Originally published in Student Lawyer magazine, February 2005 (Vol. 33, No. 6). All rights reserved.

SPOTLIGHT

Deafness Helps Boston Law Student Learn Advocacy at a Young Age

by Lindsay Jane Stengle

Even though Melissa Kubit can’t hear, those who know her well say she’s a good listener. The second-year student at Boston University School of Law was diagnosed with a hearing impairment as an infant. She listens visually by reading lips, a practice she began when she was 3 years old.

Kubit’s parents taught her never to believe in the word “impossible.” Her personal motto is, “If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.” She now wants to improve others’ lives by becoming a lawyer.

“I have never used my deafness as an excuse,” Kubit says. “Instead, I saw it as a hurdle to jump over in order to reach my goals. I believe true success is based on hard work and overcoming obstacles. My deafness has always been my driving force to succeed.”

Kubit, a Long Island native, graduated in 2003 from Pennsylvania’s Muhlenberg College, where she coordinated the school’s Disability Awareness Week. She also advocated for the services she needed, says Wendy Cole, Muhlenberg’s director of academic support.

“In her first year,” Cole says, “she made a lengthy, persuasive argument for overlap services of a course note-taker in addition to her CART (Communication Access Realtime Translation) reporter. As a result, we provided both. I have kept that letter to help others understand what self-advocacy truly is.”

Advocacy wasn’t a new thing for Kubit. “Throughout my life, I have had to clearly articulate and advocate for my needs in order to get equal opportunities and consideration,” she says.

I’ve advocated not just for myself, but also for others, whether they have a disability or simply a problem they are unable to articulate for themselves. I’ve had to be both a defender of my rights as well as play offense to verbalize and present my needs.”

Kubit is a member of the Public Interest Law Journal, vice president of the BU Women’s Law Association, and a first-year law student adviser. She also is student vice chair of the ABA Tort Trial and Insurance Practice Section (TIPS) health and disability insurance committee. And, as a professor’s research assistant, she focuses mostly on issues related to the Americans With Disabilities Act.

CART “is essentially like having closed captioning in the classroom,” Kubit explains. “A stenographer accompanies me to all my classes. She types each lecture, which I read as a running script on my computer. It enables me to be on a level playing field with my peers.”
Kubit has had legal internships at the Nassau County, N.Y., trial court, the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs, the Nassau County district attorney, and at a law firm. A decision Kubit helped draft while working for Nassau County trial judge Leonard Austin was published in the New York Law Journal.

“Despite her hearing impairment, Melissa was no different from any of my other interns,” Austin says. “Although I had to remember to look directly at Melissa when I spoke, she was the same and deserved to be treated as such. I also learned that she had to face the intolerance and insensitivity of others who could or would not look past her handicap and relate to her as a capable young lawyer.”

Kubit is as passionate about her chosen career now as when she started school. “I went to law school to be able to advocate for others and make a difference, particularly in the fields of education, health care, and people with disabilities,” she says. “I still have those same ambitions today.”

Lindsay Jane Stengle is a third-year student at Samford University School of Law.

Do you know a distinguished law student who would make an interesting subject for Spotlight? Please e-mail suggestions along with your name, address, and daytime/evening phone numbers to studentlawyer@abanet.org (subject line: Spotlight).

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