Investigating court accommodations for persons with severe communication disabilities: perspectives of international legal experts

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.