Achieving and Maintaining an Accessible Campus: A Guide to Higher Education Disability Law and Accommodations

Phil Catanzano is co-founder of Education & Sports Law Group. Prior to starting Education & Sports Law Group, Phil was Senior Counsel at Holland & Knight for seven years and an attorney at the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights for almost a decade before that, where he investigated institutions accused of discrimination on the basis of disability, gender, or race/ethnicity, among others. 

Phil’s practice includes advising institutions with regard to disability law issues on campus (including digital accessibility), helping institutions comply with the federal laws around gender and racial/ethnic equity, and maintaining a safe campus. Phil serves on the faculty at Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education, where he teaches courses regarding higher education law, disability law, and the intersection of speech and harassment.

Olabisi “Bisi” Okubadejo currently serves as Associate Vice President of Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action, and Compliance at Georgetown University.  Prior to transitioning to Georgetown, Bisi was in private practice and focused on civil rights and employment issues in higher education, particularly on matters arising from alleged discrimination on the basis of race, disability, religion, age, and sex, including sexual harassment and sexual violence.

Bisi also worked as a supervisory attorney with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR).  While in private practice, Bisi advised colleges and universities on their compliance with federal laws, including Title IX, the ADA, Section 504, the Clery Act, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, the Age Discrimination Act, FERPA, and Title VII. She has experience working with educational institutions and business entities on digital accessibility issues, including compliance with government settlement agreements and ensuring the accessibility of websites and course materials. Bisi’s experience includes providing interactive training on civil rights issues to coordinators, administrators, hearing panels/judicial boards, campus safety departments, and students. She also has significant experience conducting and overseeing internal investigations and program reviews of higher education institutions and other employers, and auditing policies and procedures.

Karen Petrulakis joined Wellesley College as its first General Counsel in late August 2017. In this position, she is responsible for the overall vision and strategy for the legal affairs of the College. She is a member of the Senior Leadership Team and provides legal advice and counsel to the President, Board of Trustees, and other members of the College community on a broad range of legal matters.  

Karen previously served the University of California system as Chief Deputy General Counsel and Deputy General Counsel for Litigation, a role that included overseeing litigation across the University of California system’s ten campuses. Prior to joining the University of California, she was a partner in Crowell & Moring LLP’s San Francisco office, where her practice included complex commercial litigation and employment litigation and counseling for corporate clients as well as public entities and universities.  

Karen served on the NACUA Board of Directors from 2018-2021, and currently serves on NACUA’s Committee on the Program for the Annual Conference. Karen has previously served as Chair of NACUA’s Strategic Planning Committee, as Vice Chair of NACUA’s Committee on Board Operations, and as a member of NACUA’s Committees on Honors and Awards and on Nominations and Elections. Karen recently stepped down as chair and still serves on the Steering Committee for the Boston Bar Association’s (BBA) College and University Law Section. She chaired the Advisory Committee for the BBA’s Higher Education Legal Conference in 2023 and served on the advisory committee for the conference in 2020. Karen was a member of the Executive Committee of the Litigation Section of the California State Bar from 2012 to 2016. Massachusetts Lawyers’ Weekly honored Karen as a 2022 In-House Leader in the Law. 

Karen holds a B.A. in History, with high honors, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of California, Berkeley and a J.D. from Stanford Law School.