Publishing, the legal research service. She continued with them for two more years after law school because she was unsure about whether she would be able to be successful as a practicing attorney. “But as a reference attorney at
Westlaw, it made me realize I could be a practicing attorney. I would help attorneys answer research questions, and I became an expert researcher. Partners would be calling me, and I learned quickly that those research skills were really invaluable.” She also gained confidence when
she “observed” her quota of court cases as required by the North Carolina bar. “I saw that there were people that
didn’t know the law any better than me, and realized that I could argue a case just as easily as anyone else could.” Following her stint at Westlaw,
she served as a policy analyst for the Georgia Division of Rehabilitation Services, monitoring state and federal policy that affected the acquisition of assistive devices and services for disabled people in Georgia, before starting her private practice in 1998. “I was surprised that people weren’t
concerned about me being blind or asked how I do my job,” she says. “I never told a client before meeting them that I was visually impaired, and they never came in and rejected me as a lawyer. Tere was only one instance when a person questioned me about my capability for being blind.” In private practice, she specialized
in federal and state civil litigation involving areas of discrimination, advising private companies, state agencies, and educational institutions on anti-discrimination laws such as the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). She also served as a court-appointed attorney for children at the center of custody disputes, undertaking train- ing to become a guardian ad litem (GAL) to represent the best interests of a child in a parental rights case, which involves investigating the fam- ily situation and advising the court
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where a child should live and what type of contact the child should have with his or her respective parents. Tough she still has an interest in
these areas, Rorie no longer operates a private practice, she says, because of time constraints and other mitigating factors like the need for a chauffeur to get to the office and the need for an assistant to read and scan the paperwork. At AMAC since 2006, Rorie sits
on the boards of the Smokey Powell Assistive Technology Advisory Board
I never told a client before meeting them that I was visually impaired and they never came in and rejected me as a lawyer.
for the Georgia Academy for the Blind, and the Georgia Libraries for Accessible Statewide Services’ Library Consumer Advisory Council, and conducts occa- sional trainings and presentations. Working for AMAC was an oppor-
tunity she couldn’t refuse and she got in on the ground floor. Founded in 2006, AMAC was a “one-stop shop” for print materials for students with disabilities (hearing, visually, or cognitively impaired) in the state of Georgia. It has since expanded to become a national center. “Students come to us,” Rorie says,
“and we provide the materials, or if we don’t already have them we have the capabilities to produce them efficiently and fast in a digital format.” Rorie developed the braille depart-
ment, which provides braille books to institutions and students across the country. For audio text, they contract transcribers who use Skype. She secured a grant for a two-year
program called Profit, which “provides training for people in prisons to be braille transcribers so they can get work when they are released. It’s now ongoing in 36 prisons. It’s a highly competitive skill and provides a lucrative income.” Rorie’s lifelong fascination with
technological devices for the visually- impaired has made her well-qualified for her job. “It’s such a fast-paced industry,”
she says. “[Tere is] a cell phone that you can hear it talk right out of the box. Tere also are now apps for color identifiers and money identifiers; a bar code reader that includes ingredients; and a way to Google a picture so that it will tell you what it is.” However, her interest in technology
goes beyond assistive technology. “I enjoy tinkering with everything
from stereo equipment to computers,” she says. “I believe that my general interest in all things gadgetry has served me well in applying that interest to the realm of assistive technology.” While the world is more accessible
for those with disabilities, thanks to the efforts of people like Rorie, she says attitudes toward disability have not changed as quickly. “It’s not just people without dis-
abilities,” she says, “but also those with disabilities: the assumption that you aren’t capable or competent or they have to accommodate you; that people with disabilities either can’t do something or should be given special treatment. It’s a huge umbrella that encompasses all of us.” D&B
Tom Calarco is a freelance writer based in Wildwood, Fla.
SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2013 DIVERSITY & THE BAR®
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