Developing Disability Cultural Competency in Your Practice

According to the 2020 Census, there are 122 million multicultural persons in the United States (40 percent of the total population). Hence, as lawyers, it is inevitable that our clients will be multicultural. Culture shapes a person’s identity, behaviors, communications, beliefs, values, and customs. Yet, many of us lack knowledge and understanding of those who have different backgrounds from our own.

The legal profession is a service-based industry. American Bar Association (ABA) Model Rule of Professional Conduct 1.1 requires a lawyer to provide competent representation to a client. To create an effective attorney-client relationship—one built on mutual trust, confidence, and communication—we need to be aware of, understand, and respect the needs and cultural differences of the clients we serve. We also need to understand how our own culture impacts that relationship. Cultural competency facilitates diversity, equity, inclusion, and nondiscrimination in the justice system.

The legal profession recognizes cultural competency as a key component of professionally responsible representation. Many states require continuing legal education coursework in diversity, inclusion, and the elimination of bias. In 2022, the ABA amended Standard 303 (Curriculum) of the ABA’s Standards and Rules of Procedures for Approval of Law Schools to require that “a law school shall provide education on bias, cross-cultural competency, and racism. . . .” In addition, pursuant to Standard 4.4 of the ABA’s Standards for the Provision of Civil Legal Aid, “[a] legal aid organization should ensure that its staff and governing body has the awareness, attitude, skills, knowledge, and resources necessary to provide assistance in a culturally competent manner. . . .” Also, in 2021 the ABA issued Formal Opinion 500, “Language Access in the Client-Lawyer Relationship,” which recognizes the importance “that the lawyer understands the client’s communications, bearing in mind potential differences in cultural and social assumptions that might impact meaning.”

In the cultural competency conversation, disability culture is often forgotten. Yet, an estimated 61 million adults (one in four) in the United States are living with a disability; many have multiple marginalized identities.

How can we, as attorneys, deve-lop disability cultural competency?

• Examine your own attitudes and perceptions about disability, including your unconscious biases.
• Learn about disability culture, history, and laws, as well as the barriers to education, employment, housing, and health care.
• Take the ABA Wide 21-Day Disability Equity Habit-Building Challenge to learn more about the disability community.
• Understand the concepts of ableism and disability justice.
• Learn the appropriate language and etiquette to effectively communicate and interact with disabled persons.
• Interact and engage with individuals who have different types of disabilities.
• Network and build partnerships with the disability community.
• Ensure that your website, virtual and in-person meetings, documents, and communications are accessible for disabled individuals.

Together, these steps will get you on your way to developing disability cultural competence—an ongoing process.