[blindlaw] Writing the bar exam

Wed Sep 19 13:53:40 UTC 2018

Hi Ben,

I live in India and gave the bar exam here last year. While it is
admittedly a much easier exam than the bar exam in North America,
inasmuch as we're asked fairly basic questions that require us to find
section numbers and case names relating to a given rule in
contradistinction to fact patterns in which you'd have to apply the
law, here are a few things I found helpful, for what they are worth:

First, I think dividing the material into different word files based
on the concerned subject area is absolutely critical which is
something that you're already doing, as opposed to having a lot of
content in one place.

Second, the find command is fairly straightforward to use and
acquiring mastery over the command is vital. One useful pointer might
be to use control+ page down to the next search result and
control+page up to go to the previous one, as opposed to having to go
back to the find box and press enter each time. You can also use the
find command that is specifically for JAWS users, control+insert=f,
but I don't think that is necessary in word documents.

Third, as Graham says, you can use the quick navigation keys, insert+z
and then use h to jump from one heading to another.

Fourth, you might want to put a lot of bookmarks/ place markers in the
word documents that you're working with, to make it easier to access
relevant pieces of information. Kindly see Michael Nowiki's mail on
this list to find out how to do this, even though his advice was qua
PDFs.

Fifth, again, as Graham says, trying to minimize one's dependence on
the open book material is always a good idea, doubly so for someone
who is blind and dependent on technology which is not always reliable.

Best,
Rahul
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On 19/09/2018, Ben Fulton via BlindLaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Hi Tai and Graham,
>
> Those are good suggestions. I have already converted it to word, and am
> cleaning up the formatting as I go, so I'm not sure if asking for another
> word document at this time would help.
>
> As I read each chapter I cut it into a separate file. This way I have a file
> for each chapter, instead of one gigantic 1,000 page file.
>
> Someone I know does computer programming and I have approached him about
> designing html links.
>
> I can try to approach the Law School, but I have found a lot of their help
> to be lacking, especially in matters outside the actual school itself. I
> could go on about the improperly formatted resumes they gave me to apply to
> jobs with, and how it took a friend of mine pointing out how bad they looked
> visually before I realized there was a problem, and this was after I made it
> explicit that I needed their help making the information visually
> presentable.
>
> I reached out to a couple of blind lawyers in Ontario. The two I was able to
> talk with wrote the bar 30+ years ago, before computers. It would be great
> talking with someone who wrote the bar in the last 10 years.
>
> I don't know how to add heading styles in a word document or navigate using
> that. If I could learn a little more about that, it would probably help.
>
> I also don't have a lot of experience using the word find function in a
> document. I know how to hit control F to search for a specific word, but are
> there other functions that could help?
>
> Graham, I'll message you off list. Any help you could provide would be
> appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> Ben Fulton
>
> _______
>
> From: Graham Hardy <GHardy at harrisbrun.com>
> To: 'Blind Law Mailing List' <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
> Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Writing the bar exam
> Message-ID: <068D1E907F363C42B7852C27A6E6273FE82C07 at HBSERVER.HB.local>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Hi Ben,
>
> I wrote the bar in British Columbia and had a similar experience (though a
> much smaller number of questions). Two things were helpful. First, when I
> approached the Law Society, they gladly provided me their source files in
> Microsoft Word format. These were, of course, formatted for printing and I
> had to clean up their formatting quite a bit. I also applied heading styles
> so that I could jump around using JAWS quick navigation commands. I knew
> that many students used indices but I didn't bother trying to rely on those,
> as I knew that having a page number would only point to a rather large
> section of a document, given the small font, and it would have taken longer
> to search things out. In addition to headings, which helped me navigate
> quickly to places I was very familiar with, I used the text search commands
> to look for words in areas which I hadn't indexed. Above all, tempting as it
> may be to use the open book as a crutch, it cannot be emphasised too much
> that having an open book should be a memory aid and can slow anyone down,
> sighted or blind, who has to look things up for every question. You should
> try as much as humanly possible to be familiar with the material.
>
> Let me know if you have any other questions.
>
>
> Graham Hardy | Lawyer? 604-608-2043?|?ghardy at harrisbrun.com?
>
>
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> ------------------------------
>
> From: Tai Tomasi <ttomasi at driowa.org>
> To: Blind Law Mailing List <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
> Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Writing the bar exam
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>
> Graham Hardy is a member of this list and took the bar in British Columbia.
> Hopefully, he will chime in. I'm not sure if the exams are similar in each
> of these provinces.
>
> Ben, could you pay someone to put headings into the word document or convert
> it into an HTML document with links? Can you contact other blind attorneys
> who have taken the bar in Ontario to see how they approached this issue? Are
> you still affiliated with the university where you attended law school and
> would they be willing to assist in making the document accessible?
>
> Ms. Tai Tomasi, J.D.
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> -----Original Message-----
> From: BlindLaw <blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Ben Fulton via
> BlindLaw
> Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2018 8:38 AM
> To: blindlaw at nfbnet.org
> Cc: Ben Fulton <bluezinfandel at hotmail.com>
> Subject: [blindlaw] Writing the bar exam
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> I am currently studying for the Ontario bar. It is a two day 480 question
> exam that covers about 2,000 pages of material.
>
> The exam is open book, and the scores are curved. I'm having a hard time
> dealing with the index.
>
> Sighted students talk a lot about having tabs, and indexes that they can use
> to quickly look up the information they need. Time is a large component of
> the exam, and even though I will have twice as much time, making this a four
> day exam, I am still concerned about the time to look things up quickly.
>
> For starters, the pdf file they sent was difficult to use, so I converted it
> to a word file, but this expanded the number of pages. So any index that
> other people have for this already will not work, because the page numbers
> won't line up.
>
> Ideally, I would most likely want an html type of document with embedded
> links, then I could use the jaws find for specific words, and click on links
> within an index to quickly go to where I need to.
>
> However, I have no idea how to format that.
>
> If anyone has anysuggestions for writing the bar I would appreciate it.
>
> Sincerely,
> Ben
>
>
>
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