Kim Irby urges courts to use communication supports so people with aphasia can participate

Kim Irby, a speech pathologist with the National Aphasia Association, told New Mexico Courts staff in a virtual briefing that people with aphasia — a language disorder most often caused by stroke — can participate meaningfully in legal proceedings when courts provide basic communication supports.

Irby said aphasia affects speaking, understanding, reading and writing but "does not impact intelligence," and she urged court staff to use simple tactics — short sentences, extra response time, keywords, gestures and multimodal options — to verify what people with aphasia mean rather than equating communication difficulty with incapacity.

A nut graf: Irby summarized a literature review and several court cases to argue courts frequently encounter people with aphasia, documented accommodations are rare, and judicial competency determinations can be inconsistent. She cited Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and a Department of Justice bulletin that require covered entities, including state courts, to provide aids and services to ensure effective communication when reasonable.

Irby defined aphasia and demonstrated two common presentations with short video…