Diabetes Discrimination Success Stories

Legal victories by people with diabetes in employment discrimination cases.

Note: In the past, people with diabetes faced an especially difficult legal challenge due to the courts' overly restrictive view of whether a worker with diabetes was covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. As a result of the Amercians with Disabilities Act Amendments Act (ADAAA) and its new, broader interpretation of disability, workers who face discrimination on or after January 1, 2009 will be better able to show that they meet the definition of disability. Several of the cases highlighted below involved arguments that the worker's diabetes did not constitute a disability. Learn more about the ADAAA.

Jeff Kapche v. City of San Antonio (PDF)
April 2003 Diabetes Forecast article about Jeff Kapche’s fight to become a police officer with type 1 diabetes.

Jeremy Wright, U.S. Coast Guard (PDF)
October 2003 Diabetes Forecast article about Jeremy Wright’s fight to stay in the Coast Guard after he was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes

Ronnie Collins/U.S. Department of Justice v. Mississippi Department of Public Safety (PDF)
October 2004 Diabetes Forecast article about settlement of a lawsuit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice against the Mississippi Department of Public Safety for their treatment of a state police cadet with diabetes.

Gary Branham v. Internal Revenue Service (PDF)
June 2006 Diabetes Forecast article about Gary Branham’s fight to become a Special Agent for the IRS.

Rudy Rodriguez v. ConAgra Grocery Products (PDF)
March 2006 Diabetes Forecast article about Rudy Rodriguez’s fight to be hired for a position at a manufacturing plant because of the results of a urine glucose test.

Gilberto Wise v. United States Marshal Service (PDF)
September 2006 Diabetes Forecast article about Gilberto Wise’s fight to become a Court Security Officer for the United States Marshal Service.

Milt Klise & John Steigauf, United Parcel Service (PDF)
March 2007 Diabetes Forecast article about Milt Klise and John Steigauf and their fight to regain their jobs as mechanics for UPS

"Diabetics in the Workplace Confront a Tangle of Laws" N.R. Kleinfield, New York Times 
December 2006 front page article in the New York Times about diabetes discrimination