There is a great need for Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Advocates. The ADA of 1990, the Amendments Act of 2008 and now the update in ADA Regulations of 2016 going into effect Oct. 2, 2016 have put the burden upon institutions to accommodate all persons ensuring equal access and protection under the law.
You, as a Certified ADA Advocate, will be trained to assist the one in four persons suffering from an invisible disability while facing the extreme stress of litigation. Whether serving your firm, agency, business, or opening a new income stream as an independent provider, you will be a catalyst witnessing your enforcement of federal mandates affecting the court toward fairness.
ADA advocates are an accommodation that must be near their client as much as possible. They sit at the counsel’s table, watch their client, and ensure that pre-arranged accommodations through court administration are followed. The process is confidential and not to be part of the adversarial process. This act of privacy helps to eliminate stigma. Accommodations are organized administratively just as elevators and wheelchair ramps are provided, never to be challenged. The filing for the ADA accommodations is just one of your responsibilities.
You will be apprised through this experiential course of the new regulations. As an ADA advocate, you will often find you are placed in a teaching role with clerks, court personnel, and coordinators that have not been trained as the law comes to the courts unfunded. Therefore, ADA advocates often serve in a consulting capacity for their organizations and assist the courts.
Given the knowledge of the litigant’s diagnosis, you will make the difference for many people through filing a request for individualized ADA accommodations. For example, Galvan, an autistic man, falsely accused of child abuse, and who just automatically agrees with prosecutors, now has an advocate who interprets the questions to him. Or, Carolyn, who suffers PTSD from domestic violence, used to be questioned by her abuser in court until an advocate obtained accommodations for her. She now appears in a sequestered room and questions from her abuser must be written for her to answer in her own time, not under intimidation, threat, and coercive control. Accommodations are reasonable, simple, and usually cost the court nothing.
Certified ADA Advocates represent litigants with non-apparent disabilities in the justice system and prove to be a real legal game changer toward justice. I can’t wait to have you join us and hope to see you on October 17. Any questions in the meantime, email me at khuffer@jjay.cuny.edu .
Warm regards,
Dr. Karin Huffer
Executive Director of Equal Access Advocates
Office: 719-426-9711
Fax: 719-426-9712
