[blindLaw] information

Sat Aug 28 20:21:23 UTC 2021

I did not understand the police report was handwritten; In Texas where I
practice the reports are typed, but unfortunately they are in a table format
and have many abbreviations.  I use Kurswell, Jaws ocr and Adobe, but all
three get these tables and columns out of order and misread some of the
characters.  If someone on this list has found a reliable way to have these
type of documents OCR'd; I'd love to talk to them.  

Sincerely,

Shannon Brady Geihsler

Law Office of Shannon Brady Geihsler, PLLC
1212 Texas Avenue
Lubbock, Texas 79401
Office:  (806) 763-3999
Mobile:  (806) 781-9296
Fax:  (806) 749-3752
E-Mail:  sbg at sbgaal.com
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-----Original Message-----
From: BlindLaw <blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Steve Jacobson via
BlindLaw
Sent: Friday, August 27, 2021 4:50 PM
To: Blind Law Mailing List <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Steve Jacobson <steve.jacobson at outlook.com>
Subject: Re: [blindLaw] information

Roderick,

I am not a lawyer, but I have some thoughts from a technical and general
perspective.  In the long run, you will have to get a sense of how much
handwriting you will need to read.  Other lawyers here can answer that
better than I can, but it is almost certain that this will be a recurring
issue.  At this point, there just isn't anything that will reliably convert
handwriting into characters that allow us to examine with a screen reader.
Seeing AI was suggested in another note but while I have occasionally gotten
it to read certain bits of handwriting, I don't think it will reliably read
handwriting for legal purposes.  There are times, though, when reading a
paper document using an iPhone will be valuable.  Seeing AI will do that as
will VoiceDream Scanner and Supersense.  All three tend to read different
things well, so it makes sense to know all three well.  If you are a JAWS
user, you have access to Convenient OCR which can also work, but none of
these will reliably read handwriting all of the time or even very
completely.

I am not sure what issue prevents you from getting information from "Be My
Eyes" from a PDF, although it might be an issue to run that app and an app
that reads PDF's.  Did you try displaying it on another computer screen and
have them read the document from that screen?  If the document isn't too
long, printing it out on paper would give you another option to try with Be
My Eyes.  If you need this specific document to move ahead with a project
right now, figuring out how to make it possible for Be My Eyes to read it
might be a good solution if you don't have anybody available to help you out
for the short term.  However, you will want to take an organized approach.
You don't want them to read the whole document from start to finish.  You
will want them to see where the handwriting is.  There may be large portions
of the document you can read that is regular text and you might be able to
have them concentrate on the areas that have handwriting.

You said you could only read 20% of the document.  Is that because 80% is
written by hand or are there other issues?  When reading a PDF on a personal
computer, there are options that can sometimes help if you are getting the
text out of order.  Acrobat has an option to read from left to right, top to
bottom, or Infer reading order from document.  Trying both options may
result in getting something more satisfactory, but it won't change the
handwriting issue.  

If the PDF's are being prepared for you from printed documents, there may be
scanner settings that might allow a document to be converted to text more
reliably.  It is hard to make suggestions along those lines without more
information.

This is likely frustrating for you.  Remember, though, that employers offer
internships to find out how creative potential employees are.  It also gives
you a chance to experiment to some degree and learn.  Good luck.

Best regards,

Steve Jacobson

-----Original Message-----
From: BlindLaw <blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Roderick Thomas
via BlindLaw
Sent: Friday, August 27, 2021 11:05 AM
To: blind law <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Roderick Thomas <rthomas48 at gmail.com>
Subject: [blindLaw] information

Hey Guys, I am going crazy. I am currently working at a criminal defense
firm as a legal intern. I just recently took the bar exam, but I have not
received my scores yet. I need to read a criminal arrest report, but some
parts of the document is write by hand. I tried using AIR, but they are so
expensive and they really do not transcribe documents. I tried using Be My
Eyes, but the document is in a PDF, so no volunteer can read the document;
even if, they take a picture of the document with there cell phone. I tried
converting the document to a searchable PDF, but that was a total nightmare.
I could only read twenty percent of the document. I spoke with the owner of
the law firm, and suggested that someone read the document into a MP3, but
he said, "No because that would not be a good use of his resources." Also,
he said, that "Everyone must pull there own weight." I tried hiring a
part-time Paralegal remotely, but she is not working out as well. Moreover,
I only make $13 an hour. The firm is very small with only five people
including the owner. I am running out of ideas. I love the job, but someone
told me, that "You cannot be a criminal defense attorney alone. You need an
assistance. How is that possible, when I have not passed the bar exam?
Please help! I have only worked at this law firm for two weeks

Sincerely,

Roderick Thomas.

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