[blindlaw] Law School Experiences

Wed Aug 11 19:28:05 UTC 2010

Hi Kolby,
I graduated from UC Davis School of Law in May and have since taken the CA
bar exam. If you have specific questions or would just like to chat, please
feel free to contact me off list.

Aser

On Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 12:04 PM, Graham Hardy <graham.hardy at gmail.com>wrote:

> Kolby,
>
> I might be able to help you a lot. I'm about to start law school this
> September at the University of British Columbia. It won't matter if you're
> intending to go to an American school because most things about experiences
> at law school are similar, from what I've read, between Canada and the U.S.
>
> I'm most likely going to start an official blog on the Faculty's website
> about my experiences as a first-year law student, which, although it won't
> have much to do with blindness, you may find particularly interesting to
> read along with other people who blog about their experiences. It's not set
> up yet, but if you're interested I'll let you know when it goes live.
>
> In the mean time, you might find it helpful to research law schools and
> their admissions processes. You'll find a wealth of information on the
> internet. I made the mistake of being interested in only one school, UBC.
> I'm fairly sure that most people apply to at least two, because of how
> competitive the admissions can be and the likelihood of not getting into
> one
> place. You might also want to consider factors that are important to you in
> the school you ultimately choose to attend. I am fairly tight on money, so
> tuition was a big concern for me, though for some reason I didn't discover
> I'm at one of the cheapest places until after being admitted. I also didn't
> want to have to move away from family and friends. But research areas and
> course selections are also rather important. From what I hear, U.S. law
> schools have a huge aspect of rank to them, so that Harvard is supposed to
> be highly sought after, despite its tuition. But apart from all this, some
> law schools are much harder to get into than others and some have very
> different admissions processes, which may also be a consideration.
>
> The only challenge I've had so far is the LSAT, which all applicants to law
> schools approved by the American Bar Association and the similar bar
> associations in some other countries must write in order to be ranked on
> their excellence in certain abilities deemed essential for law students,
> such as critical thinking. There are different ways of tackling that test,
> mainly about conquering the accomodations restrictions and the problematic
> accessibility of most preparation materials. The one that I pursued might
> be
> a bit belittling to some blind people. My university has a special
> discressionary category for applicants with certain challenges, and so I
> applied in this category and told them specifically about my many
> challenges
> with this test and how there were other things about me that were far more
> indicative, I felt, of how I could be in their program. I would, however,
> suggest that you give the test a try. If you can afford a tutor, for
> instance, you might find that doing really well would help you in the
> longrun. I know I would have felt better about getting in in the regular
> category with a competitive LSAT score and what not.
>
> As to accomodations. I suspect it will be similar to whatever you do now,
> provided you stay at the same university, or similar otherwise. UBC, where
> I
> also did an undergraduate degree, has a pretty good system. They have a
> resource centre where you hand in your textbooks and they give you e-text
> or
> audio, depending on what you want. I've told them I don't want any PDF
> files
> and that I need Microsoft Word files, and they've been doing that for me.
> They also have accomodations processes for exams, where they schedule you
> to
> write at the same time as your class in a room in their offices with a
> computer. I get a laptop with JAWS and a refreshable braille display. (I
> conveniently got them to agree to putting a braille display into my
> accomodations before they realised they needed to buy one.) The Faculty of
> Law are also quite accomodating. I asked them for my professors' contact
> information because I wanted to find the textbooks to hand in to be
> transcribed before needing them in September, but they said that normally
> they don't have the schedules ready till the very first day of classes.
> This
> wasn't going to work for me, as you might imagine, so I calmly explained
> why
> it was important and they got my schedule organised a few weeks ago.
>
> That's about it. I know there are internet resources to be used, but I
> don't
> know much about them. I also know there are domestic and international law
> journals, most of which have funny abbreviated names like D.L.R. and
> S.C.R.,
> which contain case law. I have no idea of how judges, lawyers and law
> students can possibly go through what seems like millions upon millions of
> large volumes in print. It might just be my ignorance.
>
> If you do want to, I can certainly talk with you on Skype or something
> similar, as long as I can get it set up properly. Let me know if I can help
> any further.
>
> All very best,
> Graham
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Kolby
> Sent: Tuesday, 10 August 2010 9:44 PM
> To: blindlaw at nfbnet.org
> Subject: [blindlaw] Law School Experiences
>
> Hello Everyone,
> I am a totally blind college student, and I am pursuing my undergraduate
> degree in Communication Studies. I am considering attending law school
> after
> I graduate in two years' time. I would like to know about all of your law
> school experiences if you would not mind sharing them. What law school did
> you attend? What accommodations did you request? What accommodations were
> you provided with? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you
> resolve said challenges? How available and/or accessible are law school
> materials? Would any of you be willing to talk with me via telephone or
> skype? Are there resources available on the internet that I could begin
> exploring?
> Thank you in advance for any feedback on my questions, kolby
>
> _______________________________________________
> blindlaw mailing list
> blindlaw at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindlaw_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> blindlaw:
>
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindlaw_nfbnet.org/graham.hardy%40gma
> il.com<http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindlaw_nfbnet.org/graham.hardy%40gma%0Ail.com>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> blindlaw mailing list
> blindlaw at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindlaw_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> blindlaw:
>
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindlaw_nfbnet.org/agtolentino%40gmail.com
>