[blindLaw] Law Firm Accommodations

[Al Elia]

Also, if any of the systems Laura mentioned aren’t accessible, or are 
so clunkily accessible that they will impair your efficiency, you may 
want to ask for a legal assistant to assist you with them and/or ask for 
a conversation with IT about alternative methods. As an example, I have 
found even the accessible timekeeping systems to be incredibly 
inefficient to use, so I keep my time in a spreadsheet that is formatted 
for importing into the timekeeping systems (most TK systems allow 
importing from some kind of spreadsheet-exportable file), and IT should 
be able to provide you with a importable template.

As an aside, I suspect asking for these sort of accommodations will 
demonstrate to your supervisors that you understand the importance of 
billing and attorney efficiency. Should you need to use an LA for some 
systems, it will help you learn (and demonstrate ability) to delegate 
and direct others, which is an important skill for management that many 
of us do not learn anymore now that we do not have to use human readers 
as much.

Good luck!

/Æ


On 5 Jan 2022, at 13:38, Laura Wolk wrote:

> I definitely don't mind.  Ask them to use it as a starting point to
> help to get them thinking about other issues that might crop up.
>
> On 1/5/22, Syed Rizvi <syedrizvinfb at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Thank you both so much for your guidance.
>>
>>
>>
>> Laura, yes, big law. I hope you don’t mind if I share this list 
>> with the
>> recruiting team. These specifics are gold.
>>
>>
>>
>> Sanho, I understand. I do advocate for myself. I just want to ensure 
>> I
>> spend the summer proving myself to the firm, rather than figuring out 
>> how
>> to do basic tasks. The firm has reached out to ask how to best 
>> accommodate
>> me so that I can hit the ground running, come summer.
>>
>>
>>
>> Thank you!
>>
>> Syed
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>>
>>
>> Syed Mahmud Rizvi
>>
>>
>>
>> SyedRizviNFB at gmail.com
>>
>> (413)250-3523
>>
>>
>>
>> Harvard Law School | JD Candidate' 2024
>>
>> Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow
>>
>> Jacobus Tenbroek Fellow
>>
>> SEO Law Fellow
>>
>> Lighthouse Guild Scholar
>>
>> Charles and Melva T. Owen Scholar
>>
>> Rudolph Dillman Scholar
>>
>>
>>
>> The University of Texas at Austin | BA in Government' 2020
>>
>> Dean's Distinguished Graduate
>>
>> High Honors
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Jan 5, 2022 at 2:30 PM Laura Wolk via BlindLaw
>> <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Oh yes, a go-to contact in IT is a must.  But K1000 will not be fast
>>> enough to handle batch conversions.
>>>
>>> On 1/5/22, Sanho Steele-Louchart via BlindLaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
>>> wrote:
>>>> Syed,
>>>>
>>>> When I was hired on, I was lucky enough to already have a copy of
>>>> K1000 (the OCR software) and JAWS/NVDA with Eloquence. All I 
>>>> actually
>>>> needed to ask for was someone to read me the handwritten parts of
>>>> records. Everything else has taken care of itself.
>>>>
>>>> If possible, I'd approach this with a trusted supervisor or hiring
>>>> manager. Candidly, it seems to me that we'll ultimately need to be
>>>> able to advocate for these things without the assistance of an 
>>>> outside
>>>> firm. My supervisor made it pretty clear that if I wanted to 
>>>> advocate
>>>> for my clients, I should be prepared to advocate for myself first.
>>>>
>>>> if I didn't have a trusted supervisor or hiring manager, I'd be up
>>>> front about what I needed. "I'll need X, Y, and Z. I also need a
>>>> contact person in the event something's inaccessible and I need to
>>>> figure it out on the spot. Will that be a problem?"
>>>>
>>>> Warmth and good luck,
>>>> Sanho
>>>>
>>>> On 1/5/22, Syed Rizvi via BlindLaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>>>> Hi All,
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Do you have any tips regarding discussions with firms pertaining 
>>>>> to
>>> what I
>>>>> will need from them to be a successful blind summer associate? I 
>>>>> know
>>>>> I
>>>>> need JAWS etc., but due to my lack of work experience, I don’t 
>>>>> know
>>>>> what
>>>>> set of procedures I should have in place. For example, with 
>>>>> school, I
>>> know
>>>>> I need all my books in an electronic format and so on, but I 
>>>>> don’t
>>>>> have
>>>>> work accommodations figured out in the same way due to my lack of
>>>>> experience. Are there consulting firms that educate employers on 
>>>>> how
>>>>> to
>>>>> best accommodate blind employees or that can test firm tools prior 
>>>>> to
>>> the
>>>>> summer?
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Thank you so much for any guidance in this matter!
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Gratefully,
>>>>>
>>>>> Syed
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Syed Mahmud Rizvi
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> SyedRizviNFB at gmail.com
>>>>>
>>>>> (413)250-3523
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Harvard Law School | JD Candidate' 2024
>>>>>
>>>>> Paul and Daisy Soros Fellow
>>>>>
>>>>> Jacobus Tenbroek Fellow
>>>>>
>>>>> SEO Law Fellow
>>>>>
>>>>> Lighthouse Guild Scholar
>>>>>
>>>>> Charles and Melva T. Owen Scholar
>>>>>
>>>>> Rudolph Dillman Scholar
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> The University of Texas at Austin | BA in Government' 2020
>>>>>
>>>>> Dean's Distinguished Graduate
>>>>>
>>>>> High Honors
>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>
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>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Warmth,
>>>> Sanho
>>>> He, Him, His
>>>>
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>>