Making Legal Education Equitable

Washburn Law educates countless students who may require accommodations in order to achieve their dreams of becoming a lawyer. Even Sen. Bob Dole, BA ’52, JD ’52, H ’69, H ’85, who sustained an injury to his right hand during World War II, required a recording device to learn the lecture materials.

Danielle Dempsey-Swopes, ’92, associate dean for student affairs at Washurn University School of Law, elaborates on how the law school is working with students to ensure an equitable education for all students.

Can you start by telling me a little bit about your role at Washburn Law?

As associate dean for student affairs, I am responsible for the mentorship program, which trains our second and third-year students to mentor and support the first-year students during their first semester. I’m responsible for our new student orientation program, which is probably my favorite time of the year. It is fun to meet the new students and help them develop connections in the law school with each other and faculty, and really set them up for a positive experience for their three years of law school. I also help students with their character fitness sections of bar applications. I’m responsible for all the student organizations. We have about 30 of them and they all want to do something great. Sometimes the biggest challenge that I have is encouraging them to collaborate to do whatever that great thing is. I am the person who will assist students when they have a car accident, a death in the family, a challenging life experience, or questioning whether law school is right for them. I am also responsible for programs and activities that address the stress of law school and help students maintain their mental health and their well-being while they’re here. It’s a great job, and very rewarding to be a part of the students’ transformation into legal professionals.

What goes into your decision(s) when making accommodations for students?

There are accommodations that we make because, as lawyers and as a university, we’re required to follow the law and the Americans with Disabilities Act and its amendments. The law requires that we allow students to make requests for reasonable academic accommodations due to a disability. We provide a form and questionnaire to the student and detailed documentation from their physician. The documentation gives us information about their diagnosis, and especially how that diagnosis impacts them as a student. A good example is a student who provides documentation of a hearing impairment. For reasonable accommodations we might assure certain seating in the classroom, certain proximity to the microphones in the classroom, hearing devices, or other kinds of accommodations that might make it so that a person with a hearing impairment has the opportunity to be successful, or at least level the playing field with reasonable accommodations that allow that student to get a legal education despite the hearing impairment.

We provide reasonable accommodations for physical and medical challenges as well as for learning disabilities and mental health related diagnoses that may not be visible. Our most common reasonable accommodations relate to diagnoses of depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder. The most common reasonable accommodation supports are extended time for exams and exams that are taken in a distraction-reduced environment. I’ve had a student who was diagnosed with a disease in the middle of the semester and needed to complete a series of immunotherapy shots in an IV, and they couldn’t do it here in Topeka. They were going to feel lousy at times and miss classes, but we provided recordings and notes and made sure that that student could participate in class despite having this medical challenge.

We provide reasonable disability accommodations because we are required to, and also because we are a student-centered university and want to make sure we provide the best environment and opportunity for student learning. We support students who need reasonable accommodations due to disability, and we often provide support that is not related to a disability. For example, we work with the student who’s also a parent and may need to bring their child to class, or the student who has an emergency surgery, or death in the family. We have such an amazing and wonderful group of faculty, they’re always willing to listen and say, “OK, how can we support this student towards graduation?” and if there is a reasonable way for us to help them, we’re always going to do it.

Can you tell me about a time you witnessed the impact these accommodations had on our students?

One that’s kind of famous was five or six years ago there was a young man here who was visually impaired, and he had his service dog with him every single day he was present. The service dog and the reasonable accommodations provided helped make it possible for him to graduate. He has gone on to do great work as an attorney. When the school compiled the class pictures, we included a photo of the service dog along with the other members of class.

I think it’s helpful for people to understand that reasonable accommodations are very individualized and tailored for the impact of the specific diagnosis. It is important for students to make their requests early and provide the required documentation as soon as possible. We carefully consider each request to determine whether it is reasonable. It is important for law students to know that their requests and documentation are confidential as well.

What is something you want alumni to know about accommodations and what that means?

We hold students with reasonable accommodations, either the legally required ones or the ones that we do because we’re good people, accountable to complete the same rigorous course work to graduate. We may change “how” they do certain things in law school, but we don’t change “what” is required of a law student. For example, we may change how, when, or where a student takes an exam, but they are still required to take the exam and demonstrate the same proficiency as others before they can graduate. Students with reasonable accommodations are required to demonstrate the same important skills as others and demonstrate the same understanding of the law. We don’t change what’s required to be a lawyer, but we may adjust how they do the things that are required to reach that goal.

I’m always hoping that people realize that law students with reasonable accommodations don’t get a pass or an advantage over others. But what we do is level the playing field so that they have the opportunity to be successful.