[blindlaw] Law Schools Power over Readers or assistants for study and outside of classroom assignments if the individual is not paid by the school

Sat Nov 12 20:33:49 UTC 2016

Hello fellow listers,

I need to clarify my position on the reader in research. I only intend to use the reader for locating things on the screen or in the document visually I will do all of the research myself. I will not ask them to do any research or make sure that I am using correct citation as to the rules. The reader will be solely for visual aspects of the work. I only want to use the reader as any other blindness related tool.  

I have been out of school for 13 years and have not used JAWS in six of those years. Training is sparse here. I know enough to manage. I would imagine that once I am more proficient with jaws and things of the like, I will use a reader less as school goes on. I am working on my braille proficiency and speed as well. At this point it is a much better use of my time until I become faster on my own.  

I am not trying to have anyone do anything for me. That's not my position. I am very capable and high functioning once I learn how to do the things that I need to do. I understand that many of you may not really know me. And it would be easy to assume that I want someone to do the work for me. I don't. I hope you will consider looking at my requests in a different mindset. Miss Chang, I have not found your email regarding my post yet. I do hope you shared it with the group so that I may read it and find some wisdom within it. I would hope it was not sent to everyone except me.

In closing, I hope I have cleared things up a bit so that we can get conversations addressing the issues at hand regarding the school viewing most requests as an extra advantage over other students rather than leveling the playing field as well as increasing my understanding of what my rights actually are. I really do appreciate and value the input of the list especially because the majority of you guys have been out there and know more about the inner workings then those of us in law school.  You have the potential to be very helpful and insightful if you choose to.

Aimee

Sent from my iPhone

> On Nov 12, 2016, at 1:56 PM, Aimee Harwood <awildheir at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Rod,
> 
> Thank you for your response. The individual over accommodations in my school is the director of student affairs. He influences everyone at the school up to the dean. I do not have a person at the school that I can feel comfortable going to regarding issues. I basically have to be my own attorney and spent hours researching things on Westlaw and Lexus to try and support my position. That's why I am reaching out to the group to find out how it is handled in practice and what my rights really are and how much power the law school has over certain things. I am the first student with significant vision loss as far as I know. I also have general anxiety disorder and ADHD. The individual administering accommodations at the school is primarily a professor. As we know, professors are the hardest to get to understand accommodations. They think most everything gives some sort of advantage instead of actually leveling the playing field in response to the disability or in my case disabilities. I greatly appreciate your input and hope that you have a wonderful day.
> 
> Aimee
> 
> Sent from my iPhone
> 
>> On Nov 12, 2016, at 4:30 AM, Rod Alcidonis, Esquire via BlindLaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> 
>> Aimee:
>> 
>> The short answer is no. But if you are so concerned about it, I would voice those concerns to your Dean of Students or Academic affair so that they are fully aware of those concerns. This is what accommodation is all about. IN the practice of law, I typically get my asssistants to sign a confidentiality document to protect myself/client.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Rod Alcidonis, Esq.
>> 
>> 
>> -----Original Message----- From: Aimee Harwood via BlindLaw
>> Sent: Friday, November 11, 2016 9:56 PM
>> To: Michal Nowicki via BlindLaw
>> Cc: Aimee Harwood
>> Subject: [blindlaw] Law Schools Power over Readers or assistants for study and outside of classroom assignments if the individual is not paid by the school
>> 
>> 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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