[blindlaw] decreasing reliance on readers as proofers

Sat Nov 12 20:21:20 UTC 2016

This is a really good idea. It might also be useful to compile a list of the various tricks that people use with different screen readers to ensure proper formatting.

Sent from my iPhone

> On Nov 12, 2016, at 14:02, Laura Wolk via BlindLaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> This message is in response to Patti's observation that blind students
> and attorneys sometimes rely too much on their readers, an observation
> with which I generally agree.
> 
> But I don't think this is the entire problem.  i think, in large part,
> blind people don't even know what questions to ask, because it is hard
> to know what errors are out there unless someone thinks to tell you.
> I have been inordinately blessed by friends who have given me tips and
> tricks both on style and also on mechanics about which I was utterly
> clueless.  Things like the fact that if you copy and paste directly
> from Westlaw, your quotation marks and apostrophes will look different
> than those that arise when typing directly into word. Or, if typing a
> single-spaced document with footnotes, it may behoove you to put a
> blank line between the footnotes for ease of a sighted person's
> reading smaller text.  or that global format changes such as
> justifying text "above the line" do not transfer to your footnotes,
> resulting in your footnotes remaining unjustified.  Or how you can
> connect a heading with the first line immediately following it to
> ensure that your headings are never on one page with the accompanying
> text on the next page.  These are all things about which I had no
> intuitive knowledge as a completely blind person.  Without having been
> told, I would never even have known to ask the question, and would
> have continued turning in documents with quite obvious errors that
> even proofing with braille would not have caught.
> 
> I think it would be beneficial for these purposes for the NFb lawyers
> division to compile a list of similar formatting issues, perhaps in a
> wiki-type format so that everyone could contribute.  Of course, some
> of these things come down to stylistic preference, but many of them
> don't.  Has anyone else ever thought of this?
> 
> Laura
> 
>> On 11/11/16, Chang, Patti via BlindLaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> I think the bigger question here is what should you be doing. If you rely
>> too much on your readers for proofing then you do not become a really good
>> proofer   for yourself. We should all use Proof readers in the final
>> instance to catch visual things we miss but I see too many students were
>> lying to heavily on their proofers.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> "Every day we raise the expectations of blind people in the National
>> Federation of the Blind."
>> 
>> Patti S.  Gregory Chang Esq.
>> Director of Outreach
>> National Federation of the Blind
>> Direct phone: (410) 659-9314 extension 2422
>> Mobile: (773) 307-6440
>> WWW.NFB.org<http://WWW.NFB.org>
>> 
>> On Nov 11, 2016, at 8:57 PM, Aimee Harwood via BlindLaw
>> <blindlaw at nfbnet.org<mailto:blindlaw at nfbnet.org>> wrote:
>> 
>> Greetings everyone,
>> 
>> I am getting a reader who is paid by the state.  This reader will perform
>> reading of any material for school purposes that I need them to read.  They
>> will also proof any assignments before I hand them in.  I will use them
>> during research to help locate something on the screen that is hard to
>> locate it is too time consuming to navigate to just to get that one bit of
>> info. Basically the individual will assist with anything vision related.
>> 
>> My school assigns a judicial opinion the first semester of the 1L year. All
>> graded assignments have restrictions on students getting outside assistance.
>> We are not allowed to let anyone see our work or assist us in any way
>> regarding the assignment including research. If a student violates any of
>> the restrictions, they violate the honor code.
>> 
>> Now that you have the basic situation, can the school penalize me for using
>> a reader to assist me in any visual aspect of the assignment? If I use the
>> reader to verify the formatting or point out any issues they see that I may
>> have missed because I didn't see it?  What about penalizing me for using the
>> reader to assist in research to find what I ask them to find  or highlight
>> what I ask them to highlight? Basically, can they penalize me for the reader
>> performing non-essential tasks on graded assignments?  How much control does
>> the school have over the person paid by the state to assist with outside of
>> class activities as long as I am the one doing the legal work?
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Aimee
>> 
>> Sent from my iPhone
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