The mission of the Disability Rights Project is to support legal work that empowers and strengthens the rights of individuals with disabilities. By engaging our students through legal research and writing, as well as educational outreach work, DRP hopes to provide them with diverse opportunities to learn about the different areas of disability rights law and its intersectionality with other important issues, ranging from mental health advocacy to housing justice.
Students will work with supervising attorneys from Disability Rights California (DRC), The ACLU Disability Rights Program, or Bay Area Legal Aid (BayLegal).
ACLU National Disability Rights Program: Students will spend 10-15 hours engaging in direct client legal services that support the autonomy and civil rights of people with disabilities. The project will focus on helping disabled individuals and their families utilize Supported Decision-Making (SDM) models as an alternative to unnecessary conservatorships and guardianships. SDM is a framework that allows individuals with disabilities to make their own decisions while receiving support, guidance, and assistance from trusted people in their lives, rather than having decision-making authority transferred to someone else. Students will focus on helping clients understand and create their own SDM agreements. The work aims to help preserve self-determination, dignity, and independence for disabled people and offers a meaningful opportunity to gain direct legal experience supporting the disability community.
Bay Area Legal Aid: Students working with BayLegal will have the opportunity to work with the Supplemental Security Income/Disability Benefits Team, conducting legal research and potentially performing direct client services surrounding consultative examinations and disability benefits applications. Possible tasks include reviewing medical records, researching Social Security and medical regulations, reviewing legal precedent, accompanying clients to consultative exams, and drafting complaints or declarations.
Disability Rights California: Students working with DRC’s Mental Health Practice Group will contribute to the development of a self-advocacy toolkit for incarcerated individuals subjected to solitary confinement in California county jails. Over the course of the year, students can expect to spend approximately 8–10 hours per semester on activities such as reviewing background materials, conducting legal research, identifying and evaluating existing resources, spotting gaps in currently available materials, and adapting content into plain language. These resources are intended not only for incarcerated individuals but may also be useful for their families and other impacted communities. Students will also assist with drafting and refining toolkit content and participate in substantive trainings focused on disability law and its intersection with mental health. We are also committed to ensuring that people with disabilities are no longer segregated into, and overrepresented in, civil and criminal institutions such as nursing homes, psychiatric hospitals, jails, and prisons.
All students will have the opportunity to discuss their projects and learn from one another across different projects.
Supervision: Students will work with supervising attorneys from the ACLU Disability Rights Program, Bay Area Legal Aid, and Disability Rights California.
Time Commitment: About 10-15 hours per semester
ACLU: 15 hours per semester with bi-weekly lunch meetings
DRC: 10-15 hours per semester with bi-weekly lunch meetings
BayLegal: 15 hours per semester with bi-weekly lunch meetings
For more information, please contact drp@berkeley.edu.