[blindLaw] Law Firm Accommodations

Sun Jan 16 13:56:50 UTC 2022

Yes that definitely would not have flown at my Firm.  All readers had
to be vetted and sign the same confidentiality paperwork as I did and
get privilege training, which is why they preferred to handle it
in-house.

On 1/16/22, Caleb E. Smith via BlindLaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Did that race confidentialities concerns?
>
> On Sat, Jan 15, 2022 at 4:07 PM Nightingale, Noel via BlindLaw <
> blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>
>> 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
>> > >
>> > > _______________________________________________
>> > > 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/laura.wolk%40gmail.com
>> > >
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > 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/syedrizvinfb%40gmail.com
>> >
>> _______________________________________________
>> 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/noel.nightingale%40ed.gov
>> _______________________________________________
>> 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/ces2266%40columbia.edu
>>
> _______________________________________________
> 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/laura.wolk%40gmail.com
>