[blindlaw] National Federation of the Blind to Present Third Jacobus tenBroek Disability Law Symposium

Tue Apr 13 20:13:08 UTC 2010

Greetings, please see the below agenda for the NABL meeting and press release about the Syposium.  
Thanks,
Scott C. LaBarre, Esq.
President, National Association of Blind Lawyers
LaBarre Law Offices P.C.
1660 South Albion Street, Ste. 918
Denver, Colorado 80222
303 504-5979 (voice)
303 757-3640 (fax)
slabarre at labarrelaw.com (e-mail)
www.labarrelaw.com (website)

***************
National Association of Blind Lawyers

Spring Seminar, 2010

COMPANION SESSION TO 2010 

TENBROEK LAW SYPOSIUM 

Friday, April 16, 2010

National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute 

200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place 

Baltimore, Maryland 21230 

1:30:                Registration. 

2:00:        Opening: Recent Developments in the Law                              Affecting Blind Americans: 

                Scott C. LaBarre, LaBarre Law Offices; 

                President, National Association of Blind Lawyers;                    Denver, Colorado 

2:30:        Teaching an Old Dog New Tricks: 

                A Practicing Attorney Learns and Uses Braille                         After Losing Sight 

                Randal S. Farber, Partner, Jackson Walker,                            L.L.P., Houston Texas 

3:00:        Practice Tips for Blind and Visually Impaired Trial                    Attorneys: 

                An Interactive Presentation  

·       Patti Chang: Practicing Attorney for the City of Chicago; Board Member, National Association of      Blind Lawyers; Board Member, National Federation of the Blind; Chicago, Illinois

·       Parnell Diggs, Private Practitioner; Board Member, National Association of Blind Lawyers; Board Member, National Federation of the Blind Myrtle Beach, South Carolina 

4:00:        The Latest in Accessible Research Tools for Blind                   and Visually Impaired Attorneys 

                Ronza Othman, Government Specialist, National                     Federation of the Blind; Board Member, National                     Association of Blind Lawyers; Baltimore, Maryland 

4:30:        Addressing Issues Related to Blindness in the                         work Place: Hiring, Supervising and Firing                                Readers and other staff; interacting with                                        Coworkers

·       Millie Ann Rivera-Rau, Attorney Advisor, Agency Oversight Division Office of Federal Operations Equal Employment Opportunity; Commission; Board Member, National Association of Blind Lawyers; Baltimore, Maryland

·       Ray Wayne, Supervising Attorney, New York City Commission on Human Rights; Secretary, National Association of Blind Lawyers; New York, New York. 

5:00:        Adjourn

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:

Chris Danielsen

Director of Public Relations

National Federation of the Blind

(410) 659-9314, extension 2330

(410) 262-1281 (Cell)

cdanielsen at nfb.org

National Federation of the Blind to Present 
Third Jacobus tenBroek Disability Law Symposium
Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Tom Perez and 
Former Congressman Tony Coelho to be Keynote Speakers

Baltimore, Maryland (April 13, 2010): The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) will present the third Jacobus tenBroek Disability Law Symposium on April 15-16, 2010, at the NFB Jernigan Institute in Baltimore.  The symposium, entitled "Equality, Difference, and The Right to Live in the World" and named for NFB founder and pioneering legal scholar Dr. Jacobus tenBroek (1911-1968), will gather public officials, legal scholars, and disability rights advocates for a two-day seminar on the state of disability law in the United States and the world, and will discuss how disability rights may be advanced in the future.  Tom Perez, assistant attorney general for the civil rights division of the U.S. Department of Justice, and Tony Coelho, former California congressman and current chairman of the board of the American Association of People with Disabilities, will be the keynote speakers.
"Our first two Jacobus tenBroek symposiums were extraordinary events, and we are looking forward to once again hosting leading players and thinkers in the disability community," said Dr. Marc Maurer, an attorney and President of the National Federation of the Blind.   "Disability law is rapidly changing at the national and international level, and this forum will provide an opportunity for everyone to assess developments and plan strategies in this dynamic and critically-important field."

Other presenters at the 2010 symposium include the Honorable Richard Brown, chief judge of the Wisconsin Court of Appeals; Mark Weber, Vincent DePaul Professor of Law at DePaul University College of Law; and Dan Brock, director of the division of medical ethics at Harvard Medical School.

Dr. Jacobus tenBroek was a constitutional law scholar, a blind professor at Berkeley, and an author of treatises on the Fourteenth Amendment and social welfare.  Dr. tenBroek created the concept that civil rights should apply to disabled Americans, and he published extensively on the application of the law to those with disabilities.  His efforts to advance civil rights for the blind and others with disabilities included drafting the model White Cane Law, which has had a profound influence on the development of civil rights laws for the disabled throughout the United States, and publishing authoritative articles like "The Right to Live in the World: The Disabled in the Law of Torts."

The proceedings of the symposium will be published in the Texas Journal on Civil Liberties and Civil Rights.

For more information about the National Federation of the Blind, please visit www.nfb.org.  

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About the National Federation of the Blind

With more than 50,000 members, the National Federation of the Blind is the largest and most influential membership organization of blind people in the United States.  The NFB improves blind people's lives through advocacy, education, research, technology, and programs encouraging independence and self-confidence.  It is the leading force in the blindness field today and the voice of the nation's blind.  In January 2004 the NFB opened the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan Institute, the first research and training center in the United States for the blind led by the blind.