Thread by @StarFeuri

The ADA turned 31 (#ADA31) so I'm going to tell you about the ADA case that Universities absolutely would lose if anybody had the resources to bring it to trial.

Spoiler: no one does 🧵

Universities' COVID-19 response confirmed two things:
1. Universities can offer remote instruction as an accommodation for both students and faculty

2. Universities affirm that the quality (and cost) of remote, hybrid, or otherwise digitally mediated instruction is equal to fully in-person face-to-face instruction.

Despite these previous positions, Universities are now demanding a return to face-to-face instruction, despite the ongoing pandemic, including risk of breakthrough infection for vaccinated adults, and a completely unvaccinated child (0-11) population.

Returning to campus as the primary mode of instructional delivery is one thing, rescinding and refusing disability accommodations for continued access to remote and hybrid instruction is another.

Disabled faculty are by no means safe in the classroom this upcoming fall. Some immunocompromised folks are unable to be vaccinated, or unsure of the efficacy of their vaccinations. Some are so high risk that any chance of infection is a death sentence.

There are many other reasons why a disabled person, faculty or student, would feel unsafe in a University classroom this August. Even with mandatory vaccination, masking, and distancing (which no Universities are ensuring)...

The highly infectious Delta variant remains a threat to disabled people and their families under even the best practices of public safety.

Disabled faculty and students are requesting accommodations to remain off campus or to limit in-person exposure through continued access to remote or hybrid delivery of instruction. Many Universities are denying these requests.

What does it take for an institution to be able to legally deny a disability accommodation? They need to prove that it would be an "unreasonable burden" and interfere with the employee's "essential functions of the position".

Remote and hybrid instruction is neither an unreasonable burden (as proved by Spring 2020, Fall 2020, and Spring 2021), nor does it interfere with the essential functions of "the position" -- instructing.

If Universities wanted to claim that remote instruction was ineffective or insufficient, they would have to admit that online programs are an inferior product...

... and that the quality of instruction during the height of the COVID crisis was an inferior experience DUE TO THE METHOD OF DELIVERY (and not say... global trauma).

Universities are more than capable of maintaining remote instruction accommodations for disabled faculty and students to protect their mortal and psycho-emotional well-being.

It is fully possible, at even some of the least resourced institutions, to have a virtually present instructor in a class of on-site students. Any lecture hall with a projector and a locally available IT staff can accomplish this.

Universities only reason to deny these requests is that such provisions conflict with the /optics/ of returning to "classic" campus experiences, which is a core thread of their /marketing/ but not of their actual function - education.

But this is the ADA we're talking about. So it doesn't matter that Universities have no legal ground to deny remote instruction accommodations requests. There is no enforcement without litigation. Litigation takes years.

So right now, hundreds if not thousands of contingent disabled faculty are well and truly boned.

Happy ADAversary Everyone 🎉🥳🎉

Important followup from @CosmoFaenyx

https://twitter.com/CosmoFaenyx/status/1420487697462878208?s=19

More follow up from @ValleyGirlLift

https://twitter.com/ValleyGirlLift/status/1420504497533636609?s=19

*should. Universities /should/ lose this case. But, as a documentary on Olmstead would show, the conditions of bringing the /perfect/ suit are so tight. And we still don't even have enforcement of Olmstead.

Like the lawyers that worked with Lois Curtis and Elaine Wilson on Olmstead /literally/ describe LOOKING for the /perfect plaintiff/ to make this suit.

Somewhere out there is the perfect plaintiff for remote instruction accommodations. But it probably isn't you.

More follow up to cover my ass that I left hanging out by using my emo leo voice instead of my professional fawn voice:

https://twitter.com/StarFeuri/status/1420562147717881857?s=19

And the thread I saw coming hours away when I made a tweet about law as Not a Lawyer

https://twitter.com/KatAMacfarlane/status/1420548936125800448?s=19