This table illustrates many of the rights accorded to individuals with disabilities. A long history of state and federal litigation provides precedence through which these rights are sustained. Supporting legislation includes: Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, The Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, Education of the Handicapped Act Amendments of 1986, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
| Right to vote | Unless convicted as a felon or adjudged incompetent |
| Right to marry | Unless adjudged incapable of entering into a marriage contract, or if the marriage gives rise to an incestuous relationship |
| Right to sue | Action may be initiated by guardian if individual is judged to be incompetent |
| Right to contract | May not be enforceable if individual is judged to be incompetent and the contract was enforced without the consent of the person's guardian |
| Right to transportation | Public transportation vehicles and facilities must be accessible to individuals with disabilities. Individuals able to pass knowledge, vision, and driving test are eligible to receive a drivers license regardless of disability. |
| Right to access | Buildings constructed or financed with federal funds after August 12, 1968 must be accessible to individuals with disabilities. |
| Right to confidentiality | Individuals with disabilities and their families must be aware of and agree to the distribution of personnel records. They must also have access to records. |
| Right to protection from discrimination in employment | Companies employing over 15 workers (after 1992) may not discriminate in recruitment, hiring, promotion, authorizing transfers, awarding tenure, reinstating following layoff, establishing salary or other compensation, establishing job assignment, classification, and description, determining seniority, awarding leaves of absence and sick leave, providing fringe benefits including training and support for training, providing access to employment sponsored social and recreational activities, or any other privilege and condition of employment. |
| Right to freedom from discrimination in housing practices | Individuals selling or renting housing are prohibited from discriminating in advertising, accommodating, or providing housing to individuals with disabilities. This provision also ensures the rights of agencies to form group homes in neighborhoods. Zoning, deed restrictions, covenants, and other land use regulations must conform to the rights of individuals with disabilities. Also, multifamily dwellings (four or more units) first occupied after March, 1991 must provide accessible common areas. |
| Right not to be involuntarily confined to an institution | Admission to mental health and developmental centers must be voluntary unless minimum legal standards are met. The first standard is evidence of informed consent for individuals judged capable of making the decision. When judged not capable, a judicial review of the appropriateness of placement must occur. The second standard involves a determination that the individual is not able to care for his or her self in a less restrictive community setting even with the help of others. The third standard is that the individual is judged not to be dangerous to self or others without protections provided through residential care. |
| Right to reasonable and safe confinement when institutionalized | This standard includes freedom from unreasonable body restraint, seclusion, and aversive behavior modification practices. Also, the assurance that basic health care needs are provided. Clothing, food, and personal care needs are addressed. Finally, sanitary living conditions are provided. |
| Right to refuse treatment while in residential care | Unless the individual is judged to be dangerous without the provision of an effective treatment, the individual has the right to refuse prescribed medicine or services. |
| Right to refuse participation in non-therapeutic labor in residential settings | Persons served in residential placement can not be required to engage in labor for the economic benefit of the facility or state. |
| Right to be treated with dignity | Individuals served in mental health and developmental centers or other educational and rehabilitation settings may not be neglected, verbally harassed, or physically abused. In many states abuse is a criminal offense. |
| Right to privacy | Residents of mental health and developmental centers and participants of educational or rehabilitation programs may have free access to records. They may also protect those records from being viewed by unauthorized individuals. |
| Right to visitation while in residential care | Individuals with disabilities have the right to private visits from family members, physician, attorney, clergy member, or advocate. |
| Right to refuse participation in experimental research | Residents of mental health and developmental centers, educational or rehabilitation settings must provide informed consent prior to being included in experimental studies. |
| Right to due process when suspicion of rights violations occur | Residents of mental health and developmental centers must receive an impartial investigation and review whenever violations of rights are claimed by the individual or suggested by others. Due process provisions must also ensure that family members can challenge educational placement and service decisions. |
| Right to maintain reasonable personal possessions | Residents of mental health and developmental centers must be allowed to possess and wear their own clothes, keep and spend reasonable sums of their own money, utilize personal possessions, and access newspapers, magazines, radios, or televisions. |
| Right to qualified service providers | Paraprofessional and professional staff members must be qualified to provide services required by individuals in mental health and developmental centers, as well as educational and rehabilitation programs. Sufficient numbers of staff must be available to effectively provide required services. |
| Right to least restrictive placement | The degree of segregation and restriction within a mental health facility, developmental disabilities center, educational program, and rehabilitation program must be no greater than warranted by the personal needs of the individual. |
Excerpt from Families of Students With Disabilities: Consultation and Advocacy, by S.K. Alper, P.J. Schloss, C.N. Schloss, 1994 edition, p. 30-31.
© ______ 1994, Merrill, an imprint of Pearson Education Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The reproduction, duplication, or distribution of this material by any means including but not limited to email and blogs is strictly prohibited without the explicit permission of the publisher.
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