University of Iowa News Release

June 22, 2004

Blanck To Testify Before Congress On Disability Policy

Peter Blanck, Charles M. & Marion Kierscht Professor of Law at the University of Iowa and director of the Iowa Law, Health Policy and Disability Center, will testify before Congress this week on the lives of disabled people in America.

The hearing, "Living with Disabilities in the United States: A Snapshot," will be held June 24 before a subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives' Committee on Governmental Reform. The subcommittee has asked Blanck and several others associated with the National Organization on Disability (NOD) to testify as to his expertise on disability policy in the United States, particularly relating to his experience as director of Iowa's Disability Center.

Blanck said he will testify about "areas of disability policy central to improving the quality of life for persons with disabilities." The topics to be discussed are derived from research at the Iowa disability center and the recent 2004 NOD/Harris Survey of Persons with Disabilities. They include helping disabled people find work, access to assistive technologies and universally designed products, ability to accumulate assets, tax incentives and opportunities for home ownership.

Blanck is lead author of Disability Civil Rights Law and Policy, a recently published authoritative treatise that covers the history, development and details of the Americans with Disabilities Act and other disability law and legislation.

The Iowa Law, Health Policy & Disability Center (http://disability.law.uiowa.edu) is a leader in law, technology, education and research focused on improving the quality of life for people with disabilities. Based at the UI College of Law, with offices in Washington, D.C., Boston and elsewhere, the center concentrates on public policy and its impact on persons with disabilities, with an emphasis on economic independence, employment, technology and self-sufficiency.

Blanck has written more than 100 articles and books on the ADA, received grants to study disability law and policy, represented clients before the United States Supreme Court in ADA cases, and testified before Congress. He was a member of the President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities and has been a Senior Fellow of the Annenberg Washington Program, a fellow at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School, and a Mary Switzer Scholar.

STORY SOURCE: University of Iowa News Service, 300 Plaza Centre One, Iowa City, Iowa 52242-2500.

MEDIA CONTACT: Tom Snee, 319-384-0010, tom-snee@uiowa.edu.