- Have no expectations. It's hard enough for me to not have any of myself. My body calls the shots these days and often that means being gloriously unproductive falling asleep in front of dreadful daytime TV.
- I'm not a 'real' lawyer. Sorry about that. It feels like misrepresentation but I can't find a better way to identify myself. I did my time in law school so I think like one. I use "think" in the loosest possible sense as my multiple impairments have gifted my brain a longer list of causes of cognitive dysfunction than I can ever remember. I'm having particular difficulties with language so ignore the grammatical errors, inaccurate word choice and general bad composition. I'm hoping a little bit of blogging might help me recover my writing ability.
- I can't help with individual legal queries. It breaks my heart but I'm not even successfully advocating for myself at the moment. Neither do I claim to be an expert in welfare, healthcare or discrimination law. It is incredibly complex and I fully expect to misinterpret it on my journey to understand it.
- Please respect my pseudo-anonymity. I can't help but be easily identifiable by anyone who knows me. I'll no doubt revisit this topic but law school and, more specifically, the legal profession are not renowned for their accessibility so you don't encounter many others with an obvious impairment. Having said that there are a number of high profile disabled people who have law degrees so it's not impossible. I don't know what I might end up writing about so, for now, I want to remain ostensibly anonymous so I don't feel constrained.
I don't know where my legal career was heading. I had dreams of Strasbourg or the UN but don't we all? More realistically (or so I thought) I wanted to qualify as a solicitor and be able to do some good in some way. I didn't even get that far. Unknowingly, I beat the odds to get as far as law school and in the end my reliably unreliable body delivered its judgment. So I'm going to try doing a little blawg to release my frustration with the law I came to love and loathe before I was so rudely interrupted.
Why now?
So here I am. Disillusioned that the law is failing to protect disabled people and disappointed that the legal profession does not do more to counter this injustice. The existence of universal human rights should be sufficient to guarantee support and dignity for disabled people but, sadly, it's not. Rights are not worth much if they are not effectively enforced. Even specific legislative provision is not delivering enough change. How can that be addressed when the average law student is unaware of the nuances of equality law as applied to disabled people? We don't need them to know all the finer details but I doubt your average solicitor could identify potential discrimination which demands an understanding beyond treating all individuals equally. Personally, I'm still trying to stop feeling like my 'reasonable adjustments' in life are special treatment as opposed to a legally defined entitlement. And if lawyers don't get it, what hope is there for the general population?
Most breaches of the law go without challenge as most disabled people don't have the capacity (for many reasons) to start nor sustain a potentially lengthy fight. For the few who attempt to take a case many struggle to get legal representation due to lack of available expertise. In many cases a well written letter or two, perhaps pro bono, could solve a seemingly small access problem that would make a big difference for someone unable to advocate effectively on their own behalf. It is those difficulties with even the most basic methods of upholding rights make this is an access to justice issue like no other.
I'm a lawyer. I'm disabled. I'm angry.
