Southwestern Law School Professor Meera E. Deo, The Honorable Vaino Spencer Chair, has directed the first comprehensive empirical analysis of law students with disabilities in the United States, offering a rare national portrait of who these students are, how they experience law school, and where institutions are falling short. 

“One in five law students lives with a disability,” Deo said. “Until we analyzed the data, I didn’t know the number was that high. That’s a significant segment of the student body, and it should reshape how we think about student support. 

The 2025 LSSSE Annual Report, Disability in Law School, shows that the majority of disabilities reported by law students are invisible mental health conditions—most commonly anxiety, depression, and ADD/ADHD. Despite some setbacks, disabled students remain deeply engaged across academic and professional activities. 

Deo notes that this level of engagement is often overlooked. “Students with disabilities go above and beyond in law school,” she said. “They spend more time than others preparing for class and participating in class discussions and are more likely to work with professors on research, join moot court, and lead student organizations.” 

Yet the data also reveal significant disparities in institutional support. Disabled students report lower levels of belonging and satisfaction with advising, career services, and job-search support. They are less likely to feel valued by their law school and more likely to struggle with wellbeing and outside responsibilities such as work or family obligations. As Deo notes, “We are failing them if we expect them to do this on their own, instead of providing the institutional support they need to thrive.” 

For Southwestern, the project reflects a broader commitment to understanding and expanding access within legal education. As The Honorable Vaino Spencer Chair and Director of the Law School Survey of Student Engagement (LSSSE), Deo has built her career documenting the lived experiences of students whose needs often go unmeasured. She is also a nationally recognized scholar of race, gender, and inequality in legal education, and author of Unequal Profession: Race and Gender in Legal Academia (Stanford University Press), the first national empirical study of law faculty using an intersectional lens. Deo also co-leads the Survey on the Engagement of Law Faculty and Staff (SELFS), which collects national data from law faculty and student-facing staff. Her mixed-method research has been widely cited for reshaping national conversations about the profession. 

The demographic patterns revealed in the study challenge longstanding assumptions. Two-thirds of non-binary students report at least one disability. Disability prevalence rises sharply with age, reaching 31 percent among students in their thirties. Across all groups, most reported disabilities are mental health or developmental conditions—an indicator of both the pressures facing today’s law students and the need for more responsive institutional structures. 

“Our findings confirm that students with disabilities are giving their all.” Deo said. “It’s not enough that law schools provide legally required accommodations. We can and should do more to understand their needs and provide tailored support.”