Solicitors with hidden disabilities were last week told to 'come out' as being disabled to help remove the negative press that still surrounds the issue.

Sue Maynard Campbell, chairwoman of the Group for Solicitors with Disabilities, said there was a fundamental lack of understanding in the legal profession about the nature of disability discrimination, which prevented disabled clients from receiving an effective service and left lawyers with disabilities unable to compete on a level playing field.


She told delegates that 18% of the general population and 20% of the entire working population are, according to government figures, disabled, but said the Law Society, which provided statistics on the age and ethnicity of solicitors, had no figures on the number of practitioners with a disability.


Ms Maynard Campbell told a session on discrimination in the profession: 'Any information the Law Society does have on disability comes from box-ticking, and it is clear from past findings that people do not tick boxes unless they can see a clear benefit for doing so... Over 50% of those who are disabled have a choice about "coming out" as being disabled, because they have a hidden impairment.'


Ms Maynard Campbell expressed her disappointment that 1 October 2004, the date on which the requirement for physical changes to be made to premises came into force, had not been as big an event as had been anticipated.


She said: 'People do not understand the insidious, constantly draining and undermining nature of the small things. If people can't access a building, documents are not provided in a form the person can read, such as Braille, or if sign language interpreters are not booked for meetings, the disabled lawyer is excluded. These things are relatively easy to get right and are essential for the disabled person.'


She added: 'Access for disabled people is seen as being different, but it isn't. It's about providing us with the same things as everyone else, just in a different way.'