I asked the State Bar of Georgia for six accommodations. Two were partially
granted, and the ones that mattered most came apart over the following six weeks. This page is what
I learned, written for the person who is about to make the same request.
The disclaimer. I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice. This is one
person’s documented experience next to the government’s own published materials, which are all
linked.
What an accommodation request is, and what it is not
Under ADA Title II, a reasonable modification is a change to a policy, practice, or procedure so
that a disabled person can take part in a program on equal terms. The regulation is at
28 C.F.R.
§ 35.130(b)(7).
In a bar grievance, that means the process, not the outcome. You are not asking anyone to decide
your complaint differently. You are asking to be able to participate in it.
That distinction turned out to be the single most important thing in my file, and I did not
understand how important it was until it was used against me.
Keep the request separate from the merits
Put your accommodation request in its own email, with its own subject line, sent on its own day if
you can manage it.
Here is why. On the record, in writing, a Deputy General Counsel described my access request as
one that “may be directed less toward obtaining accommodation for a functional limitation” and more
toward “securing a particular substantive outcome” or “a basis for further legal action against the
State Bar.”
Asking for access was recast as a tactic. When your request travels inside an email about the
merits of your complaint, you have handed the institution the raw material for that reading. Separate
emails do not prevent it. They make it much harder to sustain.
The full record of how the request was characterised .
They questioned the disability
Ask for the four things that make an accommodation real
An accommodation you cannot rely on is not an accommodation. It is a coupon. These four asks are
what turn a promise into something you can plan around.
- A written determination. Granted, denied, or deferred, in writing, on each
specific item. Not a friendly email that gestures at cooperation. - A date. When will the determination issue. An open-ended process is a denial
that never has to be written down. - A named contact and where they are published. Ask both in the same sentence. A
name without a public listing does not survive a staff change or a vacation. - What happens if the accommodation fails. If the accessible route stops working,
who do I tell, and under what procedure. This is the one nobody answers, and it is the one you will
need.
The specific asks that were worth making
These came out of my own disability, which involves substantial bilateral hand dysfunction, severe
chronic pain, and reduced joint mobility. Yours will differ. The pattern may still be useful.
- Written communication instead of phone calls. Granted May 4, 2026.
- Accessible electronic formats. Granted May 4, 2026. Image-only PDFs and no-reply
mailboxes arrived anyway. - Keeping recipients on replies. Not granted in practice. Recipients were stripped
from replies repeatedly, which meant rebuilding the distribution list by hand, which is precisely the
task my hands cannot do. - A route in that does not require a CAPTCHA or a phone call. Asked May 18, 2026.
Never answered. The answer in practice was the same flagged form, re-sent, CAPTCHA and all. - Human confirmation that a submission was placed in the file. Asked April 30,
2026. Never answered. This is the one that would have prevented the entire dispute.
That last one deserves its own line. The Bar’s process turns entirely on documents reaching a
file. There is no published step where a person confirms it happened.
What happens when it does not is here.
What “granted” turned out to mean
On May 4, 2026 the Bar granted accommodations in writing. On May 13 it approved an accommodation
request. Those were real and I record them as real.
Then, over six weeks:
- May 12. The Bar wrote that it is “not a public entity.”
- May 15. The correspondence was shut down.
- May 26. The accessible route offered was the same flagged form, CAPTCHA included.
- May 29. The Bar wrote that it is “not subject to Title II.”
- June 2. My role on my own matter was narrowed to “accommodation requests only,” and the ADA
contact was out of office at the escalation points. - June 17. The accommodation offered was the voice-to-text software I had already bought myself,
for thousands of dollars.
The full granted and taken away record, dated
Use the free outside route at the same time, not afterwards
This is the thing I would change if I could do it again. I treated the institution’s own process as
the first step and the outside routes as an escalation. They are not sequential. They are parallel,
and they are free.
- Your state ADA coordinator’s office. In Georgia this is the
State ADA Coordinator’s Office. I sent them
a technical assistance package on April 30, 2026. They treated it as a recognizable ADA access
concern, contacted the Bar directly, and offered model materials. Within hours of that contact on
May 6, the Bar designated a contact, began sending individual written acknowledgments for the first
time, and partially granted two of six accommodations. - The U.S. Department of Justice. ADA.gov accepts an online report or a mailed
complaint form for disability discrimination by state and local government, and says its initial
review may take up to three months. The routes are mapped here.
One caution so this page stays honest. The State ADA Coordinator’s Office has no enforcement
power. It engaged, it helped, and it moved the Bar within hours. It cannot make anyone act. Knowing
that in advance would have changed how I sequenced everything.
Keep everything, and keep the right things
- Delivery confirmations from the institution’s own system, not your sent folder.
- Read receipts, where your mail client offers them.
- The dates you first asked each question, because “first asked” and “asked again” is the whole
story of an unanswered request. - Screenshots of the public pages you relied on, with the date. Public pages change. The Georgia
form is the proof of that.
Frequently asked questions
Should I send an accommodation request separately from my complaint?
Yes. On the record in this matter, a Deputy General Counsel described an access request as one that may be directed less toward obtaining accommodation for a functional limitation and more toward securing a particular substantive outcome. A separate email makes that reading much harder to sustain.
What should I ask for in an accommodation request?
A written determination on each numbered item, a date by which it will issue, a named contact and where that person is published, the published grievance procedure for disability complaints, and the procedure to follow if an accommodation stops working.
What if an accommodation is granted and then stops working?
That is what happened here. Accommodations were granted on May 4 and approved on May 13, 2026, and then over six weeks the recipients were stripped from replies, the correspondence was shut down, and the accommodation offered was software already purchased at the complainant’s own expense.
Do I have to use the institution’s process before filing elsewhere?
No. Both free outside routes run in parallel. In this record the state ADA coordinator’s office contacted the Bar directly, and within hours the Bar designated a contact and partially granted two of six accommodations.
Corrections: this page is built from federal materials and from correspondence
I received. If any fact here is incomplete or inaccurate, identify the page, the sentence, and the
supporting document, and I will review and correct the record.
I have invited the State Bar of Georgia to identify any inaccuracy on this
page. As of the date above, it has identified none.