News

Sally Z. Weiss Retires from BBI’s Southeast ADA Center

May 29, 2018

Sally Weiss smiling at the camera wearing a shirt the text disability rights are civil rights
Sally Weiss

Sally Z. Weiss Retires from Syracuse University’s Burton Blatt Institute (BBI) – Southeast ADA Center

Sally Weiss, a pioneer and tireless advocate for the rights of people with disabilities, retired in March 2018 from Syracuse University’s Burton Blatt Institute (BBI).

In an amazing career spanning four decades, Sally’s work began in the classroom in Rockville, MD, continued as an editor with the American Enterprise Institute, and then on to the United Cerebral Palsy where she served in multiple roles including Information/Publications Coordinator, Project Director, and National Projects Coordinator. Continue Reading

Peter Blanck Comments to Financial Times on Disabilities & the Workplace

May 9, 2018
Source: SU College of Law News

Companies grapple with growing legal obligations to disabled people

Peter Blanck
Peter Blanck, BBI Chairman

(Financial Times | May 9, 2018) Unite, the UK union, helped win a legal victory in March that expanded safeguards against discrimination in the workplace established under the 2010 Equality Act to those with “pre-cancer”.

The ruling added to the range of workplace protections for disabled people in the UK. However, a challenge remains in knowing when the law should be applied, particularly in the case of mental health disabilities.

“It can be very difficult to work out whether someone is suffering from a particular impairment,” says Simon Kerr-Davis, a lawyer in the London employment practice at Linklaters. “But once that’s established, most employers are pretty clear as to what their obligations should be.” The scope of employer obligations has expanded in recent decades. In the US, the Americans with Disabilities Act became law in 1990. In the EU, provisions on disabilities were included in the Employment Equality Directive, adopted by member states in 2000. Continue Reading

BBI Co-Sponsors Professor Stephen Kuusisto’s Book Release

April 30, 2018

Have Dog Will TravelBBI is proud to co-sponsor the launch of Stephen Kuusisto’s newest memoir, Have Dog, Will Travel. It is a part of “Disabilities as Ways of Knowing: A Series of Creative Writing Conversations”. Professor Kuusisto will be hosting a reading at 7:30PM in Watson Theater at Syracuse University on Monday, March 19, 2018.

Have Dog, Will Travel is the story of how Professor Kuusisto bonded with his first guide dog, Corky, and is “A celebration of Corky and guide dogs everywhere” according to Library Journal. Continue Reading

Perena Vicente visits BBI to explore research on supported decision-making in Spain

April 12, 2018

Montserrat Pereña-Vicente (front left) with husband Hugo (second left), Dr. Blanck (front right) and BBI staff at welcome luncheon.
Montserrat Pereña-Vicente (front left) with husband Hugo (second left), Dr. Blanck (front right) and BBI staff at welcome luncheon.

In early April, Montserrat Pereña Vicente, Burton Blatt Institute (BBI) Senior International Fellow, will be visiting BBI and attending events in Syracuse, New York, Los Angeles, Boston, and Providence.

Professor Pereña is a professor of law and senior researcher at King Juan Carlos University in Madrid, Spain. She is also the Director of Research Project funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and the European Union entitled “Empowering People With Disabilities”. Her work primarily focuses on promoting legislative measures and the best practices that guarantee the preferences and will of each individual will be taken into account in all circumstances. Continue Reading

Arie Rimmerman Appointed BBI Senior International Fellow

April 10, 2018

Leading International and Israeli Disability Authority, Arie Rimmerman, Appointed BBI Senior International Fellow

Arie-Rimmerman
Arie-Rimmerman

Professor Arie Rimmerman, the Richard Crossman Chair for Social Welfare & Planning and distinguished faculty member in the School of Social Work, Social Welfare and Health Studies at the University of Haifa in Israel, has been appointed a Senior Fellow at the Burton Blatt Institute (BBI) at Syracuse University.

The BBI Senior International Fellows program is for outstanding participants to collaborate with BBI researchers and to foster the interdisciplinary study and application of disability law and policy as it relates to the advancement of the social and economic independence of people with disabilities. Continue Reading

Montserrat Pereña Vicente to participate in Saks Institute Spring Symposium 2018

April 9, 2018

Saks Spring Symposium 2018, Held Against My Will, Mental Illness, Consent and the Law

BBI Senior Fellow Montserrat Pereña Vicente, Professor of Law and Senior Researcher at King Juan Carlos University in Madrid, Spain will participate in the Saks Institute Spring Symposium 2018 “Held Against My Will: Mental Illness, Consent and the Law” presented by the Saks Institute for Mental Heal Law, Policy, and Ethics. The event is being held at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law.

Professor Pereña will take part in a Legal/International Conversation along with Judith Klein, Director of the Open Society Mental Health Initiative and Candice Player, Continue Reading