[blindlaw] Making the Judicial System More Accessible

[Susan Kelly]

There have been some recent consent decrees / cases that were reported by NFB - the ADA is being found to apply, but it has been a jurisdiction by jurisdiction process that is still unfolding.  You might want to check the case listings on the NFB website.

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From: blindlaw [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Shannon via blindlaw
Sent: Monday, November 09, 2015 9:26 AM
To: 'Blind Law Mailing List' <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Shannon <sbg at sbgaal.com>
Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Making the Judicial System More Accessible

Hi Rahul,

Unfortunately, the last time which was several years ago, I spoke to the clerk's office at the 5th Circuit, I was told that the ADA did not apply to the Judiciary.  I hope that has changed.  Perhaps others on the list serve can enlighten me.

Sincerely,

Shannon Brady Geihsler

Law Office of Shannon Brady Geihsler, PLLC
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-----Original Message-----
From: blindlaw [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Rahul Bajaj via blindlaw
Sent: Monday, November 09, 2015 6:46 AM
To: blindlaw at nfbnet.org
Cc: Rahul Bajaj
Subject: [blindlaw] Making the Judicial System More Accessible

Hi All,

I hope this message finds you well. I am a fourth year law student from India. I am currently working on an initiative with other disabled lawyers aimed at putting together a list of suggestions for the consideration of the Chief Justice of India and other key figures in the government and policy making bodies to make courts more accessible for disabled lawyers and to make litigation a viable career choice for a disabled lawyer. To this end, I would be extremely grateful if you would be so kind as to apprise me of the best practices that are followed in the United States and other countries with respect to the following areas for promoting universal access and providing reasonable accommodation:
1. Accessibility of the filing system using which different documents such as plaints, written statements, rejoinders and affidavits can be filed during the course of a lawsuit. More specifically, what special steps have these platforms taken for promoting universal access?
2. Making the filing process hassle-free for disabled lawyers.
Disabled lawyers face a lot of challenges during the filing stage of documents because it is difficult for them maintain the level of specificity and exactitude that the court registries demand for getting documents effectively filed. In addition, there are no mechanisms for helping disabled lawyers confront these hyper-technical objections raised by court registries during the filing process. Most of the challenges pertain to very unimportant elements of formatting and things such as the maintenance of right margins, providing proper space while writing application number, deletion of underlining and highlighting, etc.
3. Full accessibility of court websites. This would include things such as removal of captchas, making combo boxes fully accessible, rendering pages in unicode in order to prevent material in vernacular languages from interfering with the content of the website, etc. What strategies have you adopted for confronting these challenges in the U.S.?
4. Making the physical infrastructure of courts accessible. This would include things such as installing audio labels outside courtrooms for lawyers to ascertain the number of the concerned courtroom, making display boards more accessible, etc. What other best practices can you suggest in this regard?
Please feel free to reach me off-list if you'd like to discuss this further or bring any other pain points to my notice. Your suggestions would be incredibly valuable and will go a long way in helping us acquire a fuller picture of the concrete solutions that we must propose.

Best,
Rahul

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