Centering Disability In The Law School Pedagogy: A Way To Include Disabled Law Students

Ella Maiden (PCB Byrne, U.K.), Centering Disability in the Law School Pedagogy: A Way to Include Disabled Law Students, 52 J.L. & Educ. 175 (2023):

This discussion of pedagogical change and increasing access for disabled law students needs to be considered in light of the initial discussion: that there is a high number of disabled people interacting with the legal system as clients, victims, or defendants, and barely any lawyers with disabilities to represent them. As has been noted throughout this paper, changes to the pedagogy are not going to be the only way to resolve this issue—general societal views of disability, pipeline issues, admission requirements and discrimination within the legal profession, all play a part.

However, pedagogical changes that center disability are one step towards making law school more accessible to disabled law students. The changes recommended are ambitious, but ambition is needed to ensure law students with disabilities can see themselves in the “esteemed profession of law.”