Uninformed attitudes can create barriers in extracurricular activities associated with law schools. For example, a survey respondent with a learning disability, who participated in a student-operated legal aid clinic, said that the clinic violated its obligations of confidentiality toward the respondent. The clinic’s Director compounded the matter by telling other students they would have to "pick up the slack" because of the respondent’s disability and its presumed effect on the respondent’s ability to process information.

The degree to which a student is involved in extracurricular activities is influenced by the nature and severity of one’s disability and how the individual responds to it. Aside from any personal priorities, extracurricular activities are a concern for law students because articling and future employment opportunities depend to a certain extent on networking and community involvement.

Many survey participants indicated that they did not participate in extracurricular activities and found their course loads more than sufficiently demanding. Attendant care needs, transportation arrangements, fatigue, and other health or medical factors may not allow for participation. In addition, social and recreational activities, particularly those off campus, may be physically inaccessible to some students.

Note that the law school may feel that its obligation to accommodate does not extend to social events unless they are organized or sanctioned by the law faculty. Even if we accept this limited range of perceived responsibility, it is remarkable that at some law schools student lounges are not adequately accessible. Along with social banter, lounges are often home to course discussions and to the building of networks that will assist in studies and perhaps in future career searches.

Student-run legal aid clinics provide students with valuable volunteer work experience and make the participants more competitive during the search for articling positions. Students interact with clients and work as a team to provide legal services to members of the community. Many of these clients are members of disadvantaged groups (including persons with disabilities) who cannot afford to retain a lawyer or who are intimidated by the legal process. Students with disabilities, however, may be denied the opportunity to participate fully, if at all, in clinics or in other kinds of pro bono (voluntary) activities related to law.

One survey participant stated that he had wanted to obtain a position in his law school’s community legal aid clinic. He was asked to withdraw his application, however, because of his visual disability. Most of the files and resources at the law clinic were not in a format accessible to him. A clinic participant at another law school, who has a learning disability, stated that he faced barriers in contributing to the school’s law clinic, where accommodations or adjustments were not offered for his disability.

In addition to moot court programs within legal studies, there are optional competitive moots requiring exceptional advocacy and communication skills. Some students with learning, hearing or other disabilities may be unable to participate or may be dissuaded or prevented from participating as a result of the way the competitions are set up. Competitive moots are team events with a high status, usually involving contests among law schools. Participants are generally selected by faculty members. A student’s academic grades and performance during try-outs are among factors considered.

Most law schools publish law journals or reviews, which provide students with valuable experience in legal research and writing, as well as contacts within the legal profession and at other law schools. These journals are compiled, edited, and managed by student volunteers, under the supervision of an editorial board and faculty members. While all students may be encouraged to participate in the production and editing of journals as volunteers, upper year students at many schools may also be selected for positions on the editorial board. Competition for these positions is usually intense and being named an editor is a prestigious accomplishment. Typically, students with the highest academic marks are chosen for editorial positions.

While being involved with a faculty law journal has many benefits, students who have certain disabilities may be systemically, albeit unintentionally, barred from participation. Students whose disability makes it more difficult to write, read, or communicate may find that the extra effort needed to contribute to journal production may not be justifiable. The demands of the curriculum, in addition to medical needs or conditions, may mean that many students with disabilities have neither the energy nor the time to take part.

Many students with visual or learning disabilities would not be able to participate fully as volunteers or editors if they desired to do so, because of the need to translate print materials into alternate formats. Law journal budgets and staff complements would probably not be sufficient to ensure that each revision or draft is available in an accessible format. That should not stop a student or editorial board from contemplating accommodations that would permit a more inclusive involvement, however. Nor should it present a student with a disability from seeking to have a meritorious article or note published in the law faculty’s journal.

Each law school has a student association to which every student belongs. (Membership dues are usually mandatory and included in the cost of tuition.) Law students’ associations generally organize and promote extracurricular social, recreational and athletic activities. They may promote the interests of law students outside the faculty in conjunction with provincial and federal student organizations. They may also form committees that represent student concerns related to academic matters, providing an opportunity to take an active role in shaping issues. Generally, however, law student associations are not activist, being more focused on social activities.

Associations of law students with disabilities are uncommon, perhaps because many such students hesitate to draw attention to their differences, do not have time or energy to become involved, or are present in insufficient numbers in law faculties to warrant a separate association. Student associations, covering the entire student community on a campus, may give more consideration to activities for and concerns of students with disabilities.

Law school and university students’ associations do not provide accommodations, technical devices, or supports for students with disabilities. They may, however, provide career placement or counselling services. A few require that sponsored social events must be held in wheelchair-accessible locations. McGill Law School has a small group called "Law Students with Disabilities" and the constitution of its Law Students’ Association requires that the equity rights of students with disabilities be taken into account.
 

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