ADA Matters Because All People Matter

A DISABLED DAD’S ADA MATTERS
Georgia on My Mind
STATE BAR OF GEORGIA • CITY OF BROOKHAVEN • GIRMA, GMA, AND GALLAGHER BASSETT • GEORGIA POST • STATE ADA COORDINATOR’S OFFICE

John J. Shiptenko Told a Disabled Dad: “use your voice-to-text tool”

As of October 17, 2026. Times are Eastern.

On June 17, 2026 I told the State Bar of Georgia its grievance form did not work for me. Thirty three minutes later John J. Shiptenko answered: use the voice software you already pay for. That answer went to two people out of the sixteen I had copied.

Call it what it is: burden shifting.

At 3:48 PM on June 17, 2026, I wrote to John J. Shiptenko, the State Bar of Georgia lawyer who handled my ADA requests. I told Shiptenko the grievance form sent to me the day before was the same form I had flagged a month earlier. I wrote: “It is not a fillable form that works with my voice to text workflow. I use assistive technology because I have limited functional use of both hands.”

At 4:22 PM, thirty three minutes later, Shiptenko answered: “You don’t have to use the grievance form to file a grievance. You appear to have the ability to use your voice-to-text tool to create a PDF.” And: “we are happy to accommodate you by accepting a grievance document generated with your existing voice-to-text tool.”

My existing tool. The one I bought. The Bar’s accommodation was my own software.

The day before, at 1:43 PM on June 16, 2026, Shiptenko had attached the grievance form and listed three ways to file without a CAPTCHA or a phone call. The email closed: “I hope one of those options works for you.” Every one of the three started from that same form or from a document I would make myself.

Then the room got cut. My 3:48 PM email went to Shiptenko with sixteen people copied, including the Bar’s Executive Director, its Chief Operating Officer, its Director of Human Resources and its President. The 4:22 PM answer went to me, with two copied: William D. NeSmith III and Adrienne D. Nash. Fourteen people dropped. I had written in that same email: “You also again removed the broader distribution I had included. I restored it.” Shiptenko removed it again.

I used the door Shiptenko opened. At 7:19 PM that night I filed a grievance against Shiptenko, as a document made with my own voice to text tool. I wrote: “An accommodation I paid for is not an accommodation the Bar provided.”

What I Allege:

  1. The barrier, reported. I allege that at 3:48 PM on June 17, 2026 I told John J. Shiptenko in writing that the Bar’s grievance form “is not a fillable form that works with my voice to text workflow.”
  2. Burden shifting. I allege that at 4:22 PM the same day Shiptenko wrote, “You appear to have the ability to use your voice-to-text tool to create a PDF.”
  3. My tool, called their accommodation. I allege that in the same email Shiptenko wrote, “we are happy to accommodate you by accepting a grievance document generated with your existing voice-to-text tool.”
  4. The same form, again. I allege that on June 16, 2026, at 1:43 PM, Shiptenko attached the grievance form I had already reported, and wrote, “I hope one of those options works for you.”
  5. Shiptenko cut everyone else off the email. I allege that my 3:48 PM email copied sixteen people and that Shiptenko’s 4:22 PM answer copied two, as of the native emails I hold.
  6. It appears to me that the Bar’s answer to a reported access barrier was to tell a disabled man to work around it, at his own cost, and to call that an accommodation.

What It Did to Me:

I wrote it the same night: “My private software is not the Bar’s ADA program.” I pay for the assistive technology that lets me write. The State Bar of Georgia looked at that and saw its solution.

Is this how they would treat their own family or friends that were disabled?

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