Volume 2000    Issue 3

Disability and the Law of Welfare: A Post-Integrationist Examination

Mark C. Weber^*

Recent years have seen dramatic changes in the way persons with disabilities are treated by the government. Current programs, however, still fail to adequately meet the needs of such individuals.

In this article, Professor Weber explores the law of welfare relat-ing to persons with disabilities and examines developments in disabil-ity theory. He contrasts discrimination law with welfare law and com-pares three theories of disability equality-custodialism, integrationism, and post-integrationism-critiquing integration the-ory and developing a framework for a new theory. Professor Weber explores existing welfare programs and then concludes by proposing nine reforms, that all take into account post-integrationist insights and share the goal of shifting the costs of disability from persons who are disabled to the population as a whole.

* Professor of Law, DePaul University. B.A. 1975, Columbia; J.D. 1978, Yale.

I would like to express deep gratitude to Mary Becker, Peter David Blanck, Ruth Colker, Jerold Friedland, Stan Herr, Andrea Kaufman, Mary Kate Kearney, Jerry L. Mashaw, Adam Milani, Jane Rutherford, Stephen Siegel, Morrison Torrey, and Bonnie Poitras Tucker for reviewing earlier drafts of this article. Thanks also to Janet Brewer and Victoria Napolitano for their research assistance. All opin-ions expressed in the article are solely the responsibility of the author.