The personal experience of a US deaf attorney when equipment in the courtroom does not work, is highlighted in Blind Insight. An extract: Then began the worst part of the experience: because I was facing my opponent’s back, I could barely understand a word he said. I’m sure I looked comical leaning halfway over the [...]
California Bar, Several Projects on Lawyers with Disabilities Survey of Legal Professionals with Disabilities In 2003, The California State Bar Committee on Lawyers with Disabilities undertook a survey of legal professionals in the state. One hundred and fifty attorneys responded to the survey. The results are reported online in the August 2004 edition of the [...]
This website has just been mentioned in the Counsel. Counsel is the Journal of the Bar of England and Wales. Unfortunately the header is titled ‘aurally impaired’ which is a new one. Personally I detest any label relating to impairment, as it has undertones of damaged goods, as opposed to the celebration of diversity. The [...]
The Law Society of Upper Canada is doing research into access to the profession and disability. There was a call on Surduslaw earlier for Deaf lawyers to contribute to this research, and from an international perspective, I hope this happens. Any research relating to access to the profession is valuable, and comparative approaches can be [...]
On the 1 October 2004, the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (Amendment) Regulations 2003 come into force. Amongst other provisions, it provides for non-discrimination in respect of barristers. The relevant sections are below, for information.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has published a report ‘Using interpreters to access services: user views’. Whilst this is aimed at spoken language interpreting, and unfortunately this does not cover BSL/English Interpreting, JRF says this is an in-depth study examined the experiences of people who need interpreters. What is startling about this research is two key [...]
The ?For Diversity?Against Discrimination? educational truck has begun its ten-week tour of ten European Union (EU) countries. It provides a venue to discuss the obligations of EU member nations to pass and enforce specific anti-employment discrimination legislation pursuant to EU Directives. The directives embrace diversity in the forms of disability, religion or belief, age, sexual [...]
The following is taken from the EUD newsletter, focusing on a seminar held in May this year. It is noteworthy, because two Deaf lawyers took part in this: Anne Vikkelso, Denmark and Dr Adam Kosa, Hungary.
Telecommunications Relay Services (TRS) in the USA The TRS in the USA started as a voluntary effort in the 1970′s and expanded through the 1980′s. California became the first state to require mandated provision of the TRS which was subsidized by a surcharge on every telephone subscriber’s telephone bill in the state. As a result [...]
Captioning TV Programs in the USA Before I go on to discuss the Telecommunications Relay Services NPRM, I wanted to note that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) also has oversight of captioning of TV programs in the USA. TDI petition to the FCC on captioning On July 23, 2004, Telecommunications for the Deaf, Inc, (TDI) [...]