It is still early when Magistrate Muhammed Krubally arrives at the Banjul Magistrates’ Court.
asserted
Krubally → arrive → Court
Before the first case, his clerk goes over the day’s proceedings, running through the files and making sure everything is in place.
asserted
everything → go → place
Krubally listens, asks questions, and prepares to preside.
asserted
Krubally → listen → questions
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Then he enters a packed courtroom, where lawyers, witnesses and relatives have gathered for a criminal case.
asserted
lawyers → pledge → case
The room falls quiet.
asserted
room → fall → ?
Krubally cannot see the people before him, but he can hear them.
asserted
he → see → them
A lawyer rises.
asserted
lawyer → rise → ?
A witness speaks.
asserted
witness → speak → ?
Papers move across the room.
asserted
Papers → move → room
At his desk, his computer speaks back to him.
asserted
computer → speak → him
Krubally uses JAWS, or Job Access With Speech, a screen reader that allows him to navigate his computer and read documents and judgements.
asserted
him → use → documents
“This makes my job very easy,” he tells Al Jazeera.
asserted
he → make → Jazeera
He also uses AI-enabled smart glasses to access information and carry out tasks independently.
asserted
He → use → tasks
But technology is only part of how he works.
asserted
he → work → ?
He listens for voices, remembers details and follows the rhythm of proceedings, building a picture of the courtroom through sound.
asserted
He → listen → sound
When necessary, he relies on his clerk.
asserted
he → rely → clerk
At 41, Krubally says he has presided over more than 1,000 civil and criminal cases since joining the bench.
asserted
he → say → bench
In 2016, he became the Gambia’s first visually impaired magistrate.
asserted
he → become → 2016
The Gambia Organisation of the Visually Impaired (GOVI) identifies him as the country’s first person with a visual impairment to hold the position.
asserted
Organisation → identify → position
For Krubally, this is not an experiment in what a visually impaired person might be capable of doing.
uncertain
person → impair → what
It is his profession.
And he has spent a decade doing it.
asserted
he → spend → it
A determination shaped early
Long before he took his place on the bench, Krubally grew up in a village in the Gambia’s Central River Region, the second of nine children.
asserted
Krubally → shape → children
From an early age, he wanted to become a lawyer.
asserted
he → want → age
Part of that ambition was personal: he wanted to defend his own rights.
asserted
he → want → rights
But he also wanted to advocate for others.
asserted
he → want → others
He wanted, he says, “to be the voice for the voiceless”, particularly people with disabilities.
asserted
he → want → disabilities
From primary school through university, Krubally encountered limited resources and an education system that often left visually impaired students like him facing obstacles their sighted classmates did not.
asserted
classmates → encounter → obstacles
He remembers being discouraged by fellow students and some teachers from pursuing the education he wanted.
asserted
he → remember → education
Instead of making him abandon his ambition, he says, their doubts only strengthened it.
asserted
doubts → make → it
“Their discouragement kept me going.
asserted
discouragement → keep → me
I knew what I wanted, and see where I am now,” he says.
asserted
he → know → what
Those experiences later shaped his decision to enter the judiciary.
asserted
experiences → shape → judiciary
“I became a magistrate to change the system, to make it inclusive,” he says.
asserted
he → become → system
But joining one of the country’s most important public institutions did not make those barriers disappear.
asserted
barriers → join → institutions
The Gambia’s Persons with Disabilities Act, passed in 2021, sets out principles including independence, non-discrimination, full participation, equality of opportunity and accessibility.
asserted
Act → pass → opportunity
The law also contains provisions covering employment, public buildings and services, information and access to justice.
asserted
law → contain → justice
Yet putting those rights into practice remains a challenge.
asserted
putting → put → practice
The National Human Rights Commission has identified barriers affecting people with disabilities, including discrimination and difficulties accessing services, education and employment.
asserted
Commission → identify → services
Al Jazeera contacted the Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Welfare for a response on implementation of the act, including measures to improve accessibility, education and employment opportunities for people with disabilities.
asserted
Jazeera → contact → disabilities
The ministry did not respond.
asserted
ministry → respond → ?
…and 59 more, not listed.
The Aporia
