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Federal Crown counsel Jason Mitschele, here with his companion, Boris, is blind and relies on many kinds of technology in order to do his job. New and improved technologies allow lawyers to overcome many practice-related challenges posed by their disabilities. BY JUDY VAN RHIJN F rom dictaphones and faxes to BlackBerrys and memory sticks, from overhead projec- tors to PowerPoint presenta- tions, from conference calls to web teleconferencing; in the last 10 years lawyers have ridden a wave of tech- nology that has seen them emerge from piles of files, morphing into travel-light, constantly contactable service providers with paperless or virtual offices. Gener- ally, the changes have been dramatic, but the changes for lawyers with disabilities have been career- and even life-altering. One of the most dramatic stories of how technology enabled one man's life in the law to continue as his disability gradually worsened is that of late On- tario Superior Court justice Sam Filer. Filer suffered from ALS for 20 years. He lost his speech within 18 months of his diagnosis, and his strength and mobil- ity gradually decreased until his death in 2006. His widow, human rights advocate Toni Silberman, recalls that as his ill- ness progressed so did the technology he used, with the help of the Assisted Tech- nology Clinic at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto. "When Sam's fingers still had some mobility, he used a device like a label- maker that punched out words and let- ters like a tickertape," says Silberman. "Then he used something that looked like a laptop, which had a number of devices affiliated with it. He made the most use of a device that was activated by Morse code. As he did the dots and dashes, it would move to the letters that they translated to on an overlay where the screen would normally be. It had the capacity to speak and had a printout like an adding machine tape." Later, Filer graduated to a regular lap- top that had a scanning capability. He would activate it when he got to a row and then to the letter. The program had a predictive capacity, so after Filer ac- tivated a few letters, it would fill in the word. "The key to any technology is the activation device," says Silberman. "Sam used a myoelectric switch, which is sen- sitive to muscle movement. It was origi- nally taped in his palm because he had very strong movement in his baby finger. As his muscles weakened, it followed his muscle groups, from his cheek to his forehead, where he had a strong muscle that reacted to moving his eyebrow up and down. It was an 18-year progression until he retired in January 2004." The court administration accommo- dated Filer's continued career by allocat- ing him exclusively ex parte motions that didn't require the presence of counsel. "Technology was a lifesaver," says Silber- man. "It enabled him to keep working in a profession he adored and to contribute to the administration of justice. Had he been self-employed or in another line of beyond disability www. C ANADIAN Law ye rmag.com M ARCH 2008 39