:  the College of Arts and Sciences, Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, School of Education, Cultural Foundations of Education Program, Women and Gender Studies Program, Transnational NGO Initiative of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Disability Cultural Center, Renée Crown Honors Program, Beyond Compliance Coordinating Committee, Center on Human Policy, Law and Disability Studies and Disability Law Society.

The Disability Law and Policy Program is home to the world’s first Joint Degree Program in Law and Disability Studies, the nation’s first LLM Program with a concentration in international and comparative disability law, a Curricular Program in Disability Law and Policy and the Disability Rights Clinic, as well as disability-related summer and semester-long externships in New York and Washington, D.C.