Michael Phillips

Disabled, Defenseless, and Denied: How Family Courts Systematically Abuse Disabled Parents and Violate Federal Law

Across the United States, disabled parents are being railroaded by a family court system that seems to have decided the Americans with Disabilities Act doesn’t apply to them. Whether suffering from ADHD, PTSD, physical mobility issues, traumatic brain injuries, or chronic illness, parents who need support and protection are instead finding themselves targeted, discredited, and—perhaps most disturbingly—legally erased from their children’s lives under the guise of “the best interest of the child.”

Let’s call it what it is: systemic discrimination, wrapped in legalese and enabled by judges who have become immune to empathy, logic, or federal law.

“You’re Too Disabled to Be a Parent” — The Message Courts Are Sending

Ask any ADA-compliant agency or employment lawyer, and they’ll tell you: disability discrimination is illegal. Reasonable accommodations must be provided. Stigma cannot be the basis for exclusion.

But walk into your local family court, and it’s a completely different reality. Judges have routinely allowed, and in many cases facilitated, fraudulent protective orders based on nothing more than a parent’s neurodivergence, medical history, or trauma responses.

Parents have been deemed abusive because of PTSD triggers, labeled unstable for seeking mental health treatment, and cast as unfit for displaying ADHD-related forgetfulness or anxiety in courtrooms that refused to accommodate them in the first place. These aren’t one-off tragedies—they are the pattern.

Protective Orders Weaponized Against the Vulnerable

“I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve heard this story,” one advocate told us. “A parent with a legitimate disability has a protective order filed against them—not because they did anything wrong, but because they struggled to explain themselves, or missed a deadline, or weren’t able to follow the ‘unwritten rules’ of court. Their condition gets twisted into a threat.”

These fraudulent protective orders are granted in minutes—rubber-stamped by judges who don’t stop to ask whether the order is being weaponized as part of a custody strategy. Once granted, they become a permanent smear, used to justify further restrictions, supervised visitation, and total alienation.

And the irony? These parents often asked for accommodations beforehand—and were ignored.

The ADA: Ignored, Deflected, Denied

The Americans with Disabilities Act is supposed to protect individuals in all public services—including the courts. That means disabled parents are entitled by federal law to accommodations that help them meaningfully participate in legal proceedings.

So why are so many parents saying the same thing?

“I submitted an ADA request. No one followed up.”

“The judge laughed when I brought up my diagnosis.”

“They told me I was using my disability as an excuse.”

“There was complete silence. They never addressed my requests for accommodations.”

When courts deny accommodations—like extra time to read documents, clear instructions, support staff, or remote appearance options—they are violating civil rights. Plain and simple.

Yet not one judge has been publicly disciplined for these ADA failures. Not one family court has been held accountable for enabling these abuses. And parents are left asking:

What am I supposed to do?

Judicial Immunity Has Become Judicial Impunity

This is what happens when judges operate with near-total immunity: They stop fearing consequences. You can file an ADA complaint, and it might go nowhere. You can appeal, and the appellate court might rubber-stamp the same discriminatory decisions. You can tell your story, but no one in power will listen—because once you’ve been painted as “mentally unstable,” your credibility is gone.

No one chooses to have a disability. No one chooses to be retraumatized, denied, and alienated from their child. But family courts across this country are making those outcomes routine, and treating disabled parents as threats to be neutralized instead of people to be supported.

Enough Is Enough

Let’s be very clear:

  • A protective order should never be granted as punishment for a disability.
  • ADA accommodations in court are a legal right, not a favor.
  • Judges who violate the ADA or allow disability discrimination to sway their rulings should be removed from the bench.
  • Disabled parents deserve the same chance as anyone else to raise and love their children—without fear, without shame, and without court-sanctioned abuse.

This country has a long, shameful history of treating disabled people as expendable. Family courts are just the latest battleground. And unless someone in power finally says enough, that pattern will continue—quietly destroying families in the name of “justice.”

If you are a disabled parent facing discrimination in family court, document everything. Demand your accommodations in writing. And don’t stay silent. This isn’t just your story—it’s a national crisis.

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