Good morning, Mastodon family!
With all that is going on, this verbose toot that I am about to write may seem insignificant, but I just had to share with my fellow #blind community members, particularly those who work in #law and have served in #court proceedings, specifically on a #jury. Especially since January 20 of this year, I've been earnestly praying for opportunities to speak up for my disability community. One of my answers came in the form of a jury summons to serve in municipal court later in March. This came, of course, via regular mail, a printed letter which I read using Seeing AI. The letter included a form that needed to be returned within ten days of receipt, so I called the number provided to ask for an accessible form and to discuss the necessary reasonable accommodations.
The first person to answer my call was doing a lot of rattling of things on the desk and shuffling of papers, to the point that I asked if she could hear me. Finally, she said, "Oh, ma'am, I thought you were a recording. Let me transfer you to the person in charge of that court."
When the next person answered, I explained that I am blind and asked what accessible accommodation was available for submitting the form which came with my jury summons. She said, "Ma'am, if you are traveling that week, just mark the box on that form and you can serve at another time."
I said, "No, ma'am, I am not traveling. I am blind (spelling the word blind)."
The response was, "Oh, I thought you said you were flying. Don't you have someone there with you to help you with this form?"
"No, ma'am, do you have a digital version of this form?"
"No, we don't, but I'll just mark down that you are incapable of serving."
"No, ma'am! I will find a way to submit this form."
After a call to the mayor's office, I contacted #Aira, and with a lot of trial and error, my wonderful agent, Nicki captured the form, filled it out on her end and Emailed it back to me. I forwarded it on to the representative of the municipal court, and received a polite response this morning, saying that my completed summons had been received and that I was excused per our phone conversation yesterday.
I responded, explaining that I was *not* trying to get out of jury duty, that I own my home, work and pay taxes, and that serving as a juror is not only my responsibility, but my civil right. I clarified my request for reasonable accommodation per the Americans With Disabilities Act and further said that I had contacted the mayor's office about the inaccessibility of this process.
It was not long before I received an email response, apologizing for the misunderstanding, that I had been marked as serving and that my concerns had been passed on to the court administrator.
Whew! All that, just to serve on a jury! We'll see how things go later in March. At least I got the proverbial brick wall to move a tiny bit, anyway. Thanks for reading this. If there is anything that you think I need to know from the prospective of a blind juror, feel free to comment.
