Disability Community Reacts

Belo Cipriani is the award-winning author of Blind: A Memoir and Midday Dreams. He is a disability advocate, and is currently the national spokesman for 100 Percent Wine -- a premium winery that donates 100 percent of proceeds to nonprofits that help people with disabilities find work. 

- Belo Cipriani

On December 4, 2016, 60 Minutes ran a segment on the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). For 13 minutes, Anderson Cooper, the host of the show, interviewed corrupt attorneys whose get rich plots involved visiting businesses with the sole purpose of suing them for not being ADA compliant.

With angry tones, business owners expressed their frustrations to Cooper, as they felt wronged for being targeted. The piece also profiled two disabled individuals who had been hired by unethical lawyers, and tricked into participating in what Cooper refers to as “drive-by lawsuits.”

For several people, the segment may have come across as simply a cautionary tale – especially when you hear Cooper end the piece with the unnerving words, “Most states and the District of Columbia currently award cash damages for plaintiffs who file such lawsuits, and with so many businesses around the country still not in compliance, it may not be long before you start hearing about these kind of lawsuits in a town or city near you.”

However, for a group of disability advocates in the San Francisco Bay Area, Cooper and 60 Minutes didn’t just promote fear and animosity towards the ADA, but also deceived them.