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The biggest hurdle for lawyers with disabilities are preconceptions

Thank you to Terry Carter for another spot on article, this one focused on the many faceted, significant, and valuable expertise of the differently abled in the legal profession: “Many lawyers with disabilities still end up where they always were: channeled toward government work, advocacy organizations or solo and small-firm employment, often with disability-related practices. Over the past couple of decades, technological and medical advances have made it much easier (or in some instances, possible) for lawyers with disabilities to perform ordinary tasks in legal work. There are devices and software that read digital documents to the blind, refreshable Braille machines that can provide real-time communication, and instant transcripts on computer screens for the deaf—even in court hearings with direct feeds from stenographers. But at the same time, old attitudes and perceptions have been slow to lose their grasp…The number of lawyers with disabilities is hard to determine. Unlike race, gender, ethnicity and, more recently, sexual orientation, there is little reporting on them. Only two state bars—those in Oregon and Washington—have done tallies, and still that is self-reporting. Some lawyers won’t do so; some others don’t see themselves as disabled. And the definition of disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act is fast expanding, largely via the hottest area: mental health impairments. In an ABA membership survey in 2013, 8 percent of the lawyers answered in the affirmative when asked whether they have disabilities. A 2012 survey by the Washington State Bar Association found that 21 percent of its members said so. The National Association for Law Placement found that just one-third of 1 percent of law firm partners reported having disabilities in its 2014 survey, which was slightly higher than a few years earlier. Associates with disabilities composed just 0.28 percent, also slightly higher than before. The figures were based on data from 740 law offices and firms (including some reporting zero disabilities) encompassing 73,081 lawyers…”

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