Abstract
Globally, persons with disabilities, specifically individuals with severe communication disabilities, require a range of court accommodations to enable them access to the court system, thereby realizing their right to access to justice. This study aimed to investigate the perspectives of nine international experts on possible universal court accommodations for these individuals. An asynchronous, online focus group discussion with four questions was conducted over five days. Through deductive thematic analysis, four themes related to Article 13 of the CRPD were identified: Accommodations related to procedural fairness (e.g., testifying via CCTV camera); accommodations related to ensuring equality (e.g., specific international and local legislation); accommodations related to non-discrimination (e.g., developing appropriate questioning techniques); and accommodations related to legal practitioners (e.g., disability sensitivity training). The range of identified court accommodations could act as the impetus needed to ensure access to justice, a basic human right, for persons with disabilities internationally.
Highlights
Minority groups, such as persons with disabilities, have faced discrimination, inequality, and countless barriers when attempting to claim their basic human rights, such as access to justice, healthcare, and education (Beqiraj, Mcnamara & Wicks 2017; Bossuyt 2015; White et al 2020b)
This research focusses on specific legislations/laws related to court accommodations that the experts were aware of and that they considered should be made available to persons with severe communication disabilities to facilitate equal participation in the court
Four main themes were extrapolated from the data: accommodations related to procedural fairness; accommodations related to ensuring equality; accommodations related to non-discrimination; and accommodations related to legal practitioners
Summary
Minority groups, such as persons with disabilities, have faced discrimination, inequality, and countless barriers when attempting to claim their basic human rights, such as access to justice, healthcare, and education (Beqiraj, Mcnamara & Wicks 2017; Bossuyt 2015; White et al 2020b). The term severe communication disabilities ( known as complex communication needs or being nonverbal) describes persons from different socio-economic, ethnic, and racial backgrounds, across the age range, whose disabilities stem from a range of diagnoses, such as autism spectrum disorder, cerebral palsy, traumatic brain injury, sensory disability, and intellectual disability (Beukelman & Light 2020; Camilleri & Pedersen 2019; Doak & Doak 2017). For persons with severe communication disabilities, access to justice is an essential tool to counter the discrimination and violence they commonly face (Beqiraj et al 2017; Bornman et al 2016) These individuals are often denied access to justice—especially participation in the court system—due to factors such as their own limited communication skills, a lack of information (on the side of both persons with disabilities and legal practitioners), legal practitioners’ insufficient training and inadequate knowledge, as well as limited resources in the court system. These factors contribute to a lack of awareness of court accommodations and inevitably result in such accommodations not being available (Cremin 2016; Dagut & Morgan 2003; Flynn 2016; Gooding et al 2017)
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