PDF: Read the California Supreme Court ruling

A state Supreme Court decision is being heralded as a victory by disability activists but termed problematic for small-business owners.

The unanimous ruling changes past precedent and makes it possible for businesses to be sued for violating the Americans with Disabilities Act without proving the business did so intentionally.

A small-business group says the decision exposes business owners to frivolous lawsuits.

In 2005, Loma Linda resident Kenneth Munson sued Del Taco Inc. when he could not get his wheelchair through a restroom door and had to go to another nearby business. In addition, the San Bernardino restaurant had a sloped sidewalk that made it difficult to enter. The restaurant lost at the federal appellate level and the case moved to the California Supreme Court.

Del Taco spent about $66,000 remodeling to solve the problem, and the two sides had agreed to $12,000 in damages.

In the 23-page opinion, the justices said the decision is in line with changes the Legislature made to disability laws and provides an incentive for businesses to comply with regulations.

John Lonberg said the ruling validates efforts by him and others who fight for access.

“They can’t hide behind the idea that they didn’t intend to discriminate,” said Lonberg, who has been paralyzed below the chest 24 years.

He is suing the city of Riverside for failing to make curbs and sidewalks accessible to the handicapped. The city is appealing a federal judge’s award of more than $200,000.

Inland activist Ruthee Goldkorn said the ruling makes people with disabilities equal to other protected groups because no one else had to prove the discrimination was intentional.

“Let my people in is not a complex concept,” said Goldkorn, who runs No Barriers disability access consulting and serves on the executive board of Californians for Disability Rights.

The National Federation of Independent Business/California will be working with other small business groups to see what remedies might be viable through the Legislature, said John Kabateck, executive director of the foundation’s California office.

He said the process has been maligned over time as lawyers prey on small businesses knowing they are willing to settle out of court.

“This allows those seeking money more than justice to get an easy pass,” Kabateck said.

Karen Harned, executive director of the group’s small-business legal center in Washington, D.C., said the ruling encourages people to file lawsuits over small violations while not winnowing out those who knowingly violate the law or discriminate.

“It’s not like a speed limit,” she said. “It’s harder to figure out whether you’re in compliance to begin with.”

Reach Sonja Bjelland at 951-368-9642 or sbjelland@PE.com

Groups learned the extent of the proposed cuts last week in letters sent out at the request of Governor Pat Quinn.

Those letters included cuts of up to 50-percent for some providers.

Many disability providers are now contacting their clients and telling them to send a message to lawmakers still wrestling over budget cuts.

Carlissa Puckett with the disability group Sparc says her organization will lose more than half a million dollars.

Puckett says that will be reflected in real people, not just numbers.

She says she doesn’t know where people who depend on disability will go because so many support groups are looking at cuts.

Joseph Nyre with the Hope Institute says 16-thousand families from Rockford to Carbondale will lose services.

Nyre says his group is trying to come up with an ethical response to unethical cuts.

Lawmakers are expected to come back to Springfield next week to go over the state budget.

The main alternative to cuts to disability and other service groups is an income tax increase that many are reluctant to pass in tough economic times.

(Copyright 2009 by Newsroom Solutions)

By LAUREN COX
ABC News Medical Unit

Fat can be disabling. A person 180 pounds over a healthy weight is susceptible to arthritis, has increased blood pressure, a weakened heart and could soon need a walker just to get around.

Under the Americans with Disabilities Act, such a person could legally be labeled as disabled.

But should obesity be considered a disability? On Tuesday the American Medical Association voted a resounding no at its annual meeting.

But in a country where nearly one in three people is obese but where laws do not always cover size discrimination, and many health insurance policies do not cover obesity treatments until a patient develops a more serious health condition — not all who deal with obesity agree on the matter.

“We believe that we passed this for the patient’s benefit,” said Dr. Domenic Federico, an AMA delegate from Michigan. “We do not want to have this limit the ability to have doctors talk about a very serious condition.”

Federico explained that doctors are worried they could be legally reprimanded for discussing obesity with a patient who doesn’t want to hear it.

“If obesity is designated as a disability, physicians could be sued or reprimanded for discrimination under the Americans with Disability Act if a patient takes offense at the physician discussing obesity,” the resolution states. “Therefore be it resolved that our American Medical Association not support the effort to make obesity a disability.”

Federico said he hasn’t heard of any similar lawsuits between doctors and patients with any disability or of an activist group specifically lobbying for obesity to be designated a disability. But he pointed out that bringing up weight in a doctor’s office can be a difficult conversation.

“I have people who told me that they choose to go to an obese physician because they know they will never talk to them about their weight,” said Pam Davis a registered nurse in Nashville, Tenn., and a bariatric surgery patient.

Doctors Struggle to Address Weight in Office Visits

Davis, 44, said she has struggled with weight issues her entire life, even after she lost 160 pounds following bariatric surgery eight years ago. At her largest — 330 pounds — Davis said she knew she had a problem. But it was the talk at the doctor’s office when she really felt a burning stigma.

“I know the first time I left my physician’s office carrying that chart that said ‘morbidly obese’ and seeing it in black and white like that — it almost feels like it had been tattooed on my forehead, a scarlet letter,” Davis said.

“It’s definitely is difficult talking to people about obesity,” said Dr. Keith Ayoob, a nutrition and obesity specialist at Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. “It takes somebody with decent beside manner to approach the topic without placing blame … but it can cause immobility. It’s also a gateway condition to so many other problems.”

Davis said that for all practical purposes, her weight was disabling. She could not go up stairs easily and she couldn’t run and catch her dog in her yard. She was tired all the time and couldn’t get down on the floor to play with her young children.

“But I think that for some it would take it as a step forward in that scarlet letter, if it said, ‘Now at that weight we consider you disabled,’” she said.

As a nurse, Davis said she’s well aware that many insurance companies do not offer general obesity counseling unless there’s a co-morbid condition or a patient is approved for surgery. But she said she’d rather see that issue handled with anti-discrimination laws than under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

“I think it makes more sense where we don’t discriminate against someone for their sex, for their ethnic basis, and for their size,” Davis said. “If we were to say, ‘Well, if somebody’s of a certain size then we are considering that as part of the disability act,’ you set up a resentful atmosphere.”

Yet while doctors and obese patients are concerned about the label “disabled,” lawyers who specialize in obesity suits said many people are missing the point.

The Term ‘Disabled’ Used Broadly Under the Law

“There isn’t one paramount definition of disability from a legal standpoint,” said Walter Lindstrom of the Obesity Law and Advocacy Center — a private firm in the San Diego area that specializes in “fighting for the rights of people of size to receive equal access to health care and be free of discrimination in life.”

Lindstrom explained that a disability label from a social security benefits point of view would require different criteria than a disability label from an insurance point of view, or disability as classified under the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Each “disability” label also wins a person different rights. According to Lindstrom, the Americans With Disabilities Act covers civil rights protections such as employer discrimination more than compensation benefits.

“You’re talking about disability with a small ‘d’ and disability with a capital ‘D,’” Lindstrom said.

“The problem that the AMA resolution has in all honesty is that they fundamentally don’t understand disability law: Very few medical conditions are a disability by definition,” he said.

Getting a disabled label under the Americans With Disabilities Act requires a person to prove their condition has a physical impairment that also puts substantial limitations on major life activities, Lindstrom said.

However Lindstrom said no two obese people are alike: One obese person might have health issues serious enough to be labeled disabled, while another obese person might not qualify.

“You could have that same scenario with people who suffer from certain joint conditions, brain conditions or diabetes,” Lindstrom explained. “It’s not like there’s a laundry list of diseases to fill in the disability boxes — the AMA knows that and in my mind this is a little bit of grandstanding.”

Lindstrom also thought the move might be “self-protective.”

But the Obesity Action Coalition had a less intense reaction.

“As a coalition of those affected, the OAC encourages discussion around this topic of obesity and disability, as it is not clearly defined and is not simple. The determination of obesity should be based on scientific and medical factual data and not fear of litigation,” OAC executive director Joseph Nadglowski wrote in statement responding to the AMA vote.

“Every individual who is affected by obesity is not disabled, but this does not mean that obesity does not and cannot contribute to disability,” the statement said.

With thousands of advocates in DC and at more than 120 conference call-in sites across the country, Community Choice Act (CCA) cosponsors Senator Tom Harkin, Senator Arlen Specter and Congressman Danny Davis made crystal clear their commitment to passing the Community Choice Act in the 111^th Congress. The event was an upbeat event at times filled with thunderous applause and the chanting of “Pass CCA Now!”

Sen. Tom Harkin led off this important event on Capitol Hill and declared that CCA will pass in this Congress and be on the President’s desk either as a part of the healthcare reform bill or on its own. He noted that it has been 10 years since the Supreme Court’s Olmstead decision which affirmed the Constitutional rights of people with disabilities to live in the least restrictive environment and he told the critics who say CCA will cost too much that by allowing individuals with disabilities to live and work in their own homes and communities rather than institutions, the costs will be offset by new taxpayers. Harkin declared: “We can’t afford not to do this!”

ADA Watch and the National Coalition for Disability Rights (NCDR) are longtime supporters of CCA, formally known as MiCASSA, the legislation that gives people real choice in long term care options. This legislation ends the institutional bias in the Medicaid program by giving individuals who are eligible for nursing facility services or other institutional “care” equal access to community-based services and supports, like attendant services.

The event was moderated by Kansas ADAPT member, Mike Oxford and the other speakers included  Dawn Russell, ADAPT, Andy Imparato, American Association of Persons with Disabilities (AAPD), Marty Ford, Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities (CCD), John Lancaster, National Council on Independent Living (NCIL), Victor Robinson, Self Advocates Becoming Empowered (SABE), and Mitch LaPlante, University of California, San Francisco.

Congressman Danny Davis received huge applause when, after promising to do everything in his power in the House this session, he quoted the lyrics to a Sam Cooke song:

I was born by the river in a little tent
And just like that river I’ve been running ever since
It’s been a long time coming
But I know a change is gonna come, oh yes it will

With a progressive president in the White House, powerful co-sponsors in a more receptive Congress and more than 700 disability organizations signed-on in support of the Community Choice Act, the chant of “Pass CCA Now!” at the conclusion of this rally had an empowered and celebratory tone rather than a pleading one. All of the speakers, however, acknowledged that there is hard work ahead for all as the community works to attract Congressional sponsors to the bill, educate the media and mobilize public support for CCA.

Today, everybody seemed ready to take on that hard work.  

For more information about the Community Choice Act, go to www.adapt.org

In this post we have compiled a number of articles and commentary on this very loaded issue and we hope they provide a diverse and provocative snapshot of the reaction to the President’s words. There is a full range of responses with no shortage of emotion on either side.

What is your opinion? At the bottom of this post, as well as at the bottom of any of the featured articles throughout ADA Watch, is a comment form. Take a moment to add to the national dialogue about the President’s words. Or respond to another posted comment that pushes your buttons one way or the other. 

In a public statement, Special Olympics Chairman Timothy Shriver explained that President Obama “called and expressed his regret and he apologized. He said that he did not intend to humiliate Special Olympics athletes or people with intellectual disabilities. ”

Shriver said, “Words hurt and words matter. Words can cause pain and result in stereotypes that are unfair and damaging to people with intellectual disabilities. And using “Special Olympics” in a negative or derogatory context can be a humiliating put-down to people with special needs.”

Shriver continued, “This is a teachable moment for our country. We are asking young people, parents and leaders from all walks of life to engage in conversation and help dispel negative caricatures about people with intellectual disabilities. We believe that it’s only through open conversation and dialogue about how stereotypes can cause pain that we can begin to work together to create communities of acceptance and inclusion for all. ”

San Francisco-based disability rights advocate, Gary Karp, points to the irony in the fact that the President, just prior to the Tonight Show taping, was at a town hall event in LA where he thoughtfully expressed support for disability rights and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). In a lengthy response to Karp’s questioning, Obama highlighted the need for “enforcing the ADA and fighting back on some court opinions that have tried to narrow in ways that I think are inappropriate the original intent of that legislation.” The San Francisco Chronicle quoted Karp explaining, “The fact is, President Obama gets disability issues pretty well. He devoted more energy to it than any candidate on either side,” in the last election.

Kareem Dale, Special Assistant to the President for Disability Policy, in addition to apologizing for the “insult,” also points to the Obama record:

“President Obama’s first two months have been filled with positivity for the disability community from the signing of SCHIP, to appointing 3 persons at the White House to handle disability issues, to inclusion of people with disabilities at the fiscal summit, health summits (both regional and at the White House), to inclusion of people with disabilities at all public White House events, just to name a few.”

But former vice presidential candidate, Republican Governor Sarah Palin, thinks otherwise. The mother of a young son with Down syndrome, she said she was “shocked” by the “degrading remark about our world’s most precious and unique people, coming from the most powerful position in the world”. She added that she hoped the president’s comment did not reflect his true feelings about the “special needs community.”

News reports indicate that Governor Palin was also busy on the Thursday this all went down. Seems that the stimulus funds she dramatically rejected that day included funds for training special education teachers and more than $165 million in overal education funds for Alaska. A similar disconnect between rhetoric and policy haunted Palin on the campaign trail last year when, despite the welcome attention to disability issues, she refused to support policy important to people with disabilities — including the Community Choice Act — and, as Think Progress and others reported, even proposed dramatic cuts to Special Olympics funding.      

[Comment on this, if you will: Does anybody get tired of hearing both sides throw around words like "vulnerable" and "precious" when they are talking about us? And, while we are at it, what about "special?"]

Speaking of the Community Choice Act, the proposed legislation to make home and community-based services and supports available and end the institutional bias in healthcare funding, ADAPT also weighed-in on the Tonight Show controversy.

“While I am convinced the President did not intentionally set out to disparage people with disabilities,” said Bob Kafka, national organizer for ADAPT, “the remark that flew out of his mouth is so indicative of the deeply held and, until now, widely tolerated stereotypes of people with disabilities. Look at all the people who laughed. These stereotypes have resulted in our exclusion from the mainstream of society and have kept us locked up and segregated in institutions and nursing homes.”

“Actions speak louder than words, so ADAPT challenges the President to make good on those welcome words by advancing and promoting a strong disability policy agenda,” added Kafka. “One that includes community-based long-term services and supports in health care reform, and assures that people with all disabilities of all ages have the opportunity to live, work, go to school, and recreate in their communities alongside their neighbors. People with disabilities have so much to contribute to the fabric of American life, but we can’t do it locked away or shunted aside in segregated environments.”

ADAPT’s comments, like those from other disability organizations, are in line the the overwhelming majority of the responses of people with disabilities and a large number of pundits and policymakers outraged by the remarks. (Although many angry blog posts and letters to the editor, with many writers even questioning why they voted for President Obama, are being written without the benefit of the doubt that Kafka offers up regarding the President’s intentions.)

That said, opinion polls and many prominent media representatives suggest many believe that we should just “lighten up.” An Entertainment Weekly poll, for example, suggests that the majority of respondents belive that the gaffe was “Humorless but harmless.” (Responding to this sentiment, one blogger asks how people might have felt if Obama said he “Threw a ball like a girl?”)

President Obama has also received support from some unikely sources…

The right wing Washington Times newspaper editorial board wrote that “the President has real problems to address beside hurt feelings” and that “the PC police need to relax and learn to take a joke.” 

Conservative commentor, Tucker Carlson, responding to questions online for the Washington Post, declared:

“But let me be one of the few to defend Obama’s Special Olympics “gaffe.” First it was sort of funny, in a self-deprecating way, and I don’t think we should ever discourage humor, even unsuccessful attempts at it. We don’t have enough as it is.”

“Second, it was true. Special Olympians generally don’t bowl as well as other people. That’s why they’re in the Special Olympics.”

“Before you hit send on that hate mail, know that I’m hardly attacking kids with special needs. I think we ought to cherish and protect them (for instance by ceasing to abort the vast majority of kids with Down Syndrome). But I also think we ought to let people make lame jokes if they want, and not jump down their throats in a frenzy of self-righteousness.”

The Orlando Sentinel’s editorial board, like many others, countered this argument. They wrote…

 ”The president also has himself to blame for leaving it to his White House press secretary to publicly explain it away. He’s offered mea culpas on his administration’s poor vetting of Tom Daschle and its failure to block A.I.G. bonuses. Why on Earth leave it to Robert Gibbs to say, “He understands that they deserve a lot better than … the thoughtless joke that he made”?”

Mr. Obama also offered an apology to the Special Olympics chairman. But 50 million disabled Americans deserve one, too. It wasn’t just “thoughtless.” It was insensitive and hurtful.”

It’s tough being president - tougher than ever in the era of the 24/7 news cycle. No president, despite his better political instincts, has managed to avoid embarrassing himself or insulting others. But when he does the latter, casually or not, he consequently can injure millions.”

“Speedily and forcefully, he then has to make things right.”

Obama & Special Olympics Headlines:

Official statement from Special Olympics Chairman Timothy Shriver
Fox News Raw Story

Obama’s comment about Special Olympics sparks debate
Sentinel & Enterprise

Not bowled over by Obama’s Special Olympics joke
Los Angeles Times

Obama’s Special Olympics comment bothersome
York Daily Record

President Obama’s ‘Special Olympics’ Joke Lands Him In Hot Water

Sarah Palin’s shock at Obama’s comment about Special Olympics
The Times

Schwarzenegger: Obama’s ‘heart’ right
The Swamp - Tribune’s Washington Bureau

Obama’s ‘Special Olympics’ gaffe: Simple blunder, or big news?
Kansas City Star

Slip of the tongue lands Obama in gutter
Globe and Mail

Mich. Special Olympian: ‘I can beat the president’
Detroit Free Press

Now, as a disabled worker, the 29-year-old is competing with thousands of nondisabled job seekers going for jobs once allocated for the disabled population.

Welsh was laid off from his job as an executive assistant in 2006.

“I did mortgages, refinances and purchase deals. I was dismissed from that job and after that I was sent over to the Bobby Dodd Institute to do my vocational rehab counseling,” he said.

The Bobby Dodd Institute in Atlanta provides job training and rehabilitation for people with disabilities.

Meg Godfrey, an employment specialist with BDI, has been handling Welsh’s case.

“He came to us originally looking for a position in administrative clerical type work. We have lowered his goals to greeting and ticket-taking, but those are the first jobs that go in this type of economy,” she said.

As part of her job, Godfrey seeks potential employers who will allocate some of their positions for people with disabilities, but as unemployment has soared, competition has gotten fierce.

“Usually, we can get three to five jobs a month. Lately it’s been one or no jobs each month. There are some employers I have talked to about hiring our clients. It’s in a restaurant-type business and they have people coming in and putting applications that have previously worked at Morgan Stanley,” she said.

For Welsh, the competition and the wait have proven too long. He recently started a home cake-making business using cooking skills he learned from his grandmother when he was growing up in Alabama. He gets orders from local clients and delivers the cakes with the aid of public transit for the disabled. He gets about three orders a week, at an average price of $15 per cake.

Welsh said he evaluated his skills and abilities before starting his business.

“I know that I can bake cakes. I know that people like cakes; people like to eat a little something sweet, ” he said.

He added that he has not lost hope about finding a job.

Wayne McMillan, CEO of BDI, says job numbers for people with disabilities show little hope.

“It’s terrible to be without a job in this country. It’s tragic to have a disability and be without a job. We are having people come through the programs that we are not being able to place. Last year we placed 171 folks; during the month of December zero; January two. This is a real crisis for us,” McMillan said.

For the first time, the Department of Labor in February released a report tracking unemployment ratesamong disabled job seekers. The survey found a 14 percent unemployment rate among disabled workers — almost double that of the nondisabled population. And only 21 percent of the available working disabled population is employed, compared with the 65 percent of nondisabled workers.

“It is not at the top of most people’s minds,” said Megan Rutter Branch, director of communication for BDI. “They are seeing family members go off and have the dignity of work, and earn a paycheck, and the only expectation that is had of them is to sit at home, watch TV and stay out of trouble.”

She emphasized that disabled workers have one of the highest retention rates in the industry, 82 percent to 87 percent, according to BDI figures. “Our folks wouldn’t want to leave. They had to overcome all these hurdles to get a job.”

According to the U.S. Census, people with disabilities comprise the largest minority group, approximately 20 percent of the population.

Robin L. Shaffert, senior director of corporate social responsibility with the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), says it is critical for this group to be included in economic recovery plans.

“It is very important for our society that we are using all the productive force of our society. It is important that we are also looking at people with disabilities and make sure we are looking for solutions for them as well,” Shaffert said.

AAPD research shows that President Obama’s economic stimulus package has allocated funds to help people with disabilities, such as increased Medicaid help, vocational rehabilitation, help with independent living and specialized education.

Until that help comes, Welsh, who suffers from spina bifida, says he is holding onto his faith.

“You got to keep God in your heart. As long as you got him in your side everything will go smoothly,” he said.

By Mayra Cuevas Nazario
CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2009/US/03/18/disabled.workers/

Under withering criticism from veterans and Congress, President Obama on Wednesday abandoned a proposal that would have required veterans to use their private health insurance to pay for the treatment of combat-related injuries.

David K. Rehbein, national commander of the American Legion, said the president had indicated at a meeting on Monday that he “intended to move forward” with the proposal, which could have saved the government more than $500 million a year.

But on Wednesday, the White House press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said Mr. Obama had scrapped the idea.

“The president has instructed that its consideration be dropped,” Mr. Gibbs said.

The press secretary said Mr. Obama had heeded the concerns of veterans’ organizations that feared the proposal could make it more difficult for some of their members to obtain care.

In a recent letter to the president, the American Legion and 10 other veterans organizations denounced the proposal as “a total abrogation of our government’s moral and legal responsibility” to treat service-connected injuries and illnesses.

Lawmakers of both parties said the proposal would have made it more difficult for some veterans to get affordable private health insurance for themselves and their families.

“Pushing combat injuries onto personal insurance plans could make service to our nation a pre-existing condition,” which could be used to justify the denial of private coverage, said Representative Roy Blunt, Republican of Missouri.

Mr. Obama has repeatedly called health insurance for all Americans one of his priorities.

Veterans groups thanked the president on Wednesday.

Jay Agg, a spokesman for Amvets, said: “We are very pleased the administration dropped this proposal. It flew in the face of the government’s covenant to care for all service-connected needs of our veterans.”

Glen M. Gardner Jr., national commander of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, said Mr. Obama had told veterans on Monday that he would listen to their concerns. “The president kept to his word and made the right decision,” Mr. Gardner said.

Senior members of Congress had threatened to kill the proposal if Mr. Obama pushed it.

The chairmen of the House and Senate Committees on Veterans Affairs, Senator Daniel K. Akaka, Democrat of Hawaii, and Representative Bob Filner, Democrat of California, had publicly opposed the proposal.

“Our budget cannot be balanced on the backs of our nation’s combat-wounded heroes,” Mr. Filner said.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat of California, announced the president’s decision Wednesday afternoon at a meeting with veterans groups. Leaders of the organizations had pressed their concerns a few hours earlier in a meeting at the White House with Rahm Emanuel, the president’s chief of staff.

Eric Shinseki, the secretary of veterans affairs, said Mr. Obama was requesting $113 billion for the department in 2010, an increase of 16 percent over this year’s amount. The budget includes money to treat 419,000 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, up 15 percent from this year and 61 percent from 2008.

Having dropped the idea of billing private insurers for the treatment of service-connected conditions, administration officials have told veterans groups that they want to find another way to save a similar amount of money.

One way is to collect payments from private insurers who are already responsible for some care provided to veterans for needs unrelated to their military service.

The suit arose from a charge filed by Samuel Chetcuti, a storekeeper working for United at the San Francisco International Airport. The EEOC’s suit asserted that United’s policy of denying the opportunity to work overtime to anyone placed on light or limited duty had greater repercussions for employees with disabilities, since these workers were more likely to be assigned to light duty. For example, Chetcuti, who has epilepsy, was under medical restrictions that prevented him from operating heavy machinery and working at heights, but did not restrict the number of hours a week he could work. Chetcuti was given light duty for his regular work schedule, and as a result, United had barred him from an overtime schedule despite the fact that he was medically cleared to work overtime.

EEOC San Francisco Regional Attorney William R. Tamayo said, “This blanket policy barring employees working with restrictions from overtime work had a disproportionate impact on workers with disabilities. It runs counter to the ADA’s goal that each employee be evaluated individually on whether they can get the job done, with or without an accommodation. We appreciate that United Airlines has agreed to settle this case and rescind this policy.”

The settlement also requires United to notify all current and former employees at the San Francisco Airport who were subject to the rescinded policy and invite them to submit claims to share in the $850,000. Claims may also be submitted to EEOC attorney David Offen-Brown at 350 The Embarcadero, Suite 500, San Francisco, CA 94105 or david.offen-brown@eeoc.gov.

Chetcuti said, “This is good for all United workers. If your doctor has cleared you to work overtime, then you should be able to work those hours whether or not you’re on light duty. I appreciate the EEOC’s efforts in making this happen.”

EEOC San Francisco District Director Michael Baldonado added, “Disability does not mean inability. The ADA encourages us all to focus on opening doors to all a worker can do and discourages the closing of doors through restrictive stereotypes about disabilities, such as what you may think that person cannot do.”

According to www.united.com, United Airlines (NASDAQ: UAUA) is one of the largest international carriers based in the United States, with 52,000 employees worldwide and operating nearly 3,000 flights a day to more than 200 U.S. domestic and international destinations from its hubs in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Denver, Chicago and Washington, D.C.

SOURCE: Infozine & EEOC

QUESTION:   I’m Gary Karp, and Mr. President, thank God for you.  (Applause.)  Sir, my question regards the true renaissance that’s happening with people with disabilities.  They are an emerging population — millions of people with more potential in capacity, more mobile, more educated, more healthy, more empowered technology, but still trapped in very, very old social models that see them in terms of tragedy and charity and need and care.  And the modern population of people with disabilities simply does not fit that model. 

And as your plan succeeds and you generate these jobs, and as baby boomers retire, we’re going to need every single person of capacity to work that we can.  And that must include many, many, many thousands, if not millions, of people with disabilities.  (Applause.) 

So — I see you nodding your head, so my first question is, do you subscribe to what I’m saying, and next of all, can you talk about how your disability agenda will release this emerging potential that’s currently wasted and untapped?

THE PRESIDENT:  Well, you are exactly right, that we need everybody.  And every program that we have has to be thinking on the front end, how do we make sure that it is inclusive, and building into it our ability to draw on the capacities of persons with disabilities. 

That’s true on the education front, where our recovery package increases funding for children with disabilities.  It is true in terms of how Hilda Solis, our Secretary of Labor, will be thinking about our training programs, to make sure that we are not excluding from training for high-tech jobs, the new jobs of the future, persons with disability.

It means enforcing the ADA and fighting back on some court opinions that have tried to narrow in ways that I think are inappropriate the original intent of that legislation.

So one of the things that I think is important is to make sure, as you pointed out, that we don’t see this as an afterthought, a segregated program, but we are infusing every department, every agency, every act that we take with a mindfulness about the importance of persons with disabilities, their skills, their talents, their capacity. 

That I think is the approach that my administration is going to take, and we hope that by taking that approach that attitude will infuse state and local governments that are also receiving federal money. Okay?
 

The Los Angeles Times has posted a full transcript of this town hall meeting here: 

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/03/obama-text-la.html

The first appearance by a sitting president on “The Tonight Show” may well end up being the last.

President Obama, in his taping with Jay Leno Thursday afternoon, attempted to yuk it up with the funnyman, and ended up insulting the disabled.

Towards the end of his approximately 40-minute appearance, the president talked about how he’s gotten better at bowling and has been practicing in the White House bowling alley.

He bowled a 129, the president said.

“That’s very good, Mr. President,” Leno said sarcastically.

It’s “like the Special Olympics or something,” the president said.

When asked about the remark, the White House said the president did not intend to offend.

“The president made an off-hand remark making fun of his own bowling that was in no way intended to disparage the Special Olympics,” White House deputy press secretary Bill Burton said. “He thinks the Special Olympics is a wonderful program that gives an opportunity for people with disabilities from around the world.”

Facing tough questions about the performance of his Treasury Secretary, $165 million in bonuses for AIG officials and anticipating a fight over his $3.55 trillion budget, the president has not had a particularly good week, and it’s unlikely this will help matters.

Jake Tapper is ABC News’ Senior White House Correspondent based in the network’s Washington bureau. He writes about politics and popular culture and covers a range of national stories.