[blindlaw] ExamSoft Update

[Susan Kelly]

Good luck, Elizabeth!  And I totally agree with you - in this day and
age, when computer / programming experts are (or should be) well aware
of screen magnification and narration programs, NOTHING should be
released that Is not compliant.  Just my humble opinion, but it truly
does not seem to be too much to ask. 

-----Original Message-----
From: blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org]
On Behalf Of Elizabeth Rene
Sent: Friday, June 29, 2012 9:46 AM
To: blindlaw at nfbnet.org
Subject: [blindlaw] ExamSoft Update

Thank you all for your comments on ExamSoft and what your bar
associations and the NCBE have done re your bar exam accommodations.

Here's my take on this subject.

First, I talked with a tech support person from ExamSoft and found, at
least from him, that none of their tech support people know anything
about accessibility.  Their software developers didn't build it into the
program. 
This guy did know about JAWS and VoiceOver independently, though.  He
couldn't tell me whether VoiceOver would work with ExamSoft, though
Apple is encouraging companies who develop software for OSX to make
VoiceOver compatibility part of their package.

I do expect to be exempted from using ExamSoft, though I haven't gotten
the official word yet.

But my question is this:  Why are a majority of state court systems, bar
associations, and law schools contracting with a company noncompliant
with the ADA more than two decades after its adoption, and nearly 40
years after the adoption of Section 504?

Should we blind professionals keep on accepting the status of
supplicants, forever seeking exemptions and special conditions under
which to take our qualifying exams and do our jobs when universally
accessible technology could make that unnecessary?

Should the courts, the agencies who define and regulate our profession,
and the schools who train us not be held accountable to uphold the laws
they teach and interpret?

My view is that ExamSoft, and those who fail to hold it accountable,
should be called on the carpet.  The argument, "we exempt our blind
students from using ExamSoft," should go the way of "You don't need your
cane/guide dog, we have someone here to lead you."

What gives me standing to rant?

The bar exam security policy.

ExamSoft is designed to segregate the bar exam from everything else on a
laptop so there's no question of a student's cheating.  That too is why
examinees have to undergo a near strip-search before entering the test
site. 
You leave your laqp top case outside and carry in your bare necessities
in a quart-sized plastic bag, just as though you were facing a TSA
inspection.

Any non-ExamSoft accommodation has to meet security policy requirements.

One's own laptop, full of bar exam materials, doesn't do that.

So, in my pre-exam anxiety, I envision showing up at a
previously-undisclosed testing site and offered the use of an unfamiliar
computer, running an operating system I haven't used yet, with JAWS
configured by someone else, and with no time to tweak it.  Yes, I admit
to pre-exam jitters.

I could go to a library and learn Windows 7 and JAWS 13 (I use JAWS 10
on Windows XP), but who has time to do that during the bar review?

This is what I've done, for what it's worth.  I've gone out and bought
an Apple iBook with a big hard drive and VoiceOver, which I love.  I'm
putting iWork on it to write the exam, and nowhere on the drive will
there be any bar review material.  Later, after the exam, I'm putting
Windows 7 and JAWS on a corner of that big hard drive, I'm going to
learn them both at home, and live in the best of both worlds of
accessibility.

Armed with my own laptop and a word program I've had time to practice
using writing bar prep essays, I hope to ace that exam.  And if I fall
on my face, I'll get up and do it again.

Wish me luck!

Elizabeth






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