Arlene Mayerson

Arlene Mayerson played a pivotal role in drafting of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). In a largely behind-the-scenes capacity, she led a legal team that advised Congress, drafted the legislative language, prepared congressional testimony for others, testified before Congress herself, and prepared educational materials for the national disability community. Her intellectual prowess, vision, and tenacity strengthened the law in untold ways and shaped the debate altogether in certain key areas. Presently, Mayerson leads the Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund’s (DREDF) high impact litigation, which we use as an instrument for law reform. Working collaboratively with co-counsel, Mayerson recently led DREDF’s legal team in representing the plaintiffs in National Association of the Deaf, et al. v. Netflix, Inc. – which alleged Netflix’s “Watch Instantly” on-demand streaming programming discriminated against people who are deaf and hard of hearing because it did not provide closed captioning.