Two judges spoke to members of Colorado’s legal community last week about the ways their disabilities have affected how they operate in the courtroom, and urged lawyers to be mindful about the duty to make accommodations in the justice system.

“I had a juror recently, when asked the question ‘Do you have a disability that may impact your ability to serve,’ he said, ‘I have hearing aids. I have a hard time hearing,'” said Denver District Court Judge Anita M. Schutte. “I said, “Me too! Here’s what we got.'”

Schutte, who has worn hearing aids since she was a child but has experienced severe hearing loss in recent years, said people with disabilities tend to be “self-accommodating” because they do not want to be a burden, regardless of their legal rights to an accommodation.

For people with hearing difficulties or back problems, “I give them permission. ‘Stand up.’ Or we have frequent breaks,” she said. “That way they don’t feel like a burden and they get to participate as everyone else does. Being open about my disabilities hopefully gives others permission to do the same.”

The July 16 panel discussion at the Alfred A. Arraj U.S. Courthouse in Denver featured members of the Colorado Disability Bar Association, which Schutte helped create in 2021 with Court of Appeals Judge Sueanna P. Johnson.

“When I was pregnant and I couldn’t see my screen because my belly was in the way, I literally said, ‘Could I get an arm for my computer monitor?’ It was like 100 bucks,” said Johnson. “And it ended up being used by people around the office who had back problems and different things.”

Johnson, who is visually impaired, acknowledged there are certain accommodations that are difficult to provide without advance notice.

“But if there are small things we can do to help make it better for you, your witness or co-counsel or whatever, you’re helping your client, you’re helping yourself and you’re helping the practice of law by having these discussions,” she said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than one-quarter of adults in the U.S. have a disability, with cognitive and mobility-related conditions being the most common. In 2008, Congress amended the Americans with Disabilities Act, declaring that the law creates a “broad scope of protection” in response to contrary U.S. Supreme Court interpretations of the ADA.

Statistically, “at least one person in your case is gonna have a disability,” said attorney Alison L. Butler, referring to lawyers, witnesses, litigants, judges and court staff.

Schutte recalled that prior to joining the bench, she was supervising a younger attorney in court but the judge was covering his mouth with his hand and not speaking into the microphone.

“So, I interrupted the proceeding politely and said, ‘Would you mind moving your hand or speaking into the microphone?'” she said. The judge did neither.

“I was humiliated and angry and realized I didn’t have anybody who would ‘get it,'” said Schutte.

Johnson similarly described that in her time as a lawyer, it would be difficult for her to see numbers on evidence in securities fraud cases. She would need to re-write the text on sticky notes, until she acquired an iPad.

“I have to over-prepare,” she said. “If I want to read something on the bench, I can’t just do it on the fly.”

Spencer Kontnik, an attorney with partial or full hearing loss in both ears, has sued the Office of Attorney Regulation Counsel on behalf of applicants who were denied accommodations in taking Colorado’s bar exam. He also sued the Denver County Court in 2022 after a judge dismissed him from being a juror on account of his disability. Although Kontnik did not prevail, he received an apology from the court’s presiding judge.

“I have an app on my phone that is transcribing everything that is happening,” he said. “That is the accommodation that I rely on when I go into the courtroom, when I have depositions, when I have any sort of legal proceedings.”

Kontnik said that everyone in his firm uses the feature — known as Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) — regardless of whether they have a disability, as a tool to better process information. He believed every judge should also have CART interpretation for their own benefit.

Kontnik recalled the first time he used CART for oral arguments in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, the staff brought in a television monitor on which everyone could see the realtime captions.

“It was fantastic,” he said. “Everybody is relying on the accommodations to understand and make sure they are hearing and processing what is happening.”

The discussion was sponsored by the Faculty of Federal Advocates.