Curb Cuts in the Terrain of Conflict : Hegemony and Opportunity in the Americans with Disabilities Act

Crisis creates obstacles, but also opportunities. In the economic restructuring that follows recent global events, we may see significant changes in the organization of workers, workplaces, and work itself -- which makes this a crucial time for advancing and evaluating visions of just work. This paper explores contrasting visions of justice through the lens of the Americans With Disabilities Act, which entitles workers with medically documented disabilities to reasonable accommodation in their workplaces, subject to workers' abilities to perform the essential functions of their positions. I argue that such provisions are exemplary of law's operation as aterrain of conflict between the powerful and powerless, here mingling, on the one hand, a vision of radical reform for both people with disabilities and workers more generally, and on the other, a reiteration of the marginality and subordination of both groups, compounding these at the groups' intersection. I conclude by putting forth an alternative vision of justice, one which draws on the most promising elements of the ADA framework as a model for worker empowerment and workplace diversity broadly understood, while seeking to avoid the shortcomings of that framework through a refiguring of the worker and a reconceptualization of diversity