# Plain Language Summary: Disability and Age in Jury Service Nondiscrimination Act

This bill aims to stop courts from automatically excluding people from jury duty simply because they have a disability or are older. Right now, judges and lawyers can dismiss potential jurors based on assumptions about their age or disability status without ever asking whether that person can actually do the job. This bill would require courts to evaluate each person individually instead of making blanket assumptions.

Here's what this means in practice: if you're deaf, use a wheelchair, have arthritis, or are over a certain age, you could currently be removed from a jury pool before anyone even talks to you about whether you're capable of serving. Under this law, courts would have to ask you directly whether you can perform the essential functions of jury duty—like understanding the evidence, following instructions, and participating in discussions—rather than assuming your disability or age makes you unable to do so. If you say you can do it and you can, you'd stay in the jury pool.

The bill also requires courts to provide reasonable accommodations to help people with disabilities serve on juries, similar to what employers must do under disability rights laws. This might include things like providing interpreters, allowing service animals, or adjusting courtroom setup. The goal is to make sure that people with disabilities and older Americans get a fair chance to participate in the justice system like everyone else, rather than being automatically excluded based on stereotypes or outdated assumptions about what they can do.

Disability and Age in Jury Service Nondiscrimination Act

Markey, Edward J.

Disability and Age in Jury Service Nondiscrimination Act This bill prohibits the exclusion of individuals from jury service on the basis of their disability or age. Further, the bill prohibits the disqualification of individuals from jury service who fail to meet certain qualifications (e.g., adequate proficiency in English) on the basis of their disability or infirmity if reasonable accommodations can be made.