Earlier this month, City Council members and community leaders raised the disability pride flag for the first time in Madison’s history. The flag is black with a diagonal rainbow, colored to represent a range of disabilities: red for physical, gold for neurodiversity, white for invisible and undiagnosed, blue for emotional and psychiatric, and green for sensory.
The flag now waves across the street from Madison’s City Hall, where a department head continues working while under investigation over allegations that he repeatedly mistreated employees, specifically those with disabilities.
Employees of the Department of Civil Rights accuse the director, Norman Davis, of violating city and federal employment laws. They say Davis wrongly rejected workplace accommodations, asked workers to disclose their disabilities to colleagues, intimidated workers by writing them up for insubordination, and retaliated by placing workers on administrative leave after they raised concerns…