Imagine learning to read at the same time you're studying law. Impossible? Jean Desrosiers did. In 1992, while studying for her paralegal degree, Desrosiers was severely injured in an automobile accident caused by a drunk driver. After lying in a coma for four days, Desrosiers awoke to find that she could no longer read or write. Nevertheless, she went back to school the next day. She managed to teach herself to read, and got her paralegal degree ahead of schedule. She is now a third-year law student at the University of Florida. It seems safe to call Desrosiers a nontraditional student. She started college in 1971, majoring in early childhood development, and taught Head Start and kindergarten along the way. While raising her two children, she decided to home-school them for four years—and was charged with truancy and child abuse. She eventually cleared herself. "That's what drove me to law school—to get parents the right to choose what kind of education their children will receive," she says. "When you are charged with child abuse, you are guilty until you can prove yourself innocent." After the car accident left her in a coma, doctors told Desrosiers she would not be able to finish her paralegal degree. She proved them wrong and graduated six months ahead of schedule with a 4.0 grade point average. She earned a bachelor's degree in political science in 1996, and moved on to law school. Why was she in such a hurry to complete her education? "Life is short, and a drunk driver can take it all away in one day," she says.

Before the accident, Desrosiers had been involved in an adult literacy program, and because she had home-schooled her children, she had the learn-to-read "Hooked on Phonics" program. Between those two programs, she was able to re-teach herself how to read. At school she had to tape everything because she had no short-term memory. She learned by writing things down again and again to commit them to her long-term memory. To this day Desrosiers finds it difficult to remember telephone numbers—even her own—and addresses. She had to leave for school very early in the morning to get the same parking space every day, because that was the only way she could remember where her car was. Desrosiers has been active in the Law Student Division. After meeting Anne Castro, then the governor of the Law Student Division's Fifth Circuit, at a circuit meeting, Desrosiers pointed out there was no lieutenant governor for disability issues. She became the lieutenant governor for ABLE, the Association for Barrier-free Legal Education, and is now in her second year in that position.

As lieutenant governor for disability issues for the Fifth Circuit, Desrosiers helped set up a mentor program for disabled law students within the circuit. There's now at least one mentor in every state in the circuit: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and Tennessee. She would like to take the mentor program nationwide. Most of the mentors have something to do with disability law; some have a disability. "Disabled students just need somebody to give them a word of encouragement, and to direct them where to go if they're having difficulty," Desrosiers says. Students like Desrosiers who have hidden disabilities face additional pressures. "Somebody who is in a wheelchair obviously has a handicap, and people will make allowances for them, usually without questioning," she says. "But say you have a hidden disability, and you are parking in a handicapped spot. We have had students who actually confronted those type of students and said, ‘There's nothing wrong with you. I've seen you get out of your car every day, and walking in to class and you are fine. So why are you parking here?' But they don't realize that person has a back injury, or a heart problem, and can't walk that far."

This summer Desrosiers also helped create a liaison position from the Law Student Division to the ABA's Commission on Domestic Violence. When she graduates from law school, she intends to open a civil law clinic in central Florida. Don't bet against it.

Lee Farbman