The annual Jacobus tenBroek Disability Law Symposium honors the legacy of Dr. Jacobus tenBroek who founded the National Federation of the Blind in 1940.
2019 Dates
Thursday, March 28 through Friday March 29, 2019
2019 Location
National Federation of the Blind
200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place
Baltimore, MD 21230
2019 Theme
The theme of the 2019 symposium is "The Impact of Public Attitudes and Stigma on Our Right to Live in the World.”
Please join us as we examine Dr. Jacobus tenBroek’s legacy through a social lens, exploring the intersection of law and public attitudes about disability. We will focus on how public attitudes about disability induce negative stereotypes of persons with mental health diagnoses, the disabled homeless, and disabled immigrants, as well as how these attitudes influence treatment under the law of persons with disabilities in education, healthcare, employment, housing, and the criminal justice system. We will also explore strategies for combating the stigma attributed to persons with disabilities by, among other methods, exploring how we frame the image of disability in advocacy.
Registration
Registration for the 2019 Jacobus tenBroek Disability Law Symposium has closed.
Topics and Speakers
The 2019 Jacobus tenBroek Disability Law Symposium will consist of plenary sessions and workshops facilitated by distinguished law professors, practitioners, and advocates who will discuss topics such as:
- Discrimination against homeless people with disabilities
- Disparate treatment under the law of mental and physical disabilities
- Disability rights and immigrants
- Framing the image of disability in advocacy
- Valuation of the disabled life
- Bullying, harassment, and the civil rights of people with disabilities
Presenters include:
- Elizabeth Barnes, Professor, University of Virginia, Corcoran Department of Philosophy
- Ira Burnim, Director, Judge David L. Bazelon Center for Mental Health
- Matthew Dietz, Litigation Director, Disability Independence Group
- Susan Einspar, Senior Parent Educator/Advocate, PACER Center
- Aaron J. Fischer, Litigation Counsel, Disability Rights California
- Maria Foscarinis, Founder and Executive Director, National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty
- Katharine Gordon, Disability Immigration Rights Attorney
- Paul Harpur, Senior Lecturer, TC Beirne School of Law, The University of Queensland
- Eve Hill, Partner, Brown Goldstein & Levy, LLP
- Catherine J. Kudlick, Director, Paul K. Longmore Institute on Disability, and Professor of History, San Francisco State University
- Scott LaBarre, Partner, LaBarre Law Offices, PC
- Lycette Nelson, Partner, Law Office of Lycette Nelson
- Victoria Rodriguez-Roldan, Senior Policy Counsel, Trans/GNC Justice Project, and Disability Justice Project Director, National LGBTQ Task Force
- Michael Ashley Stein, Co-founder and Executive Director, Harvard Law School Project on Disability, and Visiting Professor, Harvard Law School
- Mark C. Weber, Vincent DePaul Professor of Law, DePaul University College of Law
- Naomi Weinstein, Attorney, Mental Hygiene Legal Service
- David Yamada, Professor of Law and Director, New Hampshire Workplace Institute, Suffolk University Law School
Agenda
We invite you to review the agenda for the 2019 Jacobus tenBroek Disability Law Symposium.
Presentation Materials
All presentation materials for the 2019 Jacobus tenBroek Disability Law Symposium will be available by March 28.
- Barriers to Justice: Empowering Your Deaf Client Throughout The Legal System (Anna Bitencourt, Marc Charmatz, Caroline Jackson, and Brittany Shrader)
- Current Litigation Approaches to Disrupting the School-to-Prison Pipeline for Students with Disabilities (Alice Abrokwa, Lydia Brown, Maura Klugman, and Shira Wakschlag)
- The Department of Justice and the ADA’s Integration Mandate: A Year in Review (Jennifer Bronson and Lindsey Weinstock)
- The Detention of Immigrant Children with Disabilities in California: A Snapshot (Disability Rights California)
- Disability Rights and DHS’s Proposed Public Charge Exclusion Rules (Mark Weber)
- Educational Rights and Realities of Blind Students (Carlton Anne Cook Walker)
- Enforcing Section 504 and the Americans with Disabilities Act for Children with Diabetes in Schools and Other Settings (Sarah Fech-Baughman and Seth Packrone)
- Equal Access To Health Care Services For Individuals With Disabilities (Steven Gordon)
- Framing Deaf Special Education in Due Process (Caroline Jackson and Tawny Holmes Hlibok)
- Organ Transplant Discrimination and People with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (Kelly Israel and Larkin Taylor-Parker)
- Tearing Down “New” Borders: Advocating for the Deinstitutionalization of Immigrant Children and Adults (Pilar Gonzalez, Richard Diaz, and Katherine Mathews)
- Service Animals Presentation: Resources
CLE Credit
Documentation for CLE credits will be provided.
Hotel Information
A block of rooms has been reserved for symposium participants at the Royal Sonesta Harbor Court Baltimore, located at 550 Light Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21202. The hotel is directly across from the Inner Harbor and is convenient to the National Federation of the Blind. Rooms may be reserved for March 26 through March 30, 2019, at the rate of $159.00 per night for singles or doubles, $179.00 for triples, and $199.00 for quads, plus applicable taxes and surcharges. You can make your reservation online at Sonesta Reservations or by calling the hotel directly at 410-234-0550 and referring to the National Federation of the Blind block (group code 0326NATFED).
Reservations must be made by 5:00 p.m., Tuesday, February 26, 2019.
The NFB will provide a free morning and evening accessible shuttle between the hotel and the National Federation of the Blind.
Accommodations
Symposium materials will be provided in large print and Braille. Participants who require other accommodations should contact Lou Ann Blake at lblake@nfb.org by March 9, 2019.
2019 Symposium Sponsors
Gold
Brown Goldstein Levy
Disability Rights Advocates
Rosen Bien Galvan & Grunfeld LLP
Silver
Derby, McGuinness & Goldsmith, LLP
Bronze
AARP Foundation Litigation
Burton Blatt Institute
Law School Admission Council
Pearson, Inc.
Rosenberg Martin Greenberg LLP
Whiteford, Taylor & Preston
White Cane
Mid-Atlantic ADA Center
Supporter
Goldstein Borgen Dardarian & Ho
LaBarre Law Offices
Lainey Feingold
Law Office of John F. Waldo
Sponsorship Opportunities
Your support of the Jacobus tenBroek Disability Law Symposium will help shape the future of disability law and ensure that people with disabilities enjoy the same right to live in the world as their non-disabled peers. Sponsorship opportunities are available at a variety of levels. Based on the level you choose, you will receive one or more tickets to the symposium, advertising space in the symposium program, and your logo on this webpage. To become a sponsor of the Jacobus tenBroek Disability Law Symposium, please download the 2019 sponsorship form and return it to aadler@nfb.org. Please contact Anna Adler at 410-659-9314, extension 2282 if you have any questions.
Steering Committee Members
- Lou Ann Blake, Deputy Executive Director, Committee Chair, National Federation of the Blind Blindness Initiatives
- Stacie F. Dubnow, Esquire, Project Manager, National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute
- Charles S. Brown, Esquire
- Matthew W. Dietz, Litigation Director, Disability Independence Group, Inc.
- Robert Dinerstein, Professor of Law, Associate Dean for Experiential Education, American University Washington College of Law
- Timothy Elder, Esquire, TRE Legal Practice, LLC
- David Ferleger, Esquire, Law Office of David Ferleger
- Leslie P. Francis, Distinguished Professor, University of Utah College of Law
- Jasmine Harris, Acting Professor of Law, UC Davis Law School
- Sharon Krevor-Weisbaum, Managing Partner, Brown, Goldstein & Levy
- Scott LaBarre, LaBarre Law Offices, PC
- Anil Lewis, Executive Director, National Federation of the Blind Blindness Initiatives
- Michael Perlin, Professor Emeritus, New York Law School
Dr. Jacobus tenBroek's Publications
Dr. tenBroek's publications and speeches are as relevant and compelling today as they were decades ago. The archives in the Jacobus tenBroek Library are home to Dr. tenBroek’s collected works, and a detailed description of his personal and professional papers is available in THE CANE TIP. An accessible digital exhibit focused on Dr. tenBroek’s life and work is also available through Digital Maryland. For more information or to schedule a research appointment, please send an email to jtblibrary@nfb.org or call 410-659-9314.
[A]s to the immutability of social attitudes and discriminatory actions towards the blind, we know from intimate experience that the sighted public wishes well for the blind and that its misconceptions are rather the result of innocence and superstition than of deliberate cruelty and malice aforethought. It is not the education of the sighted only which is needed to establish the right of the blind to equality and integration. Just as necessary is the education of the blind themselves. For the process of their rehabilitation ... is complete only when they have driven the last vestige of the public stereotype of the blind from their own minds. In this sense, and to this extent only, is it true that the blind person must "adjust" to his handicap and to society. His adjustment need not—indeed must not—mean his submission to all prevailing social norms and values. His goal is not conformity but autonomy: not acquiescence, but self-determination and self control. — Dr. Jacobus tenBroek
Past Symposia
Review text and audio highlights from previous Jacobus tenBroek Law Symposia on the past symposia page.
More Information
For more information regarding the Jacobus tenBroek Disability Law Symposium, please contact:
Lou Ann Blake, Deputy Executive Director, Blindness Initiatives, National Federation of the Blind
Phone: 410-659-9314, extension 2221
Email: lblake@nfb.org
Stacie Dubnow, Project Manager, National Federation of the Blind
Phone: 410-659-9314, extension 2442
Email: sdubnow@nfb.org