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

[Ross A. Doerr]

Hello Susan:
Yes indeed, the valid driver's lisence requirement became quite popular in
New Hampshire and Maine for state and governmental employment. All it really
did was to force disabled job applicants to report their disability and
request an accommodation.
It really was, and is, a cheap shot to those of us who are disability
advocates. On the other hand, it did a fine job of keeping me and several
others I know, from getting gainful employment in government.
Ross


-----Original Message-----
From: blindlaw [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Susan Kelly
via blindlaw
Sent: Monday, June 15, 2015 12:36 PM
To: Blind Law Mailing List
Cc: Susan Kelly
Subject: [blindlaw] requiring a Driver's License as a pre-requisite to
employment as an attorney

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?
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