Kenneth Chike Odiwe introduces the Communication Access Equity Project as a civil rights enforcement framework that reconceptualizes communication access as a legally mandated condition of meaningful participation in public systems rather than a discretionary accommodation. Grounded in the lived experience and policy advocacy of Tremmel Watson, the piece synthesizes statutory mandates under the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and parallel California civil rights statutes to articulate a unified theory of liability centered on the denial of effective communication. It advances an integrated model that combines impact litigation, systemic investigation, policy development, and institutional accountability to expose and remediate structural communication barriers across carceral, judicial, and public service contexts. In doing so, the piece situates communication access within a broader access to justice framework, demonstrating how failures of comprehension operate as functional exclusions from legal rights, and positions the project as a scalable mechanism for enforcing compliance, shaping doctrine, and redefining the contours of disability rights jurisprudence through a praxis informed equally by legal rigor and lived experience.
