Making Success Accessible

• Author: Anna Marie Kukec
• Pages: 64-65

64 || ABA JOURNAL JANUARY 2018

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PHOTO COURTESY OF WASHINGTON LAWYERS’ COMMITTEE

Making Success Accessible

Attorneys who have disabilities are breaking down barriers in the legal profession

By Anna Marie Kukec

Deepinder “Deepa” Goraya of

Washington, D.C., loves her work

as an advocate fi ghting legal battles.

After all, she had her share of per-

sonal battles even before she started

to practice law.

Goraya was born three months

premature. The incubator for her

2½-pound body pumped in too much

oxygen, which caused the blood ves-

sels behind her eyes to burst. That led

to a lifetime of blindness and exposed

her to inequities in the educational

system. Her parents fought to keep

her in neighborhood schools, while

she used technology to translate her

textbooks and homework to Braille

or voice versions.

Goraya achieved high grades

and earned a law degree from the

University of Michigan. She is now

a sta attorney with the Disability

Rights Project of the Washington

Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights

and Urban A airs. She also helped

create the ABA Young Lawyers

Division’s Disability Rights Com-

mittee and is on the board of the

National Association of Attorneys

with Disabilities.

“Attitudes have slowly changed

and improved, but we have a way

to go,” she says.

DRIVING INNOVATION

Goraya is among a growing num-

ber of lawyers with disabilities who

have advocated for disability rights

in the legal community. They have

climbed the ranks to prominent jobs

and helped smooth the road for the

next generation. In the 50 years since

the fi rst disability rights victories

were achieved in court, these lawyers

have been helped by the passage of

the Americans with Disabilities Act,

emergence of new technology spe-

cifi cally for them, and a shift in soci-

etal attitudes, she says. (For more, see

“Action for Access,” page 42.)

In October, Goraya moderated an

ABA panel, “Persons with Disabilities:

Driving Innovation in the Work-

place.” The panelists said one in

fi ve Americans has a disability, and

they discussed how businesses have

expanded their recruiting and hir-

ing practices for people with disabil-

ities, who bring unique talents and

skills to the fore. Those employees,

in turn, help spur new approaches

by providing di erent perspectives

and through the adoption of assistive

technologies.

But despite these advances, there’s

work to be done.

“It is important for law fi rms and

judges in courtrooms to still be edu-

cated about the obstacles we face and

the attitudinal barriers,” Goraya says.

“We still need an accessible building,

a workable case system, wheelchair

accessibility and the use of technol-

ogy in the courtroom.”

ADVOCATING FOR EMPLOYEES

Nicole Saunders, an assistant

state’s attorney in Duval County,

Florida, is paralyzed from the waist

down and uses a wheelchair. She

chairs the YLD’s Disability Rights

Committee.

“ATTITUDES HAVE SLOWLY

CHANGED AND IMPROVED,

BUT WE HAVE A WAY TO GO.”

– Deepinder “Deepa” Goraya