[blindlaw] requiring a Driver's License as a pre-requisite to employment as an attorney

[Susan Kelly]

It has come to my attention that the County by which I am employed (in Arizona) now makes the possession of a valid driver's license a pre-requisite to application for employment.  There are at least four of us (perhaps more) who, due to blindness or physical disability, do not drive.  Presumably, when the applications were made through paper forms, there was some oversight by a human being in the HR office that made allowances for that questionable pre-requisite, if it even existed previously.  Now, however, all applications must be made through the largely inaccessible ADP payroll and benefits computer program, further leaving those who are blind or otherwise unable to use the program independently out of the loop.

Driving is not essential to any attorney position.  The attorneys who represent adult criminal defendants are able to use a video visitation service to meet remotely with their clients should they not have access to a vehicle or lack time to drive out to the jail.  Those of us at juvenile court have only to walk to the detention pods that are located on the same physical site as our office.  Presumably, driving is similarly unnecessary to attorneys in the prosecutor's office.  Finally, even for attorneys in the public fiduciary office or others facing the odd meeting or task that would require transportation, we have a full para-transit system, public busses, and numerous cab companies.  That being so, how can possession of a valid driver's license be made a pre-requisite to application for employment as an attorney?