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Navigating Law School and Beyond:
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The possible hurdles noted in these pages can often be circumvented or moderated if a student seeks early advice and accommodations from law school and university officials responsible for ensuring equitable treatment for students with disabilities.
Law school is an intensely competitive environment. Undergraduate curricula are generally more flexible and often less academically demanding than those in law schools and the transition can be overwhelming for many students. Dealing with a disability can magnify the pressure of trying to keep up with required course work – and with classmates. Surveyed participants in our target group of law students and lawyers stressed that their survival and success depended on being highly organized, obtaining course materials as far in advance as possible and working harder than most of their classmates. The volume of reading in preparation for classes, examinations, research papers, and mock court exercises can be quite daunting. Because law school is heavily information-based, students who have sensory disabilities may be at a disadvantage. This includes blind or visually impaired students, deaf and hearing impaired students and students who have a learning disability. Textbooks and other required reading materials may not be available in alternate formats such as Braille, large print or computer diskette. In addition, survey participants indicated that where materials were provided in an alternative format, these frequently were not made available in a timely manner, putting recipients at further disadvantage for assignments and class discussion. Inadequate access to library materials in alternate formats has also been identified as a common problem. With enough commitment and sensitivity to the needs of students with disabilities, law schools can prevent or alleviate such circumstances. Students who have disabilities are advised, however, to be assertive and persistent in their efforts to obtain timely and effective assistance. They should not count on their law faculty or university being aware of the best means of accommodation for a particular disability or student. Law classes may last as long as three hours, which could be a concern for a student who has a disability that makes it difficult to concentrate for lengthy periods. Some courses are offered only in the later evening. This can be disconcerting for individuals with mobility impairments who must make special transportation arrangements, or those who are easily fatigued. A requirement of the upper year curricula for most schools is successful completion of a "moot court" program. The mooting process involves preparing for and conducting a mock hearing before a panel playing the role of judges. Some aspects of the moot court program can be difficult for the participant who has a disability, such as the length and nature of the "hearing" and any physical inaccessibility of the courtroom. Many students who do not have to deal with disability-related hurdles find mooting exercises extremely taxing and stressful. They involve research under time pressures, the drafting of voluminous supporting documentation and extensive preparation for oral presentations ("oral argument"). The extent to which law schools accommodate for disabilities in their moot court programs varies among faculties. Participation is usually mandatory and a requirement for graduation, although exceptions may be made in certain cases. Looking on the bright side, mooting takes up only one course and many people find it to be fun. There are many skilled advocates practising today, who happen to have a disability, who survived mooting in the years when obtaining accommodation for a disability was less of a reasonable expectation than it is today.
Some aspects of law school are of benefit to a student with a disability. Class size is generally small. Most schools assign all first year students to at least one course in a small group format, ensuring that they have the opportunity to establish relationships with peers and faculty members. In addition, many schools offer small tutorials to first year students under the auspices of education equity programs. At the University of Ottawa, for example, tutorial sessions are conducted by upper year students whose required qualifications include not only exceptional academic standing but also the knowledge and empathy to respond to the special needs of students who have disabilities. (Source: University of Ottawa website, re "academic support and student life"). A participant in one project Focus Group said that the law faculty at his university was more accommodating to students with disabilities than some other faculties, which, unlike the law faculty, did not have an equity officer. Even at the largest law faculties, the average size of the entire first year class is small compared to undergraduate courses in the wider university population, and most students interact with one another regularly. Upper year classes are usually smaller than first year sessions, providing students with the opportunity to establish and maintain rapport with others. Even in larger courses, law students are often subdivided into smaller groups to work together on a problem. Those with disabilities should not be reluctant to ask colleagues for assistance. Our Focus Group participants told us that in their experience, despite the competitive image of law students, fellow students were usually glad to offer assistance if asked. If you are a person who prefers to work solo rather than collectively, there are other features of legal education that you may prefer to consider. This is increasingly the era of Internet research. A high proportion of legal research can be done by computer rather than through books stored in libraries. If you have access to the right technology and supports, this shift toward the Internet can mark an improvement over how someone with a disability similar to yours would have been able to do research a decade ago. An advantage for law students generally is that during your law school years, the Quicklaw on-line database is available free of charge.
One question posed to our Focus Groups was this: "Did your disability affect your decision in selecting the law school(s) to which you applied? Did the level of accessibility or services in the surrounding community influence your decision?" A typical answer was: "I had no choice but to attend law school in the city where I lived. My doctor is here and my rehab is here. All of my support structure including my family is here. I applied to only one law school. My other alternative was to take a Master’s course at another university but that was not wheelchair friendly." Discussions prompted by the question posed made it clear that for many applicants to law school, it would be difficult to attend a faculty in another city, instead of remaining in the town where one’s family lives. You tend to stay where you already have a support network, such as a local voluntary organization that focuses on disabilities in general or on your particular disability. Moreover, a familiar group of family and friends can act as volunteer readers when the need arises. Focus Group contributors also pointed out that they had acquired awareness of the kinds of stress that arose from living and studying or working in their familiar surroundings. They did not relish having to anticipate surprises that might be in store in a new locale. A serious consideration for many discussion participants was the quality of special public transportation available for people with disabilities. Major cities are more likely to have less infrequent para-transit. Another consideration was whether there was adapted space in student residences near a law school. If you want to go to a particular law school, however, your search for an adapted residence room should not stop with the campus where the law school is located. For example, one law student at Dalhousie lived in a student residence at nearby St. Mary’s University, also in Halifax. At one Focus Group, a participant suggested that there were advantages to attending a smaller school, where students with disabilities might obtain assistance more easily. Yet some larger schools may have better adaptive technology or other
accommodations available – though this level of technology and support
is more dependent on an institution’s priorities than on its size.
There are a number of good places to learn about the kinds of highly
useful technologies that may be available at your law school, around the
university corner or downloadable from the Internet. The many worthwhile
websites on adaptive technology include those maintained by
If you have the chance in advance, it would be advantageous to look for data on disability accommodation on the websites and in the course calendars of law schools that you consider attending. You should contact the equity and disability services offices at each such university and law school, posing follow-up questions. (Contact numbers and Web addresses are listed in the Appendices of this Guide.) Any questions that arise as a result of reading this guidebook may be answered in detail by officials at each university. If you are accepted into law school, or even before you apply to a particular law school, it is worthwhile to make an appointment to visit the relevant university’s Disability Services Office, long before classes begin. The student may wish to research the availability of supports and programs and the general "atmosphere" of the university and identify any particular problems. During the summer, the Disability Services Office may conduct orientation tours of the campus, which could include an appointment with special needs staff, counselling to assist with registration and a workshop with a learning skills counsellor. Depending on your circumstances, and the nature or severity of your disabilities, the disability accommodations available at an educational institution may be a minor variable when you decide which law school you truly want to attend, or they may be the principal determining factor. During the first visit to an Office for Students with Disabilities, bring any documentation concerning your disability and the accommodations you have received in previous or current education. Through advance inquiries and preparation, try to assure that your documents are current and/or acceptable to the university, to avoid unnecessary delays in what are standard, foreseeable procedures. Be as ready as you can be to explain and provide proof of specific accommodations that you have received in previous or current education. With luck, you might be able to arrange for important accommodations to be in place starting the first day of classes. For many kinds of disabilities, a key kind of accommodation that should be set in motion several months before courses begin is arranging to get course materials in advance, in any necessary alternate format. This requires the cooperation of law school officials and professors, who are generally required to have materials ready two or three months prior to classes anyway. First year law subjects tend to be compulsory, so the content of the curriculum should normally be known by the faculty well ahead of time. Nonetheless, it is prudent for the student to make timely inquiries to ensure that course materials are readied on schedule, rather than depending entirely on each professor. (Chapter 7 discusses accommodations vis-à-vis course materials.) A good proportion of law students may not want to read course materials over the summer, but a student with a severe disability may need the extra preparation time. A couple of contributors to research for this Guide told the editor that summer preparation saved their hides in first year law school. Most legal education institutions canvassed for this guidebook offer part-time programs that can facilitate studies for individuals with disabilities. Part-time studies may be a key accommodation answer for some individuals who need additional time for completing assignments or examinations or who must rely partly on personal attendant assistance, which also involves significant time and energy considerations. Applicants to law school ought to be aware that there are usually only a few reserved places in first year for part-time students. Competition for these places can be intense. The ways in which the part-time programs work vary considerably among law faculties. If you need to attend law school part-time, before applying to a particular school you should inquire as to the ways in which courses must be taken there. For example, one law school requires students to take six core courses before they are permitted to take any upper level courses. Students may apply for exemptions on an ad hoc basis but there is no guarantee that they will receive what they ask for. A discussion of things to consider prior to applying to law school would not be complete without mentioning funding (which is discussed in Chapter 13). Financial assistance is an issue for any student, but may be especially so for the student with special needs, which are not always covered by support or assistance programs. Students should recognize that it could take a long time to secure adequate funding for legal studies. The process may involve considerable paperwork, communications headaches, and bureaucratic delays. When researching funding possibilities, you must start well in advance of any admissions deadlines and be persistent. Students should be alert to the likelihood that university funding constraints and government cutbacks could have an adverse impact on the extent and quality of accommodations and supports. Moreover, the application process itself can be expensive. For example, there are costs associated with writing the Law School Admission Test (LSAT), which purports to assess one’s suitability for law school and the legal profession. (The LSAT is discussed in Chapter 4.) In Chapter 3, you can find practical advice from numerous students and lawyers across Canada who have already coped with law school while managing a disability. Here’s an illustration: Something to do in the summer before you begin law school:
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