Judge Who Could Not Tell His Right From His Left and Other Tales of Learning Disabilities

• NCJ Number: 125882
• Journal: Buffalo Law Review Volume: 37 Issue: 3 Dated: (Fall 1988-89) Pages: 739-750
• Author(s): J Gallet
• Date Published: 1989
• Length: 12 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Presentation
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Edited transcript of a lecture presented on April 7, 1989, at the Law School of the State University of New York at Buffalo.

Annotation

This address by a New York City family court judge with dyslexia, a learning disability, describes his emotional reactions to his disability and how he has maximized his strengths and compensated for his disability to maximize his achievements and contributions to society.

Abstract

Judge Jeffry Gallet recounts the nature of his dyslexia and how it has affected his perceptions of himself as a person in the context of academic and professional expectations and performance. Low self-esteem was engendered by authority figures and peers who attributed his learning disability to low intelligence and a general inability to learn. He still wrestles with this low self esteem as he analyzes the nature of his handicap and how he has dealt with it, thanks to the support and guidance of those who recognized his strengths and helped him compensate for his limitations. The theme of his address is that handicapped persons must be guided in recognizing that their disabilities are limited in hampering normative functioning, that their strengths must be maximized, and that the effects of their disabilities can diminish through creative strategies of compensation.