[blindlaw] Accessibility of Lexis-Nexis

[Paul Harpur]

A practical answer is try find a password so you can keep accessing
the database you like when you leave law school.  A few ways to
achieve this is get an illegal password and keep accessing it (not the
best option obviously), start a masters of laws part-time or do some
casual work.  The last option is the most doable.  You can do some
casual tutoring or even beg an academic to give you a few hours of
research work.  Once on the system you keep getting access to
university subscriptions as an employee for a long time.
In about 2006 I raised with Lexis.com an access issue around the
ability to move between search functions (IE natural law to other
types).  I eventually had IT people work with me to explain to Lexis
precisely the problem in IT speak.  Eventually I remembered I was a
lawyer and sent a demand letter.  Things changed.
If you do go down the path of sending a demand letter I’d like to see
a copy and see if the problem is the same in Australia.  Last time I
was Stateside the versions of Lexis were precisely the same.  I can
send the local Lexis offices similar complaints.




On 3/18/11, Matthias L. Niska <mlniska04 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hello all,
>
> Matthias Niska here, I am just finishing up my second year at the University
> of Minnesota Law School, and some of you may remember me as a NFB
> Scholarship winner from the summer of 2009. I'm new to this listserv, and I
> have a legal research question I was hoping you all might help me with.
>
> I am a JAWS user, and was extremely frustrated at the beginning of law
> school with the poor interaction between JAWS and the standard versions of
> both Westlaw and Lexis-Nexis. However, shortly into my 1L year, thanks to
> Patti Chang, I found out about the text version of Westlaw, and that has
> worked great for my legal research needs ever since. I've been able to use
> Westlaw text for all of my law school research, and also for my job last
> summer at the U.S. Attorney's Office here in Minneapolis.
>
> My problem is that I was lucky to land a job with a great Minneapolis firm
> this summer, but they have an exclusive contractual relationship with
> Lexis-Nexis. I have explained my concerns to the folks at my firm and they
> are prepared to give me any and all reasonable accommodations that I need to
> be successful this summer, but obviously because of the contract with
> Lexis-Nexis, they would strongly prefer that I learn to use Lexis if at all
> possible.
>
> Which brings us to my question: Do any of you JAWS users out there use Lexis
> for your legal research? Is there some text-based version of Lexis out there
> I don't know about? Any tricks or advice you would suggest to make Lexis
> more compatible with my screen-reader, or people I should contact?
>
> Thanks much,
>
> Matthias Niska
> J.D. candidate, 2012
> University of Minnesota Law School
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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-- 


*Dr Paul Harpur*

BBus (HRM), LLB (Hons), LLM, PhD, Solicitor of the High Court of Australia



Post Doctorate Research Fellow, the TC Beirne School of Law, The University
of Queensland, on the project entitled “From Ratification to Implementation:
The Disability Human Rights Paradigm and the Right to Work in the Convention
on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities”.



Mob:    + 61 7 417 635 609

E-Mail: paulharpur at gmail.com

Skype:  paul.harpur