[blindLaw] Structural barriers faced by blind legal professionals in the developed world

[Rahul Bajaj]

Hi Everyone,

I was following the conversation on discrimination closely. This is
because it is linked to a question that I have been wrestling with for
some months now.

As some of you may know, I am from India and am qualified to practice
law there. Last year, however, I moved to England, to pursue my
postgraduate legal education [in India, law is taught at the
undergraduate level] at the University of Oxford on the Rhodes
Scholarship. My scholarship ends next summer, and I have to decide
whether I'd like to go back to India or stay on in England, at least
in the near future.

One crucial factor, though not the controlling one, for me is the
accessibility of the legal profession in the two countries and the
possibility of obtaining the reasonable accommodations that I require.
My question for you, therefore, is this: To what extent, in your
assessment, has your country of residence [which, for most of you is
the U.S.,] impacted your professional prospects, access to reasonable
accommodations and quality of life as a blind lawyer?

I understand, of course, that many of you have not experienced the
counterfactual of operating in a different jurisdiction and may not
have a good comparator against which to evaluate your experience. What
I am hoping to understand, however, is how much of the above is a
function of the country that you live in per se versus the micro
environment that one operates in i.e. one's financial position, degree
of influence, skill/ ability, rapport with one's employer, etc.

India does have a long way to go in creating a level playing field for
blind lawyers, notwithstanding unceasing efforts by some of us to
change the landscape. That said, I do think that the micro environment
in India will be a lot more suitable for me, because I do have most of
the above-mentioned factors going for me. Plus, being an Oxford
educated lawyer with a prestigious scholarship does give you access to
the upper echelons of the Profession, if you work in that direction. I
do not state this boastfully, just as an objective fact. On the other
hand, in England, the macro environment does appear a lot more
conducive for blind professionals. Reasonable adjustments are firmly
guaranteed by law. Folks aren't dealing with the same volume of cases
or workload as they are in India, meaning that accessibility does not
get sacrificed at the altar of productivity. Most stakeholders are far
more well-resourced than they are in India.

On the micro level, I will have to establish myself in the profession
in England, and will, in that sense, be one of the many lawyers on the
block. In other words, I may not have the same amount of traction as I
would in India. I look forward to hearing your reflections on the
above issues. Thank you.

Best,
Rahul




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Rahul Bajaj
Candidate for the BCL
Rhodes Scholar (India and Linacre 2018)
University of Oxford