[OPINION] TBJ MAY 2022
Making Accommodations
The legal profession should do a better job supporting attorneys with disabilities.
Written by Hannah Cramer
I recently attended my first in-person hearing since February 2020. None
of my clothes fit, but not for the reason you might think.
Allow me to elaborate. I was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease in high
school. In September 2021, I had a Crohn’s-related surgery that resulted
in an unfortunate and life-changing complication. I woke up with an
ostomy bag. An ostomy is a bag attached to your stomach into which you
expel waste because your intestines don’t work. What was supposed to be
a two-week medical leave turned into three months of on-and-off leave
with multiple emergency room visits.
I feel like I came back to work in a different body. When I passed the
Texas bar exam in 2019, I had lived with Crohn’s disease for more than
10 years. I learned to always have safe food with me in case I became
fatigued. I knew to spot the nearest bathroom as soon as I walked into a
new building. I knew how to succeed while keeping my disease invisible,
and in return, very few of my professional colleagues knew about my
diagnosis. As I was preparing for my first in-person hearing
(post-pandemic and post-surgery—basically, a different world), I knew I
could not continue surviving under the radar.
I needed to ask for an accommodation from the court. I emailed the court
and opposing counsel to request a bathroom accommodation. It was very
intimidating, and somewhat embarrassing, to ask a judge for a
pre-scheduled bathroom break, especially considering the adversarial
nature of the legal profession. Some of my opposing counsels are
routinely aggressive due to my age and gender, and this intensified the
insecurities I had about my new medical device. I did not receive a
response to my accommodations request.
I have advised many clients on how to ask for reasonable accommodations
in school and work settings. I learned the hard way that asking for an
accommodation is easier advised than done. I will remember my personal
experience the next time I advise a client to “just ask for an
accommodation.”
This led me to question what other lawyers with ostomies do. I asked
mentors, friends, and colleagues to help me find another lawyer with an
ostomy. I wanted the camaraderie, and I wanted to brainstorm ideas on
accessibility. Although our search efforts were unsuccessful, I learned
that there are other experiences that require similar accommodations.
For example, pumping breast milk and injecting insulin.
It is hard for me to believe that I could be the only Texas attorney
with an ostomy. This leads me to believe either the legal profession is
not accommodating to people with medical devices, or that attorneys are
so afraid to share their experience—they worry it may be seen as a
weakness—that they end up suffering in silence.
As a profession, we must do better to support attorneys with
disabilities. You never know what your colleague across the aisle,
across the hall, or across the country might be dealing with. Although
our disabilities may not be visible, we appreciate your willingness to
accommodate our medical needs, whether at trial, in the office, or
during a virtual meeting.
Our profession is one that helps and advocates for our clients—we should
also help those within the profession by making it more
accessible.TBJ
HANNAH CRAMER
is a staff attorney at Texas RioGrande Legal Aid in San Antonio. She
focuses on disability rights cases, including guardianship, education,
and employment law. In 2019, the State Bar recognized Cramer with the
Access to Justice Pro Bono Award.
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