American Bar Association launches campaign for lawyers with disabilities

The American Bar Association (ABA) has launched an initiative during Disability Pride Month in July to count lawyers with disabilities across the United States, expanding it's disability and accessibility work.

The #BeCounted campaign, led by the ABA Commission on Disability Rights, encourages lawyers with disabilities to add themselves to a US map to express their disability pride.

According to the 2021 ABA Model Diversity Survey, lawyers with disabilities are generally underreported and underrepresented at every level within law firms. A 2023 report from the National Association of Law Placement found that only 1.4 percent of surveyed law firm lawyers self-identified as having a disability.

The #BeCounted campaign invites lawyers with disabilities to participate by completing a short digital form that requests their city, state, and type of disability. The campaign emphasizes that no personally identifiable information is needed to join.

In conjunction with the campaign, the ABA Commission on Disability Rights has updated its 21-Day Disability Equity Habit-Building Challenge. This challenge, in honour of disability pride month, invites participants to engage in 21 consecutive daily assignments, each lasting about 20 minutes, followed by discussion questions. The assignments cover various topics, from disability identity and culture to disability justice and etiquette. Participants engage with these topics through readings, listening to podcasts, and watching videos.

The goal of the 21-Day Disability Equity Habit-Building Challenge is to help participants become more aware and engaged in the quest for disability equity. Specifically, it aims to educate participants about the members of the disability community and the barriers, biases, stereotypes, and discrimination they encounter in daily life.

Disability Pride began as a day of celebration in 1990, the same year the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was signed into law. Boston held the first disability pride day in 1990, and the first official observance of disability pride month occurred in July 2015, marking the 25th anniversary of the ADA. Since then, cities nationwide have celebrated disability pride month with parades and other festivities.