By Eduardo Reyes2021-04-30T10:32:00+01:00
The Solicitors Regulation Authority and its exam provider Kaplan have been accused of signalling to disabled people that they are not welcome in the profession, by barring the use of popular assistive technology products in the Solicitors Qualifying Examination part 1.
Candidates who routinely depend on specific assistive technology products could instead sit with an ‘amanuensis’ – a person who will read out the 360 questions and 1,440 multiple choice answers and input the candidate’s response. Extra time will be allowed for these candidates.
The prospect of assistive technology such as Jaws, Dragon and ClaroRead being barred from the exam has been criticised by the Law Society’s Lawyers with Disabilities Division (LDD), which first raised the issue with the SRA in 2017. LDD chair Jane Burton, who is also a member of the SRA’s SQE reference group, told the
By Eduardo Reyes2021-04-15T07:32:00+01:00
Eduardo Reyes
There is an important story to be told about disability, and it is told with increasing confidence. It is the idea that with some highly reasonable, and achievable, modifications to the world of work, sport, accomodation, transport, technology, businesses and public buildings, a great many people who live with a disability can play a full part in society and enjoy the basic satisfications that should be their right.
Lawyers who write for the Gazette on disability commonly cite the shift in perceptions that the Paralympics achieved. And with the overnight shift to remote and flexible working, the Law Society’s Lawyers with Disabilities division noted that adjustments they had long campaigned for were now here – continuing them in a post-Covid world is a priority.
Lubna Shuja
When the Law Society’s vice-president I. Stephanie Boyce and deputy vice-president Lubna Shuja succeed to the post of president, they will follow in the footsteps of some distinguished forebears. Samuel Garrett is one who comes to mind. A City solicitor and brother of suffragist leader Millicent Fawcett, Garrett long argued for the admission of women to the legal profession. In 1919 he had the satisfaction of putting the motion to Council that, together with the Sex Disqualification(Removal) Act, opened the way.
There followed a long wait – not just to see a woman president of the Law Society, but even a single Council member. The latter, Eileen Evans, was elected to Council in 1977. Evans, the Gazette reported when she stood down in 1982, brought ‘common sense’ and ‘a feminine viewpoint which was particularly useful in the work of the subcommittee on Sexual and Racial Discrimination’.
Lucy Hendley
Some members of our profession will remember a time where it wasn’t considered an issue to shout at a trainee for their poor research memo or criticise a junior lawyer in public. We all knew the partners we had to keep on the good side of and the ones to avoid wherever possible.
Of course, it wasn’t right then and it certainly isn’t right now but, today, we would consider this type of behaviour to be bullying.
If you have been on the receiving end of this type of behaviour, you will know how isolating it feels, how humiliating and how painful.
Lizzie Hardy
I don’t think I’m really what people think of when they think about disability. For many, the word disability conjures up images of blue badges, wheelchairs and the elderly. All of which are authentic and valid experiences of disability; just not mine.
I developed epilepsy in my early twenties during my final year of university and before attending law school. Epilepsy is a neurological condition which is characterised by seizures.
As a result, my life has changed in a number of significant ways and I’ve been forced to reassess how to do simple things that I previously took for granted. I have had to navigate studying, exams, a training contract and qualification in a profession that hasn’t yet been entirely successful in understanding or addressing the obstacles disabled people face.