By Michael Phillips
Originally published in The Daily Record, October 24, 2025
An Unseen Crisis in Maryland Courtrooms
When Congress passed the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in 1990, it promised equal access to public life — including the courtroom.
Thirty-five years later, that promise is breaking down in Maryland courtrooms, including in Montgomery County, where judges increasingly act as de facto doctors — deciding who “is” and “isn’t” disabled.
For residents with ADHD, PTSD, traumatic brain injuries, or other invisible conditions, this quiet crisis has devastating results. Across the country, judges are misinterpreting or outright denying ADA accommodation requests without medical review, in violation of federal law.
When Judges Become Diagnosticians
The ADA makes one thing clear: determining disability is a medical decision, not a judicial one.
Yet in Maryland, nearly 70% of ADA accommodation requests in family court are denied — often informally, and often without any medical input. Nationally, more than half of requests involving cognitive or psychological disabilities are rejected without a hearing.
Invisible disabilities are especially prone to dismissal because they don’t “look” disabling.
Judges are making medical calls from the bench, ignoring expert evaluations, and treating mental and neurological conditions as character flaws.
The Human Cost of Misjudgment
These decisions carry life-altering consequences.
Parents with PTSD lose custody because their coping mechanisms are misunderstood.
People with ADHD are labeled “incoherent” when they simply need time to process testimony.
Phillips describes his own experience:
“My diagnoses were confirmed by professionals, yet a judge ruled I had ‘no disability’ — without experts, cross-examination, or evidence. It wasn’t a hearing. It was an assumption.”
Statewide, over 66% of ADA-related complaints in Maryland courts are dismissed without written explanation. Without a record, there’s nothing to appeal — a legal trap that quietly strips thousands of their right to due process.
The ‘Coordinator’ Illusion
Every Maryland county claims to have an ADA coordinator, but few have real authority.
Requests are funneled back to the same judges who denied them. The result: a self-policing system designed to fail.
“My request bounced between the court, the county, and the state ADA office — none of which had authority,” Phillips recalls.
“It became a bureaucratic loop that turned my case into exactly what the ADA was written to prevent.”
A System Built to Exclude
This issue goes beyond one judge or one case. It reveals a structural failure that disproportionately harms people with invisible disabilities.
Despite Title II of the ADA requiring public institutions — including courts — to provide accommodations, Maryland lacks any independent oversight when those rights are denied.
More than 40% of Marylanders with disabilities live with cognitive or mental-health conditions. Yet most never receive the accommodations they’re entitled to under federal law.
What Must Change
Phillips outlines four key reforms that could help restore ADA compliance and fairness:
- Empower ADA coordinators with independent authority to approve accommodations.
- Require written responses to every ADA motion, ensuring a paper trail for appeals.
- Establish independent oversight to investigate ADA violations in Maryland courts.
- Train judges to recognize and respect invisible disabilities and their legal implications.
A Promise Worth Keeping
The ADA promised equal justice — but Maryland’s courts are failing to deliver it.
For people with invisible disabilities, the system’s indifference has become another form of discrimination.
“If a judge can decide who’s ‘disabled enough’ to deserve accommodations, then no one’s rights are safe,” Phillips warns.
During Invisible Disabilities Week and beyond, the message is clear: Maryland must keep the ADA’s promise — and stop letting silence stand in for justice.
Michael Phillips is a Maryland resident and disability-rights advocate.
This piece was his first published commentary for The Daily Record.
He writes and advocates independently through his projects The Thunder Report, MDBayNews and Fatherand.Co, focusing on ADA reform, family court accessibility, and equal rights for people with hidden disabilities.
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