Abstract
People encounter disability in public spaces where accommodations are granted to those who fit into this protected legal class. Nondisabled people desire many of these accommodations—such as the use of reserved parking spots or the ability to avoid waiting in a queue—and perceive them as “special rights” prone to abuse. This apprehension about the exploitation of rights by those pretending to be disabled, which I refer to as “fear of the disability con,” erodes trust in disability law and affects people with disabilities both on an individual level and a group level. Individuals with disabilities are often harassed or questioned about their identity when using their rights. As a group, disabled people are forced to navigate new defensive policies that seek to address widely held perceptions of fakery and abuse. This Article uses a series of survey experiments conducted with multiple nationally representative samples totaling more than 3200 Americans along with forty-seven qualitative in-depth interviews. It brings to light the psychological mechanism of suspicion and identifies factors that motivate fear of the disability con in public spaces. Findings counterintuitively suggest that the scarcity of the desired public resources has no effect on the level of suspicion against potential abusers. Rather, it is the sense of deservingness (or lack thereof) in the eyes of others that drives suspicion. Using these empirical findings, as well as analysis of relevant case law, this Article outlines the normative implications for the design and implementation of laws affecting millions of individuals. Furthermore, this research contributes to our understanding of how rights behave on the ground, both with regard to disability and to myriad distributive policies.
Share with your community
About the Author
Doron Dorfman is a widely cited scholar of torts, health law, disability law, employment law, and family law. In addition to his tenured appointment at Seton Hall Law, Dorfman is also an Affiliate at the Center for Bioethics at Harvard Medical School. His work has won multiple writing awards, was cited by federal courts and the Israeli Supreme Court, and was featured in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, and USA Today. Professor Dorfman’s research was published or is forthcoming in leading law reviews such as the Michigan Law Review, Cornell Law Review, and University of Pennsylvania Law Review. He also published in top peer-reviewed journals including the New England Journal of Medicine, Law & Society Review, Law & Social Inquiry, and the Journal of Health Politics, Policy & Law. Professor Dorfman earned a B.A. in communication (2009), an LL.B. (J.D. equivalent, 2009) and an LL.M. (2010), all from the University of Haifa. He later earned a J.S.M. (2014) and J.S.D. (2019) from Stanford Law School. Before arriving at Stanford, he was a litigator in private practice in Israel and was actively involved in NGOs such as Kav La’Oved-Worker’s Hotline, where he gave legal advice to disadvantaged workers and asylum seekers.
Leave a Reply