When is Separate Unequal? A Disability Perspective

The book provides a comprehensive overview of how to attain equality in the area of disability discrimination.

This book does not start from the premise that separate is inherently unequal. Writing from an 'anti-subordination perspective', Professor Colker provides a framework for the courts and society to consider what programs or policies are most likely to lead to substantive equality for individuals with disabilities. In some contexts, she argues for more tolerance of disability-specific programs and, in other contexts, she argues for more disability-integrated programs. Her highly practical investigation includes the topics of K-12 education, higher education, employment, voting, and provision of health care. At the end of the book, she applies this perspective to the racial arena, arguing that school districts should be given latitude to implement more use of racial criteria to attain integrated schools because such environments are most likely to help attain substantive equality from an anti-subordination perspective. The book measures the attainment of equality not on the basis of worn-out mantras but instead on the basis of substantive gains.

1. Introduction; 2. Anti-subordination above all: a disability perspective; 3. The mythic 43 million Americans with disabilities at the workplace; 4. K-12 education; 5. Higher education and testing accommodations; 6. Voting; 7. Reflections on race: the limits of formal equality.

This 2009 book provides a comprehensive overview of how to attain equality in the area of disability discrimination. It argues that the formal equality or color blind model that has dominated the race discrimination arena does not work well in the disability context.

Professor Colker is one of the leading scholars in the country in the areas of constitutional law and disability discrimination. She is the author of eight books, two of which have won book prizes. She has also published more than 50 articles in law journals such as the Harvard Law Review, Yale Law Journal, Columbia Law Journal, Pennsylvania Law Review, University of Virginia Law Review, and University of Michigan Law Review. She has been a frequent guest on National Public Radio to comment on disability and constitutional law topics. Before joining the faculty at Ohio State, Professor Colker taught at Tulane University, the University of Toronto, the University of Pittsburgh, and in the women's studies graduate program at George Washington University. She also spent four years working as a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice, where she received two awards for outstanding performance. Professor Colker was also a recipient of the University's Distinguished Lecturer Award in 2001, the University's Distinguished Diversity Enhancement Award in 2002 and the University Distinguished Scholar Award in 2003. She is a 1978 graduate of Harvard University and a 1981 graduate of Harvard Law School.