An Introduction to Exploring Law, Disability, and the Challenge of Equality in Canada and the United States: Papers from the Berkeley Symposium

Abstract

This special collection of articles in the Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice [WYAJ] stems from a symposium of the same name held at the Berkeley Law School at the University of California on 5 December 2014. The Berkeley Symposium is the first conference to bring together scholars and experts from both Canada and the United States to present research and exchange ideas on equality issues affecting persons with disabilities in both countries. Writing this introduction allows me to bring together my identities as a law and disability scholar, the principal organizer and convener of the Berkeley Symposium, and editor-in-chief of the WYAJ. Each academic was invited to write about an equality issue of their choice that is of contemporary concern to persons with disabilities, and to focus on Canada, the United States, or both, at their option. The result is a set of articles that is simultaneously introspective and comparative. The symposium papers fall within the emerging field of Disability Legal Studies. Disability Legal Studies asks us to think about, and critically evaluate, how law engages with and reflects the lived experiences of persons with disabilities, how the law does and should regulate the lives of persons with disabilities, and how persons with disabilities can induce change in policy and legislation. This introduction provides a brief overview of the articles, which fall into three themes: a) social and economic rights, particularly with respect to movement across borders and the definition of capacity to consent; b) the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) as a legal instrument designed to combat disability discrimination and further the socio-economic empowerment of persons with disabilities; and c) disability advocacy, its human and monetary impacts, and how social change may be effected through procedural design.

The result is without a doubt a provocative, inspiring, and practical contribution to Disability Legal Studies and disability advocacy. The Berkeley Symposium was held on the eve of the twenty-five-year anniversary of the ADA and ten-year anniversary of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act, 2005, two pieces of legislation, one from the United States and one from Canada, that have made strides in attempting to achieve equality for persons with disabilities. The articles in this issue present a unique and modern contribution to the law and disability literature. As a comparative project, this contribution is just the beginning.

Keywords: law and disability, equality, critical disability studies, disability legal studies, Canada, US

JEL Classification: K, D6