[blindLaw] Law Firm Accommodations

Sat Jan 15 21:05:15 UTC 2022

Syed,

I am sorry to be tardy in responding to your law firm accommodations question.  One option that has not been discussed and may be considered to be controversial these days is what I did to ensure that my summer associate position went smoothly and that I was able to demonstrate that I could do the job, rather than spending the three months dealing with accessibility issues.  

When I was hired by a big law firm for the summer, I hired my own reader.  I was making more money in the summer associate position than I had ever earned before and, consequently,  I had the luxury of being able to afford to pay a part-time reader for the summer.  That way, I didn't have to  negotiate that issue in advance and I could focus on doing a job I had never done before.  It worked out well, and when the law firm offered me a permanent associate position, I then told them that I would not be paying for a reader while employed with the firm.  I had already demonstrated the utility of my reader accommodation and my need for it and also, of course, demonstrated my ability to do the job.  I had also demonstrated my commitment to the law firm by paying for my own accommodation for the summer.  I hired a student and essentially paid her the minimum wage and it worked out for both of us during the summer and allowed me to focus on learning the substantive area in which I would be practicing, environmental law, and the other aspects of the practice I had to learn quickly, like about writing briefs, working with legal secretaries and court procedures.  Also, at the time, there were a lot of social activities for summer associates that were important to participate in as I was being assessed for a permanent position, like lunches and weekend and evening activities, so I didn't have that extra time to devote to dealing with accessibility issues.

Before everyone starts yelling in all caps, I know that it is not the blind person's responsibility to pay for an accommodation, but I wanted to throw that option into the mix in case it made sense to you or anyone else.  I have had a long career at this point and haven't paid for any accommodations since, so that three month investment worked out for me.

Noel

-----Original Message-----
From: BlindLaw <blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Syed Rizvi via BlindLaw
Sent: Wednesday, January 5, 2022 12:01 PM
To: Blind Law Mailing List <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Syed Rizvi <syedrizvinfb at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [blindLaw] Law Firm Accommodations

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
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> BlindLaw mailing list
> >> BlindLaw at nfbnet.org
> >> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindlaw_nfbnet.org
> >> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> >> BlindLaw:
> >>
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/blindlaw_nfbnet.org/sanho817%40gmail.com
> >>
> >
> >
> > --
> > Warmth,
> > Sanho
> > He, Him, His
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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> >
>
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