University of California, Los Angeles School of Law student Stephanie Enyart was 15 years old when she lost her vision.
Enyart was diagnosed with macular degeneration, which is the deterioration of a person’s central vision. When she looks at an object, she cannot see the object directly in front of her. Instead, Enyart sees a pulsing, flashing light, similar to the aftereffect of staring at the sun.
In order to continue her studies, Enyart did all of her learning via audio. While a student at Stanford University , she listened to all of her coursework on tape.
It’s easy to assume Enyart must be the greatest auditory learner around, but she is quick to dissuade anyone of that notion. “I am still a human with flaws,” she says. “I still consider myself, if I had my vision, a visual learner.”
Enyart compares herself to a person who speaks English as a second language. “I’m having to think that much harder and pay attention more to what people are saying in order to process it,” she says. “I’m still becoming a really good auditory learner.”
After graduating with a degree in English and a secondary major in feminist studies, Enyart went to work in administration at San Francisco State University . During her San Francisco State tenure, she served on a campus-wide committee on disability. As part of a settlement agreement, students, staff, and faculty with disabilities monitored the changes the university undertook following an Americans with Disabilities Act lawsuit.
Because Enyart’s vision worsened while she worked at San Francisco State, she used her lunch hour to learn Braille, which took almost two years. Learning Braille has helped her gain confidence. Since entering law school, however, Enyart says her Braille skills have declined. “I’m an extremely slow Braille reader,” she says.
Someday, 90 percent of Enyart’s vision will be that big, pulsing light. “My vision could change today and I can’t do anything about that.”
Enyart’s disability prompted her to join the American Council of the Blind and spend more time lobbying and working on policy to improve access for people with disabilities. She was also appointed to the Youth Advisory Committee for the National Council on Disability. Enyart finally decided to put her advocacy skills to work and enroll in law school.
Enyart chose UCLA School of Law for several reasons. The main attraction was being part of the Epstein Program in Public Interest Law and Policy. “I couldn’t find a program like it,” she says. “Their mentoring was superb.” UCLA offers several mentors to its public interest students: a 2L mentor, a 3L mentor, a faculty mentor, and an alumni mentor for each incoming student in the public interest program.
Another reason she selected UCLA was to be close to her three grandparents in Southern California. Her final reason is a financial one. The Department of Rehabilitation pays for the tuition and fees for students with serious disabilities to attend public schools. “Because I am going into public interest, I wanted to keep my costs at a minimum,” she says.
While most law students have their noses buried in books, Enyart hasn’t done any visual reading for almost six years. Instead, she uses software that enables her computer to read aloud everything from e-mail to websites to textbooks. For anything that does not come in an electronic version, Enyart has a high-speed scanner, which turns pages into electronic versions her computer can access. When she writes—she still uses a keyboard—the computer reads every word she enters onto the screen. She also has a program that allows her to magnify pictures to 300 times their size.
Enyart, a 3L who wants to pursue disability law after graduation, enjoyed a big year in 2007: she was integral in organizing the National Association of Law Students with Disabilities (www.nalswd.org). The association held its first conference in September, at which members ratified their constitution, elected an executive board, and identified advocacy projects. Unsurprisingly, Enyart was voted NALSWD president.
One of the items on the NALSWD agenda is the formulation of a tips guide for law students with disabilities, especially those students who have hidden or invisible disabilities. Enyart says there are large numbers of students with psychological and learning disabilities in law school who cope with their disabilities on their own because of the social stigma some associate with these types of disabilities. NALSWD is interested in connecting these students and other students with disabilities with mentors, creating a safe space for students to share study and survival tips, and connecting them with legal employers who seek law students with disabilities.
NALSWD plans to hold their next conference in conjunction with the IMPACT Career Fair for Law Students with Disabilities in Washington, D.C., in August 2008. Another goal is the development of a best practices guide to provide law students with disabilities with reasonable accommodations. This guide is meant to be a tool for students to use when seeking accommodations from their school. Many students struggle to advocate for reasonable accommodations and some don’t know anyone else in law school who is getting accommodations that work for them.
The hope, Enyart explains, is that students who may not know others with their disability will know what to ask for and schools will see that other institutions find these practices to be reasonable accommodations that they should provide to their law students with disabilities. Enyart cited her own challenges in getting her electronic case books in a timely fashion as the motivating factor for this work.
Before she took the LSAT, she requested accommodations to fit her needs. These accommodations included special lighting and a reader to read aloud the questions and then subsequently fill in the corresponding answer.
Sometimes the accommodations are not so accommodating, such as when a reader is not equipped with the kind of reading skills or patience to do the job properly.
The Law School Admission Council’s accommodations process can be more than a little intimidating for disabled applicants, according to Enyart.
“It’s being a gatekeeper of keeping people in our community out of law school,” she says. She explained that NALSWD is currently forming a long-term advocacy campaign to address accommodation issues with the LSAC.
When asked what is hardest about having a disability, Enyart says, “It’s more about how people are going to treat you because you have a disability. I spend no time thinking about [being blind]. I spend more time advocating for my basic rights of equal access.
“Honestly it’s not about overcoming disabilities,” she says. “There are more people with disabilities who are happy and content with their disabilities.”
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).
Genevieve Suzuki is a third-year student at California Western School of Law.
