Dedicated to Scott LaBarre, whom I had the pleasure of speaking to regarding his disability rights work before he passed away on 12/10/2022. Scott granted me this interview for my Human Rights course in September 2022. Scott did so many amazing things for the blind community and will be greatly missed. I publish this essay in his honor.
Scott Charles LaBarre
July 2nd, 1968 – December 10th, 2022 (age 54)
Human rights ensure the rights and freedoms of all humankind, often through legal action, passing legislation, and social movements. Within the human rights arena, some advocates specialize in specific populations, such as women's rights or disability rights. This essay focuses on an interview with a prominent disability rights attorney, Scott LaBarre, who uses laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) to win cases and advance the blind social movement. He was also instrumental in drafting national and international legislation for copyright exemptions for the blind. Scott LaBarre is blind himself and discovered his passion for law right out of high school when he received a scholarship from the National Federation of the Blind (NFB). LaBarre attended an NFB convention and met blind lawyers, who inspired him. As an undergraduate, he attended St. John's University in Minnesota and later earned his law degree from the University of Minnesota. Currently, he lives in Colorado with his wife and two children (LaBarre, 2022). What follows is a summary of the interview, what I learned about the blind social movement and my analysis of how LaBarre's work relates to social movement theory.
After college, Scott LaBarre worked in large law firms for a few years. However, he decided he did not like the corporate lifestyle and set up his own law firm in Colorado in 1998. In addition to managing LaBarre Law, Scott LaBarre also serves as the general counsel for the National Federation of the Blind (NFB). Blind persons can turn to the NFB for legal advice. However, NFB only takes a small number of client cases that align with the organization's goals. LaBarre decides which cases the organization will support. By far, the most crucial work in Scott LaBarre's career was the writing of national and international copyright law. He first worked on the Marrakesh Treaty, which the United States and many other countries ratified. Signed in Marrakesh, Morocco, in 2013, this international copyright treaty eliminates the need to ask publishers or authors for permission to adapt materials, thereby making it possible for blind students to receive adapted accessible books across international borders. LaBarre also added a section to the Chafee Amendment, the equivalent copyright law in the United States, stating that the copyright exemption for blind students allowed for the international exchange of books and materials. When Scott LaBarre was growing up, he said that he used to listen to books on vinyl records, and asking the publisher for the audio recording would take a very long time, which caused him to fall behind in class. The passage of the Marrakesh Treaty cut out the "middle man" entirely, eliminating long wait times for students to receive copyright permissions and allowing them to keep up in class.
Pictured above, the United States ratified the Marrakesh Treaty in 2019
When I asked LaBarre which cases were the most meaningful in his career, he recounted two stories. The first case involved the American Bar Association because they did not offer an accessible version of the Bar exam for blind law school applicants. "Accessible version" means an exam that could be accessed through screen reading software such as JAWS. LaBarre teamed up with the NFB to litigate the case in the 9th circuit court of appeals. Today, the Bar exam is available in an accessible format in some states. It will hopefully be accessible in more states in the future (Danielsen, 2020). The second court case he shared involved a blind student who was not awarded his Doctorate of Chiropractor degree because his university claimed he could not view X-rays independently, despite the student's ability to read and interpret radiology reports. The case went to the Supreme Court of Iowa, and LaBarre won. As a result, the student was awarded his doctorate. LaBarre felt these cases eliminated barriers for blind individuals and allowed them to achieve their future goals.
Pictured above, Scott LaBarre speaks at the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) National Convention in 2020 about the meaning of the NFB tagline "Live the Life You Want."
LaBarre believes his work with the NFB is a part of a larger social movement for disability rights. Fifty thousand members are in the NFB, comprised of blind and sighted persons. Every year, the NFB National Convention hosts over 2,500 of these members, the largest gathering of blind people in the world ("What is the National Federation of the Blind," 1985). LaBarre believes in collective action because achieving social change requires many people rather than just one. Collective action theory applies to the blind social movement, but so do emotions and the bad news model of the political process theory (Almeida, 2019). Blind students and allies of the movement, such as parents and teachers, are often motivated to act out of emotions like fear or anger by blind students' lack of access or opportunities in a sighted world. These emotions lead persons to organize or advocate for fairer conditions and equal opportunities.
Pictured above is an image of Justice, a blindfolded woman holding the scales, in front of the Supreme Court building.
In the bad news model, a negative event sparks a social movement. For example, a crucial disability rights law that protects disabled people against discrimination is the Section 504 Rehabilitation Act, which was signed into law in 1973. Congress, however, was not enforcing the law. By 1977, Congress wanted to pass watered-down regulations of Section 504. This single event ignited disability rights activists to stage a twenty-five-day sit-in at the San Francisco Health Education and Welfare Federal Building. This eventually led to Section 504 retaining its strong language and protections for people with disabilities (Cone, 2022).
Pictured above, blind advocates in the 2014 Washington D.C.Seminar (Scott LaBarre not pictured)
Similarly, NFB members go to Washington, DC, for a week every year to talk to senators and Congress members. Scott LaBarre is involved in writing the proposed legislative language and deciding which bills blind consumers will bring up to their congressional leaders. The Section 504 sit-ins and the NFB's Washington Seminar are examples of resource mobilization because they involve people organizing to achieve a common goal. Persons like Scott LaBarre have successfully advanced the disability rights movement through collective action, resource mobilization, emotions, and the bad news model. LaBarre is proud that he is able to make change— one court case at a time or one piece of legislation at a time, and that progress is being made, albeit slowly.
LaBarre sees the next level of advocacy for the blind community as equal access to technology. The majority of his future cases involve blind persons being able to access phones, medical devices, and websites. Currently, some courts agree that websites should be accessible, while others disagree with what access means. Even though Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WGAG) exist for websites, these standards are not part of the Americans with Disabilities Act, so LaBarre wants to help strengthen the ADA to ensure accessible websites. He would also like to see advances in special education law, so blind students do not constantly struggle to access the classroom.
Overall, the interview was fascinating. I learned a lot about access to books provided through copyright legislation and treaties, which was something I previously took for granted, but that was hard fought. The debate surrounding website accessibility was also personally interesting since I am a Web Design major at UConn. Although disability rights are not well understood by the general public, LaBarre and the NFB fight one case at a time and help blind people to advocate collectively to "live the life they want."
By Jillian Milton
Written on 10/15/22
References
Almeida, P. (2019) 3. Theories of Social Movement Mobilization. Social Movements: The Structure of Collective Mobilization, Berkeley: University of California Press, pp. 44-62. [MOU1] Retrieved October 7, 2022, from https://doi.org/10.1525/9780520964846-005
Cone, K. (2022, March 23). Short history of the 504 sit in. Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund. Retrieved October 7, 2022, from https://dredf.org/504-sit-in-20th-anniversary/short-history-of-the-504-sit-in/
Danielsen, C. (2020, October 19). Blind bar applicants in NY and DC can take bar exam remotely. Blind Bar Applicants in NY and DC Can Take Bar Exam Remotely | National Federation of the Blind. Retrieved October 7, 2022, from https://nfb.org/about-us/press-room/blind-bar-applicants-ny-and-dc-can-take-bar-exam-remotely
LaBarre, S. (n.d.). Labarre Law Offices. LaBarre Law Offices. Retrieved October 7, 2022, from https://www.labarrelaw.com/
National Federation of the Blind. (1985, June). What is the National Federation of the Blind. What is the NFB. Retrieved October 7, 2022, from https://nfb.org/sites/default/files/images/nfb/publications/fr/fr04/issue2/f040204.html
[MOU1]You can just cite the whole book.