Deaf woman alleges exclusion from jury service due to disability
Ms Joan Clarke, a mother of two, claims she is entitled to be facilitated to serve on a jury by means of a sign language interpreter and the failure to allow her do so earlier this year breaches her rights under the Constitution and European Convention on Human Rights Act.
Ms Clarke says she wanted to perform “this important civic duty” on the same basis as everyone else and was frustrated at not being allowed to do so. She also felt she was being discriminated against because she is a deaf person and was being treated as inferior to a hearing person, she said in an affidavit.
