Affiliations: Disability Rights Clinic, Office of Clinical Legal Education, Syracuse University College
of Law, 306 MacNaughton Hall, Syracuse, 13244 NY, USA. Tel.: +1 315 443 4582; Fax: +1 315 443 3636; E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: Michael Schwartz, a lawyer deaf since birth, describes his journey as a professional for the last 32 years since his graduation from NYU School of Law in 1981. He offers a case study of his experiences with accommodations on the job as required by federal and state law. The study includes specific examples of what worked and what did not work for a deaf lawyer like him working at his craft. Schwartz wraps up with the lessons he learned over the last three decades as we moved from the model of non-compliance to that of compliance, even beyond compliance, with the mandates of law in the employment context.
Keywords: Accessibility, accommodations, American Sign Language (ASL), appropriate auxiliary aids, civil rights law, computer-aided real-time transcription or communication access realtime translation (CART), disability rights law, essential functions of the job, interactive dialogue, sign language interpreters, technology, workplace life lessons
