Have you had personal experience with disability? If so, please describe.

I was born without legs, above the knee. As a result of very strongwilled parents, I essentially became an experiment, and was one of the first little children to be fitted with artificial legs. I began using prostheses without assistance when I was two years old. I was aggressively mainstreamed, and was lucky to face little overt discrimination. When I was in High School, however, I had two experiences which made me fully aware that people categorized me based on my disability: I was asked to leave a summer camp because the directors thought my legs were too much trouble; and two years later, when I enrolled in another program that involved living with a family abroad, I learned that my family placement had been determined because there was a mentally retarded child in the home and the family wanted to "learn how to deal with a child with a disability."

It was really after the two instances that I began to realize that life for a person with a disability can often include a fight that no one else recognizes. Since becoming an adult (at least chronologically), I have worked as an advocate for people with disabilities. Between college and Law School I worked for the March of Dimes, preparing grant and funding proposals, and helping to organize the Westchester/Putnam/Rockland WalkAmerica. I have for several years served on the Office of Court Administration Committee on Access to the Courts for Persons with Disabilities.

Currently, I am the vice-chair and member of the Board of a national disability advocacy organization, the Amputee Coalition of America. This organization’s mandate is to educate, support and advocate for people with limb loss and limb difference of all kinds – whether as a result of a congenital defect, disease such as diabetes or cancer, or an accident.

As a member of the Board and an officer, I have been involved in many issues of importance to our community, including most recently working as a member of a committee dedicated to promoting mandatory prosthetics coverage in health and medical coverage policies. This issue is of paramount importance to persons with limb loss, as insurance companies are more and more limiting coverage to one prosthesis per lifetime. (Imagine, only having one pair of shoes per lifetime!)

I also recently presented a program, Wills and Living Wills, to an ACA support group at the Hospital for Special Surgery.
 

Is the courthouse in which you work accessible to people with all kinds of disabilities?

N/A – I am not yet a judge, and therefore do not believe that this question is aimed at me. However, I do want to note that my personal experience has been that the Surrogate’s Court is not fully accessible, and I will certainly continue my work to change this if I am elected as the Surrogate.
 

Has a person with a disability appeared before your court as a juror or litigant? If so, please indicate what, if any, problems arose? And how were they handled?

N/A – I am not yet a judge.
 

Do you believe that a deaf or a blind person can serve as a juror?

Of course. In my work on the OCA Committee referred to above, we have made significant efforts to ensure that assistive devices are available in the courts, and also to present legal and sensitivity training programs to the staff and the judges.

Several years ago, the New York Times published a Letter to the Editor I wrote, in which I advocated on behalf of a blind judge whose ability was questioned because of his disability.
 

Have you sought any rulings that directly touch upon disability rulings?

No.
 

Are (should) mentally ill defendants treated differently from others? If so, how?

Reasonable accommodations must be made for those with mental disability or illness, just as they should be made for physical disability or illness. Special needs of such persons must be taken on a case-by-case basis and be reasonably accommodated by the Court. No one should be impeded in their right to seek justice before the Court because of any form of disability, and I will continue to work to reform the Court and ensure that belief becomes reality.

In the Surrogate’s Court, guardians ad litem are regularly appointed for persons with disabilities. It is one of the most important jobs of the Surrogate to ensure that these appointments are given to individuals who understand and are sensitive to the needs of the disabled person, not simply awarded on the basis of cronyism or by rote.
 

Are you willing to hire on a job share/full time basis a qualified law clerk/secretary with a disability?

Yes, of course.
 

How will you work within the court structure to assure the accessibility of all facilities of the courts? Or will you participate in the Committee for People with Disabilities and/or training?

I continue to be a member of the Office of Court Administration Committee on Access to the Courts for Persons with Disabilities. This committee has made strides in Manhattan – for instance finally providing truly accessible entrances to some of our courts – but the work must continue. Similarly, although we have conducted training for judges and staff, more needs to be accomplished. I hope to continue to work very closely with Justice Roslyn Richter, the chair of that committee, on these and other issues.

No matter the outcome of the election, I will continue to harbor the same level of passion for and commitment to the issue of accessibility within our legal system as I have to date.