Neurodiversity in the Courtroom: Expanding Jury Service Accessibility Beyond Physical Disability

The Americans with Disabilities Act has required equal access to jury service for decades; however, efforts to accommodate jurors with disabilities have been slow to develop beyond some minor accommodations for physical disabilities. While neurodivergent people frequently struggle to navigate a world catered toward neurotypical people, jury service remains inaccessible for many neurodivergent people who need accommodations to attend trial and engage in jury deliberations. If courts and advocates do not consider how to develop accommodations to secure the service of neurodivergent jurors, they will miss out on the unique skillsets that neurodivergent people can bring to resolving disputes. Disabled jurors have a legal right to access jury service. Further, neurodivergent criminal defendants remain uniquely disadvantaged in the criminal legal system—a dynamic that is exacerbated by an absence of neurodivergent jurors serving as a jury of these defendants’ peers. Finally, plaintiffs and defendants in civil disputes need a jury less prone to decide the case on biased grounds, a need that can only fully be met by employing a representative number of neurodivergent jurors. This Comment explores existing accommodation structures for neurodivergent people in other aspects of society, most notably employment, while also considering the current resources that courts can access in order to propose an initial accommodation structure that can be deployed in the courtroom.