Professor Laverne Jacobs has built a career dedicated to human rights and equality. Since 2007, she has taught at the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada. She now also serves as the Associate Dean of Research & Graduate Studies and is the founding director of the Law, Disability & Social Change Project at Windsor Law. Dr. Jacobs' teaching and research center around disability, human rights and administrative law. Much of her work focuses on how people with disabilities interact with the administrative justice system and explores issues of equality and access to justice within those interactions.
In 2014, Dr. Jacobs was named the Fulbright Visiting Research Chair in Canadian Studies here at UC Berkeley and this week she is returning to Cal (virtually) to give a guest lecture on disability equality and COVID-19 at Berkeley Law. The Canadian Studies Program asked Hildebrand Scholar Tyler Nodine to catch up with Dr. Jacobs to hear about her current work, how her research developed during her time at Cal, and her thoughts on addressing issues arising at the intersection of disability rights, equality, and the current COVID-19 pandemic.
During your time as the Fulbright Visiting Research Chair in Canadian Studies at Berkeley, you were beginning a multi-year research study on disability rights and administrative law regulation. What were the key questions you addressed in that study and how did the research develop while at Cal and after? What were the main findings or takeaways that came from that work?
Yes, my research explored how people with disabilities and organizations dedicated to disability issues have consulted with government in order to make their voices heard in the development of laws that affect them. My project was prompted by the development in Canada of accessibility legislation-a new collaborative regulatory approach to addressing disability discrimination through the enactment of standards that began in Ontario in 2005 and that is now being picked up by provincial lawmakers across the country.
During my time as the Fulbright Visiting Research Chair, I was interested in how people with disabilities participate in formal and informal consultation processes associated with developing laws that regulate their ability to participate in the community, as this was a central aspect of Canada’s new regulatory approach. I learned a considerable amount about how this issue plays out in the ground in California by speaking with people involved with the advancement of disability rights in California and engaging in their activities.
I was specifically interested in Berkeley – both the university and the city –as the location to complete a portion this research study because of its well-known, active community of disability rights scholars, lawyers and activists. As a person with a disability myself and someone who identifies as a member of the disability community, I was also excited to be in Berkeley. Moreover, I loved the idea of being affiliated with Canadian Studies at Cal because I wanted to maintain a connection with scholars and others who had an interest in what was taking place in Canada. Although my work had a comparative aspect, it was largely about the Canadian phenomenon.
One of the principal findings of my research is that careful attention needs to be paid to the processes used to bring people with disabilities into consultation. The dynamics of these processes have much to teach us a scholars and lawmakers about the ways that processes can and should be designed and the impact that they have on people with disabilities. My book, Disability, the Right of Access and the Law: From Litigation to Citizen Participation, which is based, in part, on my research while at Cal is forthcoming from Routledge in 2023.
How did your experiences with Canadian Studies at UC Berkeley impact your work going forward?
It definitely spoiled me! I remember having an afternoon coffee regularly on the sunny rooftop of the Berkeley Law building, although I know that with the current climate, this must be missed by many. But more to the point, I very much enjoyed the conversations that I had with faculty and with the many visiting scholars that were always at Cal whether they were people from Law, Canadian Studies or the Disability Studies Research Cluster. I learned a lot from those exchanges and value them. I was fortunate to have been welcomed at Berkeley Law’s Center for the Study of Law and Society as one of its Visiting Scholars that year as well which provided even greater opportunities for networking.
I also became much more comfortable acknowledging the time that is needed for good scholarship to develop and I appreciated much more the depths and nuances of slow scholarship. I am more forgiving of myself in taking the time that it requires to complete research that I feel is thorough and otherwise to my satisfaction.
One of my most memorable moments came from organizing a conference at Berkeley Law, which was generously supported by Canadian Studies, called Exploring Law, Disability and the Challenge of Equality in Canada and the United States. This was a wonderful opportunity to bring together colleagues from both Canada and the US with shared interests in disability and equality law. Participants and attendees came to the conference from all over Canada and the United States to discuss disability and equality law theory and practice. The 2014 Berkeley Symposium, which was held around the time of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, led to a few very notable collaborative projects, some of which continue on to today. First, we published a special collection of papers stemming from the conference in the Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice in 2015, which was the 25-year anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act and the 10-year anniversary of the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. Second, the Berkeley Symposium also led to a research project, in which I am involved, that is examining the experiences of adults with disabilities seeking to remove themselves from guardianship. Finally, a number of us from the Berkeley Symposium are now also writing the first-ever textbook in Canada on law and disability: L. Jacobs et al., Law and Disability in Canada: Cases & Materials (Lexis-Nexis, forthcoming, 2021).
What kinds of courses do you enjoy teaching, and why?
I truly enjoy teaching all of my courses but I particularly love to teach administrative law, law and disability, and research methods. The administrative justice system refers to governmental decision-makers and tribunals that make determinations regarding some of the most vital issues affecting people across their life course (such as the allocation of workers’ compensation benefits, social assistance, and decisions regarding discrimination). Many of the system’s users are from marginalized and vulnerable communities. Administrative law examines the law relating to the administrative justice system. It is an area of law that has a tremendous impact on people’s everyday lives, yet it can often be taught in a way that makes it appear to be a dry, technical area. I love to present and discuss administrative law’s topics in a way that shows its relevance to marginalized and vulnerable populations and that illustrates the dynamics that are constantly at play, whether you are litigant or an adjudicator.
I also love to teach my course in law and disability, because it presents an opportunity for students to think about the structural inequalities that exist in our law, jurisprudence, policies and practices and the possibilities and limitations of addressing them through legal and political action.
Finally, research methods is a course that I teach to our graduate students. I always enjoy teaching the course because the students and I discuss important and often overlooked questions about the nature of contemporary academic scholarship, and, in terms of epistemology, the ways that new knowledge may be known.
Has the current COVID-19 pandemic influenced the focus or direction of your work and research? In your eyes, what are the most important issues arising at the intersection of disability rights, equality, and the current COVID pandemic. What can we do to address these?
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant influence on my current research and teaching. I believe that in times of social uncertainty, scholars have a heightened obligation to serve the public by using their research and expertise to ensure that social issues are addressed in a way that brings in the considerations of everyone in society. COVID-19 has had a disproportionate impact on many vulnerable and marginalized populations, including people with disabilities. Sometimes the issues faced by marginalized groups are disregarded or even misunderstood and I think that as a scholar and a law professor, I have a responsibility to contribute to public debates by helping to clarify the issues and provide knowledge where I can.
When it comes to people with disabilities, equality rights and the COVID-19 pandemic, two of the most important issues are access to appropriate healthcare and income insecurity. In a number of jurisdictions in North America and around the world, hospital and other healthcare policies have placed people with disabilities quite low on the list of who will receive care if triage is required because of a shortage of staff or supplies. People with disabilities are generally subject to the stigmatizing idea that the quality of their lives makes their lives not worth living. This stigma has been systemically embedded in triage protocols during the COVID-19 crisis. However, questions about who should live or die are much broader than utilitarian calculations; they should be subject to a human rights analysis. From a human rights approach, people with disabilities should have access to healthcare in a manner that is equal to everyone else. Human rights approaches can be found internationally in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) for countries that have signed on to the CRPD. They are also found in domestic laws such as the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms which guarantees equality to people with disabilities.
Income insecurity is another major issue that brings to light the systemic social inequalities that people with disabilities experience daily and which have been exacerbated during COVID-19. If someone is unable to work due to disability, the amount of support that they receive is often not enough to keep them going during the pandemic, where the cost of living has risen significantly.
In terms of what we can do to address these issues, I think that it’s important to join voices with people with disabilities who are expressing concern. I think it’s crucial to be aware of the issues but to be led by the disability community in terms of ways to resolve them. And as scholars, I think it’s important to assist through research, and by facilitating discussions that raise awareness and change.
In that regard, I’d like to take a moment to recognize the terrific work of the Berkeley Center on Comparative Equality and Anti-Discrimination Law, which is hosted by Berkeley Law. The Center is running an innovative multi-university law course called COVID-19 and Global Inequalities, of which I am a part. This course has faculty members and students from over 20 universities from around the world. Together, we are becoming more aware of the issues affecting various marginalized and sometimes multiply marginalized groups in many different jurisdictions and exploring the legal tools that may be able to assist. I will be co-lecturing on this topic on October 29, and I am pleased to invite anyone interested from UC Berkeley Canadian Studies to attend.
Do you have any advice or suggestions for students at UC Berkeley?
Yes. I think that we are currently in a moment that, despite its many challenges, also offers the opportunity for students to focus on finding ways through their studies to support the social issues that are important to them. They have a chance to make a difference. I think that no matter what field of study a student pursues, there are valid ways to bring social justice into the work that they do. I think it’s important for students to keep that in mind during these challenging times.
Select publications
Laverne Jacobs, "The Universality of the Human Condition: Theorizing Transportation Inequality Claims by Persons with Disabilities in Canada 1976-2016" (2018) Canadian Journal of Human Rights, pp. 35-66.
Laverne Jacobs, "‘Humanizing’ Disability Law: Citizen Participation in the Development of Accessibility Regulations in Canada" (2016) Revue internationale des gouvernements ouverts, pp. 93-120.
Laverne Jacobs, "The Accessibility for Manitobans Act: Ambitions and Achievements in Antidiscrimination and Citizen Participation," (2016) Canadian Journal of Disability Studies, Vol 5, No 4, pp. 1-24 (with Britney DeCosta and Victoria Cino).
Laverne Jacobs, The Interplay Between Human Rights and Accessibility Laws: Lessons Learned and Considerations for the Planned Federal Accessibility Legislation (Commissioned Research Report, February 2018).