  We present synthetic spectra for circumstellar disks that are heated by
radiation from a central brown dwarf. Under the assumption of vertical
hydrostatic equilibrium, our models yield scaleheights for brown dwarf disks in
excess of three times those derived for classical T Tauri (CTTS) disks. If the
near-IR excess emission observed from brown dwarfs is indeed due to
circumstellar disks, then the large scaleheights we find could have a
significant impact on the optical and near-IR detectability of such systems.
Our radiation transfer calculations show that such highly flared disks around
brown dwarfs will result in a large fraction of obscured sources due to
extinction of direct starlight by the disk over a wide range of sightlines. The
obscured fraction for a 'typical' CTTS is less than 20%. We show that the
obscured fraction for brown dwarfs may be double that for CTTS, but this
depends on stellar and disk mass. We also comment on possible confusion in
identifying brown dwarfs via color-magnitude diagrams: edge-on CTTS display
similar colors and magnitudes as a face-on brown dwarf plus disk systems.
