[blindlaw] Looking for tech tools for blind attorneys

[Bill Spiry]

Fact is, handwritten docs are pretty much inaccessible without the
assistance of a sighted assistant to convert or read the content for the
blind user.
 
Graphs and charts are challenging, it is possible to create tags for them
that can be "seen" by the screen reader, but it is tough to do. Personally,
I create a side document with descriptions of key elements of graphs and
charts so that I can refer to those points if presenting the materials. This
still takes the assistance of someone with vision to help describe and/or
transcribe the descriptions of the visual aids. If someone hands me a chart
or graph, I enlist someone sighted to interpret it for me.

As to landscape docs, good OCR programs like Abbyy finereader or Omnipage
Ultimate from Nuance will read the documents and do an OCR conversion
provided the text of the landscape doc is recognizable to the program OCR
function.



Bill Spiry
Attorney at Law
Spiry Law LLC
(541) 600-3301
Bill at SpiryLaw.com
Bill.spiry at gmail.com 

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-----Original Message-----
From: BlindLaw [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Michael
Hernandez via BlindLaw
Sent: Sunday, December 18, 2016 6:55 AM
To: BlindLaw at nfbnet.org
Cc: Michael Hernandez <mhernandez at just-tech.com>
Subject: [blindlaw] Looking for tech tools for blind attorneys

Hi All,

I hope this email finds you well. I'm researching tools we can purchase to
best assist a blind attorney. The attorney I'm researching this for is
currently using JAWS. The challenge we are having is finding a tool that
helps with landscape documents, charts, graphs and handwritten legal
documents. Nuance, which I think is the leader in OCR software, doesn't
convert hand written notes or documents very well. I did reach out to JAWS
to discuss these challenges. As I type this, I realize when I spoke with
them, I focused on charts and hand written documents and didn't bring up
landscape documents. They told me, unfortunately these are limitations with
the software and there isn't anything on the market to address those
challenges. If anyone had the time and could share any information on how
you have addressed these challenges, I would greatly appreciate any
information you can provide. My company works with Legal Non-Profits across
the US, and though I am researching this for one client, any information I
find, I would share with others, clients or not. I emailed a nationwide
listserv of Legal Non-Profits regarding this challenge, received one
response and unfortunately not with information that would help address this
challenge.

Thanks for your time and consideration responding to this email. I wish all
a Happy Holiday.

Thanks

Michael

[JUST-TECH, LLC]<https://htmlsig.com/t/000001BK9YAR>
Michael Hernandez / Director of Consulting Services JUST-TECH, LLC O.
929-277-9804
14 Pennsylvania Plaza, 9th FloorNew York, NY 10122
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