On this episode of Disability Rights Today, we welcome Judge LaDoris Hazzard Cordell, the first African American woman to sit on the Superior Court of Northern California.  She also served as Assistant Dean of Student Affairs at Stanford Law School.  Judge Cordell practiced law in East Palo Alto, CA, a low-income, African American, and Mexican American community south of San Francisco. Judge Cordell is the author of a new book, Her Honor: My Life of the Bench…What Works, What’s Broken, and How to Change it.  Of Her Honor, former U.S. Secretary of Labor Robert Reich says, “With candor and insight, Judge LaDoris Cordell puts a human face of the judges who make life-changing decisions on a daily basis. She takes readers inside the courtroom, presenting stories of the people whose lives have been altered, for better or worse, by our laws and the professionals who enact them.”

Join us for this episode, as Judge Cordell shares with Dr. Peter Blanck, JD, PhD, University Professor and Chairman of the Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University, her unique perspective on how our legal system works and the prejudice that pervades it. Continue Reading

Peter Blanck, BBI Chairman & University Professor at Syracuse University will  moderate a panel discussion at the Digital Accessibility Legal Summit 2021, October 7-8, 2021. The panel is titled: “Discovery: Understanding Impacts of Ableism, and Increasing Diversity in Digital Development Environments.” Dr. Blanck will lead discussion about the development environment and processes for websites and other digital content, as part of the groundwork for discovery in website accessibility litigation. Questions to be addressed include: “Why does development fail to properly address accessibility?” The panel will explore concepts such as ableism in corporate culture, as well as designer psychology, motivation, and education/training. Where shortcomings are found, the panel will discuss methods for building a more inclusive development environment. Continue Reading