Cultural Competency and the Deaf Community

Megan Kaleah, L’22, offers a helpful visual representation to illustrate the challenges that deaf clients encounter when seeking legal representation. She starts with a large circle representing the entire pool of available attorneys. A slightly smaller circle inside of that larger circle represents the attorneys with the specific area of legal expertise that the deaf client seeks. Inside that circle is an even smaller group of attorneys who are competent in the specific area of law, and compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. And finally comes the smallest circle of all – one representing lawyers who check all the boxes and are culturally competent, fully able to support their deaf clients’ needs.

Kaleah took on the concept of cultural competency in her second-year research project, bringing together two of the topics she’s most passionate about: a lawyer’s professional responsibility, and supporting the Deaf community.

Kaleah first became familiar with that community when a Deaf aunt came to live with her family. Kaleah later decided to pursue American Sign Language as a foreign language in college – and ended up taking programs through two schools at once to pursue an associate’s degree in ASL. “It’s just been one of those things where I felt like I belonged,” said Kaleah. “I need to do whatever I could to identify the needs of the community and bring the awareness to other people.”

In starting her law school experience, Kaleah was interested in finding a way to bring together her interest in legal work and her support for the Deaf community. “I really saw a need for lawyers and other legal professionals who have a sense of what [deaf people’s] needs are,” said Kaleah. “I was hoping that there would be an opportunity for them to come together.” 

That opportunity arose following an incident experienced by a Deaf acquaintance of Kaleah’s. After being pulled over for a traffic violation, her acquaintance was beaten and then arrested by the police. He did not have access to an interpreter when receiving medical treatment, nor when he was held at the police department for processing. He then struggled to find an attorney who understood ADA requirements, eventually landing with an attorney who refused to advocate for an interpreter for his client. “The second I heard his story, I wanted to dig deeper,” said Kaleah.  

For Kaleah, digging deeper took the form of a research project. Working with Professor Jonathan Stubbs, she explored the gap between the legal services provided to hearing clients and to deaf clients. Kaleah writes,

If availability of attorneys is particularly limited, the deaf or hard of hearing person must advocate for themselves just to receive equitable treatment to the attorney’s hearing clients. To do so, they would have to explain the Americans with Disabilities Act to the attorney, who is supposed to be the expert in this professional relationship. This assumes that deaf and hard of hearing individuals are competent in their rights as well. Sometimes attorneys and other professionals get away with discriminating against deaf and hard of hearing persons, simply because the client is not as well versed in their rights.

That’s where the concept of cultural competence comes in. Lawyers who demonstrate cultural competence have the opportunity not only to serve their clients better, but to build better relationships of trust, explained Kaleah. “I think it is very important for lawyers … to be competent not only in the law, but to be competent in how they are working with their specific client,” Kaleah said. “Working with anybody of a different culture, you need to be aware of what their needs are,” she added.

Kaleah used her research to unpack some of the values and communication techniques that are part of Deaf culture. In one section of her study, Kaleah explains that, when working with deaf clients, “it is important to be careful with language choice until one is certain of how someone self-identifies.” Some may identify as Deaf, while some may prefer “hard of hearing,” for example. Having an awareness of the nuances of the Deaf community, Kaleah argues, equips a lawyer to better serve deaf clients.

Using the American Bar Association’s Model Rules of Professional Conduct as a starting point, Kaleah outlines five recommended changes or enhancements to help prepare lawyers to be more culturally competent and better supportive of a wider variety of clients. For example, Rule 1.1 indicates that “a lawyer shall provide competent representation to a client. Competent representation requires the legal knowledge, skill, thoroughness and preparation reasonably necessary for the representation.” But, Kaleah points out, the rule does not specify what is meant by “reasonably necessary,” adding, “a lawyer should be able to identify and understand their [client’s] legal needs.” Kaleah recommended the expansion of this rule to include cultural competence.

Another recommendation focused on Rule 1.4 regarding communications. “When working with deaf and hard of hearing clients, it is more vital for communication to be prioritized,” she writes. Her recommendation called for attorneys to provide their clients with information in a manner that allows the client to fully understand the content.

Her work doesn’t stop with these recommendations. Kaleah hopes to expand upon this initial research. “Oftentimes, we, as a society, do not take the time to look at underserved populations and consider how we can best use our skills to serve them,” she writes. “Sometimes it requires additional effort to educate yourself on the issues. However, any effort is worth it if we are moving toward a more equitable and just legal system.”