Empirical Disability Legal Studies

Abstract

Disability studies is an interdisciplinary field investigating the nature of disability as a social and cultural phenomenon. Since the mid-2000s, legal scholars have been employing a disability studies lens to explore legal doctrine and the treatment of people with disabilities under the law. This article identifies a nascent scholarly movement I call empirical disability legal studies: utilizing both a disability studies lens and empirical methods associated with the social sciences to study disability law. Legal scholars have used empirical methods, involving an analysis of quantitative or qualitative data, to explore three main themes: the experiences of disabled individuals within the formal legal system, the negotiations of disability rights in everyday life outside of formal legal institutions, and the construction of disability in legal texts. This article calls for more scholars to do work in the empirical disability legal studies tradition and puts forward new unexplored paths to expand such inquiry into the legal treatment of disability.