From slabarre at labarrelaw.com Fri Jul 1 02:13:36 2022 From: slabarre at labarrelaw.com (Scott C. LaBarre) Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2022 20:13:36 -0600 Subject: [blindLaw] 2022 NABL Annual Meeting Message-ID: <007801d88cf0$2c9101d0$85b30570$@labarrelaw.com> Hello NABL! One week from today, July 7th, we will be holding the National Association of Blind Lawyers Annual meeting in conjunction with the NFB Convention being held at the New Orleans Marriott. Below you will find the Agenda for our meeting. This will be a hybrid meeting taking place in New Orleans and on Zoom. We will be giving you information soon about how to register for the meeting online and pay your dues. There is one particular item I would like to highlight in this year's agenda. We are holding what we are calling a Town Hall on practicing law as blind attorneys. We encourage everyone to come to the meeting with your questions and your experience. This is intended to be interactive so that we can learn from each other. I look forward to seeing you in NOLA or on Zoom. If you have any questions, contact me at slabarre at labarrelaw.com or 303 504-5979. All best, Scott AGENDA NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BLIND LAWYERS 2022 ANNUAL MEETING ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- Thursday, July 7, 2022 Galerie 3 Marriott New Orleans New Orleans, Louisiana Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/98302680865?pwd=NmIvWVBybTBzRWdHKzliSElQZUlwZz09 Note: This meeting is taking place in U.S. Central Time. 1:00 PM WELCOME AND LOGISTICS Scott LaBarre, President, NABL, Centennial, CO 1:05 PM TRIBUTE TO CHARLIE BROWN Marc Maurer, Immediate Past President, NFB, Baltimore, MD; Denise Avant, Board Member, NABL, Chicago, IL 1:20 PM THE EFFECT OF THE SUPREME COURT'S RULING IN COMINGS AND OTHER RECENT CASES ON THE STATE OF DISABILITY RIGHTS Eve Hill, Partner, Brown, Goldstein & Levy, Baltimore, MD 1:50 PM THE UNFULFILLED PROMISE OF SECTION 508 AND WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT TITLE IX Tim Elder, Second Vice President, NABL, Freemont, CA; Ronza Othman, First Vice President, NABL, Baltimore, MD; Marc Maurer, Immediate Past President, NFB, Catonsville, MD 2:30 PM BLIND ATTORNEY SUCCESSFULLY ARGUING BEFORE THE SUPREME COURT Karla Gilbride, Staff Attorney, Public Justice, Washington DC 2:55 PM ADVANCING THE RIGHTS OF THE BLIND AND OTHERS WITH DISABILITIES: A Survey of NFB Litigation Scott LaBarre, General Counsel, NFB, Centennial, CO; Valerie Yingling, Legal Program Coordinator, NFB, Baltimore MD 3:20 PM WHY YOU SHOULD JOIN THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION AND ELEVATE YOUR PRACTICE Judy Perry Martinez, Past President, ABA, New Orleans, LA; Denise Avant, Member, ABA Board of Governors, Chicago, IL 3:45 PM A TOWN HALL ON PRACTICING LAW AS BLIND ATTORNEYS We invite everyone to bring their questions on how to handle various aspects of law practice as blind and visually impaired attorneys as well as be ready to share your experience. 4:15 PM ELECTIONS AND DIVISION BUSINESS 4:30 PM ADJOURN TO RECEPTION Join us for cocktails and hors d'oeuvres as we celebrate the progress of our organization. Network and meet your fellow blind attorneys and legal professionals. We thank our NABL Board of Directors who raised over $2,000 among Board Members to sponsor this year's reception! From Noel.Nightingale at ed.gov Fri Jul 1 20:25:48 2022 From: Noel.Nightingale at ed.gov (Nightingale, Noel) Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2022 20:25:48 +0000 Subject: [blindLaw] =?windows-1252?q?Robles_v=2E_Domino=92s_Settles_After?= =?windows-1252?q?_Six_Years_of_Litigation_-_Seyfarth_Shaw_-_June_10=2C_20?= =?windows-1252?q?22?= In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: https://www.adatitleiii.com/2022/06/robles-v-dominos-settles-after-six-years-of-litigation/ Robles v. Domino’s Settles After Six Years of Litigation By Minh N. Vu Seyfarth Shaw June 10, 2022 Seyfarth Synopsis: One of the most famous accessibility lawsuits of all time finally settles before trial under terms that may never be known. After six hard-fought years in litigation at every level of the federal judicial system — including the Supreme Court — the parties in what may be the most famous website accessibility lawsuit of all time have reached a settlement, according to a Notice of Settlement filed with the district court on June 6, 2022. We do not know, and may never know, the terms of that resolution. The Notice does not indicate what form the resolution will take, or whether it will be confidential. What were the highlights and takeaways from six years of litigation, in our opinion? The Ninth Circuit issued a decision reversing the district court’s dismissal of the lawsuit in a decision that we analyzed in a prior post. That decision is binding precedent in the Ninth Circuit. The Supreme Court declined review of the Ninth Circuit’s decision. Our blog post on this decision is here. On remand from the Ninth Circuit, the district court granted Robles’ motion for summary judgment about Domino’s website, finding that it was not fully accessible. In that decision, the court also concluded that a telephone line that requires a 45 minute wait is not a substitute for an accessible website. Our analysis of that decision is here. The parties undoubtedly racked up substantial fees for six years of litigation at three different courts for a case that likely could have been settled at the outset for a modest amount of money. This is the conundrum that every business faces when dealing with a website accessibility lawsuit. >From our perspective, legal guidance from the courts, especially at the appellate level, is always a good thing and this case certainly added to the ever growing body of law on website accessibility. From rahul.bajaj1038 at gmail.com Mon Jul 4 05:28:42 2022 From: rahul.bajaj1038 at gmail.com (Rahul Bajaj) Date: Mon, 4 Jul 2022 10:58:42 +0530 Subject: [blindLaw] isolating text in a particular colour in word Message-ID: Hi, I use Word 16, JAWS 2021, Win 10. I would like to be able to isolate, in a word document, all the text that is in blue. That is the text that I need to study. I am not able to do this. I have created a skim reading rule with blue is the text colour and white as the background colour. JAWS keeps ticking on pressing control+caps+down arrow after creating the rule. But does not read out any text. It finally says 'no matches found'. I know for a fact that there is some blue text in the document. Can someone help, please? Rahul -- -- Rahul Bajaj Senior Resident Fellow, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, New Delhi, India Rhodes Scholar (India and Linacre 2018) University of Oxford From rfarber at jw.com Mon Jul 4 13:28:01 2022 From: rfarber at jw.com (Farber, Randy) Date: Mon, 4 Jul 2022 13:28:01 +0000 Subject: [blindLaw] isolating text in a particular colour in word In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hello Rahul - Two separate thoughts. 1. On your scheme, do not set a background color. 2. I do the same thing, but I accomplish it through searching in Word. a. I have actually created a macro to search for the color blue. Of note, I also have a macro that searches for the color red. b. You can also, do it without a macro by i. open the search ii. go to the font options and change the color of your font to blue iii. you do not need to search for any text, so I leave the search field blank. Regards, Randy -----Original Message----- From: BlindLaw On Behalf Of Rahul Bajaj via BlindLaw Sent: Monday, July 4, 2022 12:29 AM To: Blind Law Mailing List Cc: Rahul Bajaj Subject: [blindLaw] isolating text in a particular colour in word **RECEIVED FROM EXTERNAL SENDER - USE CAUTION** Hi, I use Word 16, JAWS 2021, Win 10. I would like to be able to isolate, in a word document, all the text that is in blue. That is the text that I need to study. I am not able to do this. I have created a skim reading rule with blue is the text colour and white as the background colour. JAWS keeps ticking on pressing control+caps+down arrow after creating the rule. But does not read out any text. It finally says 'no matches found'. I know for a fact that there is some blue text in the document. Can someone help, please? Rahul -- -- Rahul Bajaj Senior Resident Fellow, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, New Delhi, India Rhodes Scholar (India and Linacre 2018) University of Oxford _______________________________________________ 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/rfarber%40jw.com From rahul.bajaj1038 at gmail.com Mon Jul 4 16:27:14 2022 From: rahul.bajaj1038 at gmail.com (Rahul Bajaj) Date: Mon, 4 Jul 2022 16:27:14 +0000 Subject: [blindLaw] isolating text in a particular colour in word In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Thanks, Randy. Do you mean find instead of search? Get Outlook for iOS ________________________________ From: BlindLaw on behalf of Farber, Randy via BlindLaw Sent: Monday, July 4, 2022 6:58:01 PM To: Blind Law Mailing List Cc: Farber, Randy Subject: Re: [blindLaw] isolating text in a particular colour in word Hello Rahul - Two separate thoughts. 1. On your scheme, do not set a background color. 2. I do the same thing, but I accomplish it through searching in Word. a. I have actually created a macro to search for the color blue. Of note, I also have a macro that searches for the color red. b. You can also, do it without a macro by i. open the search ii. go to the font options and change the color of your font to blue iii. you do not need to search for any text, so I leave the search field blank. Regards, Randy -----Original Message----- From: BlindLaw On Behalf Of Rahul Bajaj via BlindLaw Sent: Monday, July 4, 2022 12:29 AM To: Blind Law Mailing List Cc: Rahul Bajaj Subject: [blindLaw] isolating text in a particular colour in word **RECEIVED FROM EXTERNAL SENDER - USE CAUTION** Hi, I use Word 16, JAWS 2021, Win 10. I would like to be able to isolate, in a word document, all the text that is in blue. That is the text that I need to study. I am not able to do this. I have created a skim reading rule with blue is the text colour and white as the background colour. JAWS keeps ticking on pressing control+caps+down arrow after creating the rule. But does not read out any text. It finally says 'no matches found'. I know for a fact that there is some blue text in the document. Can someone help, please? Rahul -- -- Rahul Bajaj Senior Resident Fellow, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, New Delhi, India Rhodes Scholar (India and Linacre 2018) University of Oxford _______________________________________________ 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/rfarber%40jw.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/rahul.bajaj1038%40gmail.com From ThomasDukeman at outlook.com Wed Jul 6 08:01:41 2022 From: ThomasDukeman at outlook.com (Thomas Dukeman) Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2022 08:01:41 +0000 Subject: [blindLaw] Importance of Dissenting Opinions? Message-ID: Hello fellow legal beagles! I have been hearing a lot about justice this or justice that being the “dissenting opinion” on a Supreme Court decision and wonder why those are even important to have if it is the DISSENTING opinion, as in the one that does not agree with the majority decision if it will not influence it at all? I mean I can see it as being there because of tradition and what not but does it have any actual judicial weight behind it or is it just there for show? Thanks for your input! Tom Sent from Mail for Windows From slabarre at labarrelaw.com Wed Jul 6 17:19:47 2022 From: slabarre at labarrelaw.com (Scott C. LaBarre) Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2022 11:19:47 -0600 Subject: [blindLaw] NABL 2022 Annual Meeting Message-ID: <000201d8915c$98370130$c8a50390$@labarrelaw.com> Greetings NABL!! Tomorrow, July 7th, we will be holding our Annual Meeting here at the NFB Convention at 1:00 PM Central time in the Marriott, Galerie 3 which is on the Second Floor. We will also be Zooming the meeting. The link is below in our Agenda. Payment of dues and for access to the materials is on the honor system this year. There are two ways to do this. First, go to: www.blindlawyers.net and use the Pay Pal link to make the appropriate payment. Second, you can pay in person tomorrow at Galerie 3 starting at 12:30 PM. Now, for access to the materials, you can visit our Dropbox and download them directly. Go to: NABL 2022 Program Again, we are operating on the honor system. If you are an attorney and are going to use the materials to support a CLE application, please pay the additional fee. For others, we appreciate whatever additional contribution you may be able to make to support the cost of assembling all of these materials. Okay, here is the agenda complete with the Zoom link. It will be great seeing many of you in person, and we look forward to connecting virtually as well. AGENDA NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BLIND LAWYERS 2022 ANNUAL MEETING ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- Thursday, July 7, 2022 Galerie 3 Marriott New Orleans New Orleans, Louisiana Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/98302680865?pwd=NmIvWVBybTBzRWdHKzliSElQZUlwZz09 Note: This meeting is taking place in U.S. Central Time. 1:00 PM WELCOME AND LOGISTICS Scott LaBarre, President, NABL, Centennial, CO 1:05 PM TRIBUTE TO CHARLIE BROWN Marc Maurer, Immediate Past President, NFB, Baltimore, MD; Denise Avant, Board Member, NABL, Chicago, IL 1:20 PM THE EFFECT OF THE SUPREME COURT'S RULING IN COMINGS AND OTHER RECENT CASES ON THE STATE OF DISABILITY RIGHTS Eve Hill, Partner, Brown, Goldstein & Levy, Baltimore, MD 1:50 PM THE UNFULFILLED PROMISE OF SECTION 508 AND WHAT YOU DON'T KNOW ABOUT TITLE IX Tim Elder, Second Vice President, NABL, Freemont, CA; Ronza Othman, First Vice President, NABL, Baltimore, MD; Marc Maurer, Immediate Past President, NFB, Catonsville, MD 2:30 PM BLIND ATTORNEY SUCCESSFULLY ARGUING BEFORE THE SUPREME COURT Karla Gilbride, Staff Attorney, Public Justice, Washington DC 2:55 PM ADVANCING THE RIGHTS OF THE BLIND AND OTHERS WITH DISABILITIES: A Survey of NFB Litigation Scott LaBarre, General Counsel, NFB, Centennial, CO; Valerie Yingling, Legal Program Coordinator, NFB, Baltimore MD 3:20 PM WHY YOU SHOULD JOIN THE AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION AND ELEVATE YOUR PRACTICE Judy Perry Martinez, Past President, ABA, New Orleans, LA; Denise Avant, Member, ABA Board of Governors, Chicago, IL 3:45 PM A TOWN HALL ON PRACTICING LAW AS BLIND ATTORNEYS We invite everyone to bring their questions on how to handle various aspects of law practice as blind and visually impaired attorneys as well as be ready to share your experience. 4:15 PM ELECTIONS AND DIVISION BUSINESS 4:30 PM ADJOURN TO RECEPTION Join us for cocktails and hors d'oeuvres as we celebrate the progress of our organization. Network and meet your fellow blind attorneys and legal professionals. We thank our NABL Board of Directors who raised over $2,000 among Board Members to sponsor this year's reception! From syedrizvinfb at gmail.com Wed Jul 6 20:53:53 2022 From: syedrizvinfb at gmail.com (Syed Rizvi) Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2022 15:53:53 -0500 Subject: [blindLaw] Contract Companion/ Litera Message-ID: <5F55AE02-0701-44E6-B7BE-E95A4DA68027@gmail.com> Hi All, Does anyone have experience using Contract Companion/ Litera to proof read contracts? I am trying to learn to use it and am open to any and all tips. If there is a better contract analyzing tool, please let me know. Syed -- Syed Mahmud Rizvi SRizvi at jd24.law.Harvard.edu (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 From dmanners at jd16.law.harvard.edu Wed Jul 6 22:28:04 2022 From: dmanners at jd16.law.harvard.edu (Derek Manners) Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2022 18:28:04 -0400 Subject: [blindLaw] Importance of Dissenting Opinions? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <982E0FAD-98E0-4E08-B738-7B72C8B77120@jd16.law.harvard.edu> There are some dissenting opinions that are later used to distinguish or overturn cases, but they are rare. They have also sparked legislative changes in rare instances. But for the most part, they aren’t all that relevant to most practitioners. Sent from my iPhone > On Jul 6, 2022, at 4:04 AM, Thomas Dukeman via BlindLaw wrote: > > Hello fellow legal beagles! > > I have been hearing a lot about justice this or justice that being the “dissenting opinion” on a Supreme Court decision and wonder why those are even important to have if it is the DISSENTING opinion, as in the one that does not agree with the majority decision if it will not influence it at all? I mean I can see it as being there because of tradition and what not but does it have any actual judicial weight behind it or is it just there for show? > > Thanks for your input! > Tom > > Sent from Mail for Windows > > _______________________________________________ > 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/dmanners%40jd16.law.harvard.edu From davant1958 at gmail.com Wed Jul 6 22:36:29 2022 From: davant1958 at gmail.com (davant1958 at gmail.com) Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2022 17:36:29 -0500 Subject: [blindLaw] FW: Disability Pride Month (July)/ 21-Day Disability Equity Challenge In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <01b101d89188$d5deae30$819c0a90$@gmail.com> Hello Everyone, I just wanted to share the below information from the American Bar Association's Commission on Disability Rights. From: Amy Allbright Sent: Thursday, June 30, 2022 11:10 AM Cc: Denise Avant Subject: Disability Pride Month (July)/ 21-Day Disability Equity Challenge Colleagues, On behalf of the ABA Commission on Disability Rights, Chair Denise Avant invites your entities and Affinity Bars to join us in, and share with your networks, Celebrating Disability Pride Month, which occurs each year in July. This is the first year that the Commission is celebrating this month. Chair Avant also invites you to take and share with your networks the Commission's ABA Wide 21-Day Disability Equity Habit-Building Challenge. Please contact us if you have any questions or concerns, or if you'd like to collaborate with the Commission on disability projects or initiatives. Best Regards, Amy Allbright Staff Director Commission on Disability Rights (CDR) - Mail Stop 8.0 American Bar Association (ABA) 1050 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Suite 400 Washington, DC 20036-5303 T: 202.662.1575 Cell: 703.336.2501 F: 202.442.3439 amy.allbright at americanbar.org http://www.americanbar.org/disability pronouns: she/her/ hers From michael.mcglashon at comcast.net Wed Jul 6 22:41:24 2022 From: michael.mcglashon at comcast.net (Mike Mcglashon) Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2022 17:41:24 -0500 Subject: [blindLaw] Importance of Dissenting Opinions? In-Reply-To: <982E0FAD-98E0-4E08-B738-7B72C8B77120@jd16.law.harvard.edu> References: <982E0FAD-98E0-4E08-B738-7B72C8B77120@jd16.law.harvard.edu> Message-ID: think of dissenting opinions as dressed up in a sunday suit, and, dissenting opinions as dressed up witha polo shirt and cacky pants and sneakers. also dissenting opinions often address the majority issues better than the majority opinion itself. lastly, the dissent tells a better factual story than the majority. Sent from my iPhone > On Jul 6, 2022, at 5:29 PM, Derek Manners via BlindLaw wrote: > > There are some dissenting opinions that are later used to distinguish or overturn cases, but they are rare. They have also sparked legislative changes in rare instances. But for the most part, they aren’t all that relevant to most practitioners. > > Sent from my iPhone > >> On Jul 6, 2022, at 4:04 AM, Thomas Dukeman via BlindLaw wrote: >> >> Hello fellow legal beagles! >> >> I have been hearing a lot about justice this or justice that being the “dissenting opinion” on a Supreme Court decision and wonder why those are even important to have if it is the DISSENTING opinion, as in the one that does not agree with the majority decision if it will not influence it at all? I mean I can see it as being there because of tradition and what not but does it have any actual judicial weight behind it or is it just there for show? >> >> Thanks for your input! >> Tom >> >> Sent from Mail for Windows >> >> _______________________________________________ >> 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/dmanners%40jd16.law.harvard.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/michael.mcglashon%40comcast.net From michael.mcglashon at comcast.net Wed Jul 6 22:45:47 2022 From: michael.mcglashon at comcast.net (Mike Mcglashon) Date: Wed, 6 Jul 2022 17:45:47 -0500 Subject: [blindLaw] Importance of Dissenting Opinions? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: oopse, I meant' think of the majority opinions as dressed up in sunday suits. Sent from my iPhone > On Jul 6, 2022, at 5:43 PM, Mike Mcglashon via BlindLaw wrote: > > think of dissenting opinions as dressed up in a sunday suit, and, > dissenting opinions as dressed up witha polo shirt and cacky pants and sneakers. > also dissenting opinions often address the majority issues better than the majority opinion itself. > lastly, the dissent tells a better factual story than the majority. > > > Sent from my iPhone > >> On Jul 6, 2022, at 5:29 PM, Derek Manners via BlindLaw wrote: >> >> There are some dissenting opinions that are later used to distinguish or overturn cases, but they are rare. They have also sparked legislative changes in rare instances. But for the most part, they aren’t all that relevant to most practitioners. >> >> Sent from my iPhone >> >>>> On Jul 6, 2022, at 4:04 AM, Thomas Dukeman via BlindLaw wrote: >>> >>> Hello fellow legal beagles! >>> >>> I have been hearing a lot about justice this or justice that being the “dissenting opinion” on a Supreme Court decision and wonder why those are even important to have if it is the DISSENTING opinion, as in the one that does not agree with the majority decision if it will not influence it at all? I mean I can see it as being there because of tradition and what not but does it have any actual judicial weight behind it or is it just there for show? >>> >>> Thanks for your input! >>> Tom >>> >>> Sent from Mail for Windows >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> 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/dmanners%40jd16.law.harvard.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/michael.mcglashon%40comcast.net From Noel.Nightingale at ed.gov Thu Jul 7 22:18:25 2022 From: Noel.Nightingale at ed.gov (Nightingale, Noel) Date: Thu, 7 Jul 2022 22:18:25 +0000 Subject: [blindLaw] Any experience with accessibility of Quick time using JAWS? Message-ID: Blindlaw, My agency will be shortly changing its timekeeping/leave application to Quick time. I have heard that Quick Time has accessibility issues. Does anyone have experience with Quick time using JAWS or another screen reader? I would appreciate any information you have. Noel From rahul.bajaj1038 at gmail.com Fri Jul 8 10:13:59 2022 From: rahul.bajaj1038 at gmail.com (Rahul Bajaj) Date: Fri, 8 Jul 2022 15:43:59 +0530 Subject: [blindLaw] Blind Law Meeting Message-ID: Hi All, I wanted to really attend the annual conference of NABL yesterday. But it started at 11:30 pm Indian Standard Time, and I had a long workday. SO I could not attend it. I am wondering if it was recorded. In the alternative, did someone take notes that they can share with me? I learnt a great deal from last year's conference. And am gutted about having missed it this year. Warmly, Rahul -- -- Rahul Bajaj Senior Resident Fellow, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, New Delhi, India Rhodes Scholar (India and Linacre 2018) University of Oxford From slabarre at labarrelaw.com Fri Jul 8 11:45:53 2022 From: slabarre at labarrelaw.com (Scott C. LaBarre) Date: Fri, 8 Jul 2022 05:45:53 -0600 Subject: [blindLaw] Blind Law Meeting In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <000201d892c0$4779f260$d66dd720$@labarrelaw.com> Yes, we recorded it and will make it available after we get through our Convention, some time next week. All best, Scott -----Original Message----- From: BlindLaw On Behalf Of Rahul Bajaj via BlindLaw Sent: Friday, July 8, 2022 4:14 AM To: Blind Law Mailing List Cc: Rahul Bajaj Subject: [blindLaw] Blind Law Meeting Hi All, I wanted to really attend the annual conference of NABL yesterday. But it started at 11:30 pm Indian Standard Time, and I had a long workday. SO I could not attend it. I am wondering if it was recorded. In the alternative, did someone take notes that they can share with me? I learnt a great deal from last year's conference. And am gutted about having missed it this year. Warmly, Rahul -- -- Rahul Bajaj Senior Resident Fellow, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy, New Delhi, India Rhodes Scholar (India and Linacre 2018) University of Oxford _______________________________________________ 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/slabarre%40labarrelaw. com From sbadillo100 at gmail.com Fri Jul 8 14:23:35 2022 From: sbadillo100 at gmail.com (Sarah Badillo) Date: Fri, 8 Jul 2022 10:23:35 -0400 Subject: [blindLaw] Making documents need in Microsoft Word Message-ID: Hello, I was wondering if anyone had any tips, tricks, or advice on how to make documents neat in Microsoft Word. I find that when I write legal memoranda, motions, or other legal documents, there always seems to be a problem with spacing and a few minor grammar mistakes and font changes that I cannot catch. Thank you in advance, any advice would be appreciated Sent from my iPhone From laurenbishop96 at icloud.com Fri Jul 8 14:54:43 2022 From: laurenbishop96 at icloud.com (Lauren Bishop) Date: Fri, 8 Jul 2022 10:54:43 -0400 Subject: [blindLaw] Making documents need in Microsoft Word In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <36520816-F27F-47E0-8776-827390940C21@icloud.com> Hi Sarah, Below are some things I do that I find really helpful in formatting documents. If you are a jaws user, text analyzer will help you catch inconsistencies with spacing and font changes. To use this function, press windows Plus alt plus I. Another feature I find helpful is to press insert plus F or caps luck plus F on a laptop keyboard. If you hit this command once, it will tell you the font color and style. If you hit it a second time, you will get more detail. When I am formatting, I will either ask for a word document of a symbol that my workplace has for the type of document I am working on and use the insert plus F command to have jaws read out the particular formatting attributes in the document. As soon as Joyce reads out the information I want to know the formatting of, I press insert plus F Also, when I don’t know how to format, I will simply Google, “how to format (insert item here) with the screen reader, “and the Microsoft support page will come up. I hope this helps Sincerely, Lauren Sent from my iPhone > On Jul 8, 2022, at 10:25 AM, Sarah Badillo via BlindLaw wrote: > > Hello, I was wondering if anyone had any tips, tricks, or advice on how to make documents neat in Microsoft Word. I find that when I write legal memoranda, motions, or other legal documents, there always seems to be a problem with spacing and a few minor grammar mistakes and font changes that I cannot catch. Thank you in advance, any advice would be appreciated > > Sent from my iPhone > _______________________________________________ > 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/laurenbishop96%40icloud.com From dandrews920 at comcast.net Fri Jul 8 14:56:48 2022 From: dandrews920 at comcast.net (dandrews920 at comcast.net) Date: Fri, 8 Jul 2022 09:56:48 -0500 Subject: [blindLaw] Making documents need in Microsoft Word In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <006801d892da$f3fa69b0$dbef3d10$@comcast.net> JAWS has proof reading schemes which give you more information about formatting etc. There is also a command to find stuff that isn't expected, like extra spaces. There are grammar checkers, which may or may not be accessible. Microsoft Word will also do some grammar checking. There is no easy fix, you will have to get better using your screen reader, and proofing is some work, that takes time. Dave -----Original Message----- From: BlindLaw On Behalf Of Sarah Badillo via BlindLaw Sent: Friday, July 8, 2022 9:24 AM To: blindlaw at nfbnet.org Cc: Sarah Badillo Subject: [blindLaw] Making documents need in Microsoft Word Hello, I was wondering if anyone had any tips, tricks, or advice on how to make documents neat in Microsoft Word. I find that when I write legal memoranda, motions, or other legal documents, there always seems to be a problem with spacing and a few minor grammar mistakes and font changes that I cannot catch. Thank you in advance, any advice would be appreciated Sent from my iPhone _______________________________________________ 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/dandrews920%40comcast. net From rodalcidonis at gmail.com Fri Jul 8 16:12:55 2022 From: rodalcidonis at gmail.com (rodalcidonis at gmail.com) Date: Fri, 8 Jul 2022 12:12:55 -0400 Subject: [blindLaw] Making documents need in Microsoft Word In-Reply-To: <006801d892da$f3fa69b0$dbef3d10$@comcast.net> References: <006801d892da$f3fa69b0$dbef3d10$@comcast.net> Message-ID: <000401d892e5$95942630$c0bc7290$@gmail.com> Indeed, there isn't an easy solution. If you are a Braille reader, this is to me the best way to proof-read your work otherwise, you will need to do the best you can with the proof reading profiles -- insert plus Alt plus the letter S and try the different configurations. To catch double spaces in your text, do a JAWS find and press the spacebar two times. It might also be helpful to proof-read line by line by doing an insert and the letter F to hear the formatting information reported to you, though this can be time consuming if you are dealing with voluminous materials. Make sure you set your JAWS speed to a reasonable level while proof-reading, even if you normally have it set to a higher level for other tasks. As you can see, it is a combination of different tools that will get you there. Having said that, I personally would never submit a written document drafted in Word without first having it visually inspected even with a good measure of confidence. Others may feel differently, however. Microsoft Word is not sufficiently accessible when it comes to formatting text as a blind person, in my view. Rod, -----Original Message----- From: BlindLaw On Behalf Of David Andrews via BlindLaw Sent: Friday, July 8, 2022 10:57 AM To: 'Blind Law Mailing List' Cc: dandrews920 at comcast.net Subject: Re: [blindLaw] Making documents need in Microsoft Word JAWS has proof reading schemes which give you more information about formatting etc. There is also a command to find stuff that isn't expected, like extra spaces. There are grammar checkers, which may or may not be accessible. Microsoft Word will also do some grammar checking. There is no easy fix, you will have to get better using your screen reader, and proofing is some work, that takes time. Dave -----Original Message----- From: BlindLaw On Behalf Of Sarah Badillo via BlindLaw Sent: Friday, July 8, 2022 9:24 AM To: blindlaw at nfbnet.org Cc: Sarah Badillo Subject: [blindLaw] Making documents need in Microsoft Word Hello, I was wondering if anyone had any tips, tricks, or advice on how to make documents neat in Microsoft Word. I find that when I write legal memoranda, motions, or other legal documents, there always seems to be a problem with spacing and a few minor grammar mistakes and font changes that I cannot catch. Thank you in advance, any advice would be appreciated Sent from my iPhone _______________________________________________ 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/dandrews920%40comcast. net _______________________________________________ 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/rodalcidonis%40gmail.c om From AMatney at reedsmith.com Fri Jul 8 16:36:45 2022 From: AMatney at reedsmith.com (Matney, Angela R.) Date: Fri, 8 Jul 2022 16:36:45 +0000 Subject: [blindLaw] Making documents need in Microsoft Word In-Reply-To: <000401d892e5$95942630$c0bc7290$@gmail.com> References: <006801d892da$f3fa69b0$dbef3d10$@comcast.net> <000401d892e5$95942630$c0bc7290$@gmail.com> Message-ID: <4c7b47e8bab5419289e55043b0d82e84@reedsmith.com> Very good points, Rod and others. I would add that using a JAWS sound scheme can be helpful when proofreading. This can reduce the number of times you have to use the insert+f command to check for formatting while you proofread. I find that a combination of a sound scheme and my Braille display can be extremely helpful. I also very rarely send out a document without a visual inspection. I occasionally have to do this due to time constraints, but I much prefer to have a sighted person check it, because occasionally there are inconsistencies with Word and the screen reader. Best, Angie Angela Matney, CIPP/US (she/her) Counsel 202-414-9343 Amatney at reedsmith.com Reed Smith LLP 1301 K Street, N.W. Suite 1100 - East Tower Washington, D.C. 20005-3373 +1 202 414 9200 Fax +1 202 414 9299 From: BlindLaw On Behalf Of Rod Alcidonis via BlindLaw Sent: Friday, July 8, 2022 12:13 PM To: 'Blind Law Mailing List' Cc: rodalcidonis at gmail.com Subject: Re: [blindLaw] Making documents need in Microsoft Word EXTERNAL E-MAIL - From blindlaw at nfbnet.org Indeed, there isn't an easy solution. If you are a Braille reader, this is to me the best way to proof-read your work otherwise, you will need to do the best you can with the proof reading profiles -- insert plus Alt plus the letter S and try the different configurations. To catch double spaces in your text, do a JAWS find and press the spacebar two times. It might also be helpful to proof-read line by line by doing an insert and the letter F to hear the formatting information reported to you, though this can be time consuming if you are dealing with voluminous materials. Make sure you set your JAWS speed to a reasonable level while proof-reading, even if you normally have it set to a higher level for other tasks. As you can see, it is a combination of different tools that will get you there. Having said that, I personally would never submit a written document drafted in Word without first having it visually inspected even with a good measure of confidence. Others may feel differently, however. Microsoft Word is not sufficiently accessible when it comes to formatting text as a blind person, in my view. Rod, External Signed -----Original Message----- From: BlindLaw > On Behalf Of David Andrews via BlindLaw Sent: Friday, July 8, 2022 10:57 AM To: 'Blind Law Mailing List' > Cc: dandrews920 at comcast.net Subject: Re: [blindLaw] Making documents need in Microsoft Word JAWS has proof reading schemes which give you more information about formatting etc. There is also a command to find stuff that isn't expected, like extra spaces. There are grammar checkers, which may or may not be accessible. Microsoft Word will also do some grammar checking. There is no easy fix, you will have to get better using your screen reader, and proofing is some work, that takes time. Dave -----Original Message----- From: BlindLaw > On Behalf Of Sarah Badillo via BlindLaw Sent: Friday, July 8, 2022 9:24 AM To: blindlaw at nfbnet.org Cc: Sarah Badillo > Subject: [blindLaw] Making documents need in Microsoft Word Hello, I was wondering if anyone had any tips, tricks, or advice on how to make documents neat in Microsoft Word. I find that when I write legal memoranda, motions, or other legal documents, there always seems to be a problem with spacing and a few minor grammar mistakes and font changes that I cannot catch. Thank you in advance, any advice would be appreciated Sent from my iPhone _______________________________________________ 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/dandrews920%40comcast. net _______________________________________________ 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/rodalcidonis%40gmail.c om _______________________________________________ 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/amatney%40reedsmith.com * * * This E-mail, along with any attachments, is considered confidential and may well be legally privileged. If you have received it in error, you are on notice of its status. Please notify us immediately by reply e-mail and then delete this message from your system. Please do not copy it or use it for any purposes, or disclose its contents to any other person. Thank you for your cooperation. Disclaimer Version RS.US.201.407.01 From sbg at sbgaal.com Sat Jul 9 21:24:23 2022 From: sbg at sbgaal.com (sbg sbgaal.com) Date: Sat, 9 Jul 2022 21:24:23 +0000 Subject: [blindLaw] Westlaw Problem Work around? Message-ID: Hi Group, When I do a Westlaw terms search, I am having trouble finding the text that matches my search in the list of cases Westlaw produces. I know I could use control F; however, this is it very slow process and would prefer to know how to use the tool properly. If anyone has found the method to do so, please email me and let me know Thank you! 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 This email may contain material that is confidential, privileged and/or attorney work product for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any review, reliance or distribution by others or forwarding without express permission is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender and delete all copies. From sbadillo100 at gmail.com Sun Jul 10 12:37:05 2022 From: sbadillo100 at gmail.com (Sarah Badillo) Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2022 08:37:05 -0400 Subject: [blindLaw] west law work around. Message-ID: <5C485552-B25A-4FF0-8C00-A4686249D03A@gmail.com> Way back then, my favorite method of searching in that database was to use the terms and connectors. These days I think they changed it so that natural language can sometimes be used. If you want a specific term, I would put it in quotation marks. But otherwise, I think that my goal in searching would be to find cases that are similar in facts to the situation I'd be working on. so basically, if your goal is to find cases with similar facts, you would use terms and connectors and or natural language depending on which one you’ll get better results. If your goal is to use cases with similar words, then I would say natural language works best. With the quotations if the other methods fail. If your specific database plan allows you access to west reference attorneys, then by all means use it. Hope this helps Sent from my iPhone > On Jul 10, 2022, at 8:02 AM, blindlaw-request at nfbnet.org wrote: > > Send BlindLaw mailing list submissions to > blindlaw at nfbnet.org > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindlaw_nfbnet.org > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > blindlaw-request at nfbnet.org > > You can reach the person managing the list at > blindlaw-owner at nfbnet.org > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of BlindLaw digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Westlaw Problem Work around? (sbg sbgaal.com) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Sat, 9 Jul 2022 21:24:23 +0000 > From: sbg sbgaal.com > To: "blindlaw at nfbnet.org" > Subject: [blindLaw] Westlaw Problem Work around? > Message-ID: > > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > Hi Group, > When I do a Westlaw terms search, I am having trouble finding the text that matches my search in the list of cases Westlaw produces. I know I could use control F; however, this is it very slow process and would prefer to know how to use the tool properly. If anyone has found the method to do so, please email me and let me know > Thank you! > > > 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 > This email may contain material that is confidential, privileged and/or attorney work product for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any review, reliance or distribution by others or forwarding without express permission is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender and delete all copies. > > > > ------------------------------ > > Subject: Digest Footer > > _______________________________________________ > BlindLaw mailing list > BlindLaw at nfbnet.org > http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindlaw_nfbnet.org > > > ------------------------------ > > End of BlindLaw Digest, Vol 218, Issue 9 > **************************************** From michael.mcglashon at comcast.net Sun Jul 10 17:56:52 2022 From: michael.mcglashon at comcast.net (MIKE MCGLASHON) Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2022 13:56:52 -0400 Subject: [blindLaw] west law work around. In-Reply-To: <5C485552-B25A-4FF0-8C00-A4686249D03A@gmail.com> References: <5C485552-B25A-4FF0-8C00-A4686249D03A@gmail.com> Message-ID: <396f01d89486$72849650$578dc2f0$@comcast.net> Quoting: If your specific database plan allows you access to west reference attorneys, then by all means use it. Hope this helps End quote: Hi Ms. Sarah: Your statement brings up a good point; Does West still have the "screen reader friendly attorneys" on standby? If so, do you happen to know if I or anyone else for that matter would need to subscribe to a special plan to get 24 hour access to said attorneys? I suppose I could call West myself but I figured since you brought it up that you have experience in such matters? Please advise as you like. Mike M. Mike mcglashon Email: Michael.mcglashon at comcast.net Ph: 618 783 9331 -----Original Message----- From: BlindLaw On Behalf Of Sarah Badillo via BlindLaw Sent: Sunday, July 10, 2022 8:37 AM To: blindlaw at nfbnet.org Cc: Sarah Badillo Subject: Re: [blindLaw] west law work around. Way back then, my favorite method of searching in that database was to use the terms and connectors. These days I think they changed it so that natural language can sometimes be used. If you want a specific term, I would put it in quotation marks. But otherwise, I think that my goal in searching would be to find cases that are similar in facts to the situation I'd be working on. so basically, if your goal is to find cases with similar facts, you would use terms and connectors and or natural language depending on which one you’ll get better results. If your goal is to use cases with similar words, then I would say natural language works best. With the quotations if the other methods fail. If your specific database plan allows you access to west reference attorneys, then by all means use it. Hope this helps Sent from my iPhone > On Jul 10, 2022, at 8:02 AM, blindlaw-request at nfbnet.org wrote: > > Send BlindLaw mailing list submissions to > blindlaw at nfbnet.org > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindlaw_nfbnet.org > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > blindlaw-request at nfbnet.org > > You can reach the person managing the list at > blindlaw-owner at nfbnet.org > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of BlindLaw digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Westlaw Problem Work around? (sbg sbgaal.com) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Sat, 9 Jul 2022 21:24:23 +0000 > From: sbg sbgaal.com > To: "blindlaw at nfbnet.org" > Subject: [blindLaw] Westlaw Problem Work around? > Message-ID: > > tlook.com> > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > Hi Group, > When I do a Westlaw terms search, I am having trouble finding the text > that matches my search in the list of cases Westlaw produces. I know I could use control F; however, this is it very slow process and would prefer to know how to use the tool properly. If anyone has found the method to do so, please email me and let me know Thank you! > > > 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 > This email may contain material that is confidential, privileged and/or attorney work product for the sole use of the intended recipient. Any review, reliance or distribution by others or forwarding without express permission is strictly prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender and delete all copies. > > > > ------------------------------ > > Subject: Digest Footer > > _______________________________________________ > BlindLaw mailing list > BlindLaw at nfbnet.org > http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/blindlaw_nfbnet.org > > > ------------------------------ > > End of BlindLaw Digest, Vol 218, Issue 9 > **************************************** _______________________________________________ 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/michael.mcglashon%40comcast.net From Noel.Nightingale at ed.gov Mon Jul 11 15:45:25 2022 From: Noel.Nightingale at ed.gov (Nightingale, Noel) Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2022 15:45:25 +0000 Subject: [blindLaw] Higher Education: Testing Companies Most Commonly Granted Extra Time to Accommodate Individuals with Disabilities - GAO - July 6, 2022 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: https://www.gao.gov/products/gao-22-104430?utm_campaign=usgao_email&utm_content=topic_equalopp&utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery Higher Education: Testing Companies Most Commonly Granted Extra Time to Accommodate Individuals with Disabilities GAO July 6, 2022 What GAO Found Companies that administer standardized higher education tests grant a variety of accommodations to help ensure their tests are accessible to individuals with disabilities. The most common accommodations granted in 2019-2020 were for individuals who needed extra time or adjustments to the testing environment, according to the most recent data from the six testing companies GAO reviewed (see figure). In determining eligibility for accommodations, officials from those testing companies reported considering factors such as how a disability affects an individual's ability to test under standard conditions and any prior use of accommodations. Officials also said they consider whether a request is appropriate for a particular test (e.g., whether granting it could affect test validity). Most Common Accommodations Granted on the ACT, AP Exams, GMAT, GRE, LSAT, MCAT, PSAT, and SAT, 2019-2020 Note: Tests include the ACT, Advanced Placement (AP) Exams, Graduate Management Admission Test (GMAT), GRE General Test (GRE), Law School Admission Test (LSAT), Medical College Admission Test (MCAT), Preliminary SAT (PSAT) assessments for tenth and eleventh graders, and SAT. Numbers do not add to 100 due to rounding. Individuals with disabilities and testing companies faced several challenges related to testing accommodations. For example, some individuals had difficulty providing adequate documentation to justify their accommodations, according to representatives from six disability advocacy organizations. Officials from five of the six testing companies described challenges in reviewing and granting accommodation requests. For example, officials from three testing companies said requests that do not sufficiently describe an individual's disability and its impact are difficult to evaluate. In addition, officials from two companies said it can be challenging to provide appropriate accommodation access while also protecting test integrity. The Department of Justice enforces requirements under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, as amended, (ADA) related to testing accommodations. Justice has investigated or referred reports of potential violations, intervened in private litigation, and clarified requirements to promote compliance. From 2017 through 2020, Justice reported receiving and closing more than 90,000 reports of potential ADA violations, of which fewer than 100 pertained to the selected tests in GAO's review. To manage resources, Justice officials said they prioritize reports that could have a broad impact for investigation or referral to U.S. Attorney's Offices. Justice officials also said the agency can intervene in private lawsuits to address systemic problems with testing accommodations. In 2015, Justice issued a technical assistance document to clarify ADA requirements for testing accommodations. Why GAO Did This Study Each year, millions of individuals take standardized tests-like the SAT or GRE-with the goal of pursuing higher education. Under the ADA, testing companies must provide accommodations to individuals with disabilities. Justice is responsible for enforcing ADA requirements related to testing accommodations. GAO was asked to review accommodations on higher education tests. This report examines (1) the types of accommodations testing companies grant and how they make those decisions, (2) challenges associated with testing accommodations, and (3) how Justice has enforced compliance with ADA requirements related to testing accommodations. GAO obtained and reviewed accommodation data from the six testing companies that administer the ACT, AP Exams, GMAT, GRE, LSAT, MCAT, PSAT, and SAT. These tests are commonly associated with admission into higher education programs. The data are from 2019 through 2020, the most recent available. GAO also reviewed relevant federal laws and regulations and Justice's data on closed reports and investigations of potential ADA violations pertaining to the selected tests from 2017 through 2020, the most recent data available. GAO interviewed officials from the six testing companies, six disability advocacy organizations selected to reflect a range of perspectives, and from Justice. For more information, contact Melissa Emrey Arras at (617) 788-0534 or emreyarrasm at gao.gov. From rothmanjd at gmail.com Sat Jul 16 12:41:48 2022 From: rothmanjd at gmail.com (rothmanjd at gmail.com) Date: Sat, 16 Jul 2022 08:41:48 -0400 Subject: [blindLaw] Thank You for an Outstanding Convention Message-ID: <009201d89911$6aa128b0$3fe37a10$@gmail.com> Friends, The National Association of Blind Lawyers had an outstanding seminar during the National Federation of the Blind annual convention. We hope you were able to attend in person or tune in virtually. Thank you to everyone who helped organize, presented, and attended. We continue to accept membership dues. Please visit https://blindlawyers.net to pay your 2022 dues. We also held our elections, and our board is eager to roll up our sleeves and get to work. We are so incredibly grateful to Scott Labarre for his many years of service as the NABL president. He has been an outstanding president and mentor. As the new president, I'm so excited to work with each of you in the coming months to make the NFB Lawyers Division both live up to the legacy of those who came before this board and also give our members what they want and need as blind lawyers. Please reach out to me with your ideas and suggestions. Below is the list of individuals who were elected at our annual meeting. President: Ronza Othman, Maryland First Vice President: Scott Labarre, Colorado Second Vice President: Tim Elder, California Secretary: Ray Wayne, New York Treasurer: Larry Povinelli, Alabama Board members: * Denise Avant, Illinois * Al Elia, New York * Randy Farber, Texas * Deepa Goraya, Virginia * Noel Nightingale, Washington * Monica Wegner, California Yours, Ronza Ronza Othman, President National Federation of the Blind of Maryland 443-426-4110 Pronouns: she, her, hers The National Federation of the Blind of Maryland knows that blindness is not the characteristic that defines you or your future. Every day we raise the expectations of blind people, because low expectations create obstacles between blind people and our dreams. You can live the life you want; blindness is not what holds you back From Noel.Nightingale at ed.gov Mon Jul 18 23:18:36 2022 From: Noel.Nightingale at ed.gov (Nightingale, Noel) Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2022 23:18:36 +0000 Subject: [blindLaw] Uber Commits to Changes and Pays Millions to Resolve Justice Department Lawsuit for Overcharging People with Disabilities - DOJ - July 18, 2022 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/uber-commits-changes-and-pays-millions-resolve-justice-department-lawsuit-overcharging-people Uber Commits to Changes and Pays Millions to Resolve Justice Department Lawsuit for Overcharging People with Disabilities Press Release DOJ July 18, 2022 The Department of Justice filed in court today a multi-million-dollar settlement agreement with Uber Technologies Inc. (Uber) to resolve a lawsuit alleging that Uber violated the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Under the agreement, Uber will offer several million dollars in compensation to more than 65,000 Uber users who were charged discriminatory fees due to disability. In November 2021, the department filed a lawsuit alleging that Uber violated Title III of the ADA, which prohibits discrimination by private transportation companies like Uber. According to the complaint, in April 2016, Uber began charging passengers wait time fees in a number of cities, eventually expanding the policy nationwide. The wait time fees started two minutes after the Uber car arrived at the pickup location and were charged until the car began its trip. The department's complaint alleged that Uber violated the ADA by failing to reasonably modify its wait time fee policy for passengers who, because of disability, needed more than two minutes to get in an Uber car. Passengers with disabilities may need additional time to enter a car for various reasons. A passenger may, for example, use a wheelchair or walker that needs to be broken down and stored in the car. Or a passenger who is blind may need additional time to safely walk from the pickup location to the car itself. The department's lawsuit alleged that, even when Uber was aware that passengers' need for additional time was clearly disability-based, Uber started charging a wait time fee at the two-minute mark. Under the two-year agreement, Uber has committed to waive wait time fees for all Uber riders who certify that they (or someone they frequently travel with) need more time to get in an Uber car because of a disability. Uber also will ensure that refunds are easily available for anyone who does not have a waiver and is charged a wait time fee because of disability. Uber will advertise the wait time fee waiver program and train its customer service representatives on the waiver program and refund process to ensure that people with disabilities are not charged illegal fees. Additionally, Uber will credit the accounts of more than 65,000 eligible riders who signed up for the waiver program for double the amount of wait time fees they were ever charged, which could amount to potentially hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars in compensation. Uber will also pay $1,738,500 to more than one thousand riders who complained to Uber about being charged wait time fees because of disability, and $500,000 to other harmed individuals identified by the department. "People with disabilities should not be made to feel like second-class citizens or punished because of their disability, which is exactly what Uber's wait time fee policy did," said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. "This agreement sends a strong message that Uber and other ridesharing companies will be held accountable if their services discriminate against people with disabilities. The Civil Rights Division remains committed to enforcing the ADA and ensuring that people with disabilities can travel free from barriers and indignities." "Ensuring equal access to transportation for those with disabilities is an important goal of the ADA," said U.S. Attorney Stephanie M. Hinds for the Northern District of California. "People with disabilities must have access to ridesharing services provided by Uber and similar companies without enduring discriminatory wait time fees. This agreement removes that barrier to equal access for passengers with disabilities and provides a mechanism to compensate those harmed by Uber's past wait time fee policy." This matter was handled jointly by Assistant U.S. Attorney David DeVito for the Northern District of California and the Civil Rights Division's Disability Rights Section. A copy of the settlement agreement is attached. For more information on the Civil Rights Division, please visit http://www.justice.gov/crt. For more information on the ADA, please call the department's toll-free ADA information line at 800-514-0301 (TDD 800-514-0383) or visit www.ada.gov. ADA complaints may be filed online at http://www.ada.gov/complaint. From ThomasDukeman at outlook.com Sun Jul 24 10:00:30 2022 From: ThomasDukeman at outlook.com (Thomas Dukeman) Date: Sun, 24 Jul 2022 10:00:30 +0000 Subject: [blindLaw] Email and Attorney-client Privilege Message-ID: Hello fellow legal beagles! I am learning about how the Attorney-client Privilege is also applied to the paralegal and in particular electronic communication with clients through E-mail. The textbook says “ If the communication is sent to the client and others have access to the client’s e-mail, the attorney-client privilege must be lost.” If that is true, then does that may the case would be dropped since it already established that a client may only lose attorney-client privilege when the case is over, does that case get automatically get dismissed or what happens is that if the firm decides to go to trial may be used as evidence against the client? Thanks for your time and help, Tom Sent from Mail for Windows From sai at fiatfiendum.org Sun Jul 24 12:16:53 2022 From: sai at fiatfiendum.org (Sai) Date: Sun, 24 Jul 2022 13:16:53 +0100 Subject: [blindLaw] Email and Attorney-client Privilege In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Tom — Standard disclaimer: I'm not a lawyer, I'm not giving legal advice (just information), this isn't tailored to your situation, read the law for yourself, things differ by jurisdiction, etc. In particular, mind that a. state laws about privilege vary significantly, and a lot of this is a question of state law and state bar rules b. non-US law about privilege can be quite different — including other common law countries like the UK. Everything below only applies to the US and assumes that there's no international aspect to anything. (If there is, things get very complicated; the Sedona Conference is an excellent source of detailed info and recommendations if you do get into this.) > how the Attorney-client Privilege is also applied to the paralegal and in particular electronic communication with clients through E-mail. The textbook says “ If the communication is sent to the client and others have access to the client’s e-mail, the attorney-client privilege must be lost.” Your textbook is incorrect. Actually, it managed to be wrong on multiple different issues within a single sentence. First, the client is not the only person who has privilege. (Some kinds of) agents of the client and lawyer are also privileged recipients. This includes paralegals and people who help with communications (e.g. interpreters, secretaries, delivery people, etc). I believe this would include, for instance, someone hired to convert stuff to braille (as long as it was with a clear expectation of privacy etc). Though note that if one of those agents betray your confidence, then you could probably sue them, but it'd probably still count as a waiver. (Many caveats apply.) Second, even if a non-privileged person has access, it's not true that privilege "must be lost". It depends on who that someone is, whether the access is because the client consented or was negligent in taking precautions to prevent others from accessing it, whether the access itself was legal, what exactly was accessed (if some unrelated email was accessed, that's irrelevant; if it's related, then you have to determine scope of waiver); etc. > If that is true, then does that may the case would be dropped No. Privilege will only come up in the first place if an adverse party wants to get privileged information from a privileged person, or has somehow obtained such information (possibly by other means) and wants to use it as evidence. Then you have to assert the privilege against disclosure. If you win on the privilege claim, then the other side doesn't get to have the evidence or introduce it as evidence — though they might be able to use your withholding against you. If you lose on the privilege claim, then you have to hand over the info and the adverse party gets to use it in evidence. If you lose in the lower court, you might have to deliberately refuse to obey, and be held in contempt, if you want to appeal it immediately. Otherwise you might or might not be able to appeal it after final judgment, but depending on how sensitive the info is, at that point it might be irreparable even if you were to win the appeal after the fact. Hopefully you don't have confidential info that's so bad for you that it would result in an extremely easy win for the other side if they knew it, but there's no such thing as an automatic dismissal on this. Either you dismiss voluntarily, the other side wins on a motion to dismiss or summary judgment (for federal civil litigation), or the court makes a sua sponte motion to dismiss. Sua sponte dismissal is very rare in federal civil court at least; basically only comes up for over-the-top obvious vexatious & frivolous cases (which realistically will never reach a question of privilege), or if neither side made a motion but the court thinks it's become totally obvious who should win or that they lack jurisdiction and just wants it to be over without waiting for a motion (rare, but it does happen). Note however that it is possible to functionally kill your own case by claiming privilege. E.g. if you want to withhold info in one case (e.g. because you're being prosecuted and take the 5th), but that exact same info is unavoidably necessary for you to prove something in a different civil case, then you have to pick. If you choose to withhold, then the other side will probably win, because you are choosing to not introduce evidence that would help you. This happened to Michael Cohen in the Stormy Daniels civil case. If you choose to withhold and have a right to do so, then in civil cases, you might have an "adverse inference" order, i.e. the judge orders the jury to assume that whatever you withheld was bad for you. Depending on what that was, it might be irrelevant to the outcome or might cause a huge problem. > since it already established that a client may only lose attorney-client privilege when the case is over Also not true. You can lose privilege during the case (e.g. by disclosure or by the lawyer participating in crime/fraud with the client). And the privilege continues permanently until something happens to waive it. The case ending is not a waiver or exception — though it might mean that the attorney is no longer giving the client legal advice, so it's no longer a communication with them acting as an attorney. Byt that rather depends on the situation; legal advice about how to deal with the decision, possibility to appeal, etc. is routine and still counts as privileged. > or what happens is that if the firm decides to go to trial may be used as evidence against the client? Correct. Privilege is asserted, in a way anyone but those involved know about, only at the point in time when someone else wants the info or wants to use it. If you lose the claim of privilege, then you have to hand it over (if it's discoverable in the first place) and the other side gets to use it as evidence (if it's admissible in the first place). I've attached a PDF about (non-governmental) attorney-client privilege under US law in depth. Governmental privilege is a more complicated issue; it's covered in this PDF, but I can send more specialized materials on that if you want. Here's a summary of the parts relevant to your question: Privilege exists if a. it's a communication b. between privileged persons c. in confidence d. for the purpose of obtaining or providing legal assistance for the client There are court splits on exactly what content counts as privileged. See PDF pages 22 to 25. "Privileged persons" include a. the client or prospective client b. the lawyer c. agents of either If the client (or their representative) is an organization, then it's more complicated — but anyone in senior authority (directors, main officers) are included. Other employees might be; the requirements are complicated and vary by state. See PDF pages 28 to 41. An "agent" includes e.g. couriers, secretaries, file clerks, paralegals, etc. who help with communication or representation. Accountants are partially privileged, with lots of caveats See PDF pages 49 to 57. Case law and bar opinions about email has changed over time, as does state law. Practically, the main issue will be whether a non-privileged person has access to the email — e.g. if an employee is suing their employer, and contacts their lawyer from a work account, then the employer probably has access to it and that waives privilege. If a privileged person sends or shows the email to a non-privileged person, it's waived. But it's more complicated than that. See PDF pages 62 to 66 and 111 to 115. More complications if someone involved is being wiretapped or the computers are seized. See PDF pages 91 to 92. Privilege is permanent until waived unless there's an exception. A case ending isn't one. Client death is only partial waiver in some states; more likely it just means that the client's heir is now the entity that holds the privilege. But there are various exceptions, like if the dead client is a corporation, or the case is itself about the client's death (e.g. disputes over a will or suing the life insurance company). See PDF pages 105 to 106. Even if waived, then you have to consider the scope of waiver; it's not all or nothing, and depends on the subject. See PDF pages 119 to 128. If it's accidental disclosure, there are lots of case by case analysis requirements. In federal litigation, discovery agreements will usually have a "clawback" clause to cover accidental inclusion of privileged info. See PDF pages 129 to 135. If the disclosure is involuntary, i.e. someone spied on you, hacked your account, stole your stuff, etc., and you took reasonable precautions to stop that, privilege is probably not waived. See PDF pages 137 to 139. Sincerely, Sai President, Fiat Fiendum, Inc., a 501(c)(3) On Sun, Jul 24, 2022 at 11:02 AM Thomas Dukeman via BlindLaw < blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote: > Hello fellow legal beagles! > > I am learning about how the Attorney-client Privilege is also applied to > the paralegal and in particular electronic communication with clients > through E-mail. The textbook says “ If the communication is sent to the > client and others have access to the client’s e-mail, the attorney-client > privilege must be lost.” If that is true, then does that may the case would > be dropped since it already established that a client may only lose > attorney-client privilege when the case is over, does that case get > automatically get dismissed or what happens is that if the firm decides to > go to trial may be used as evidence against the client? > > Thanks for your time and help, > Tom > > Sent from Mail for Windows > > _______________________________________________ > 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/sai%40fiatfiendum.org > -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Attorney Client Privilege.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 1625282 bytes Desc: not available URL: From rahul.bajaj1038 at gmail.com Mon Jul 25 07:52:17 2022 From: rahul.bajaj1038 at gmail.com (Rahul Bajaj) Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2022 13:22:17 +0530 Subject: [blindLaw] jaws reads a lot of unnecessary information when reading out ocr-ed documents Message-ID: hi, i use fine reader 14, jaws 2021, office 16. when i ocr documents, in the word copy, jaws reads the following kinds of things before the actual text: a. graphic shape image s-and-so inches by s-and-so inches. textbox. This is quite annoying and a distraction. Any way to stop it from reporting this unnecessary information? Warmly, Rahul -- -- Rahul Bajaj Attorney, Ira Law Senior Associate Fellow, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy Rhodes Scholar (India and Linacre 2018), University of Oxford Co-Founder, Mission Accessibility Special Correspondent on the rights of persons with disabilities, Oxford Human Rights Hub Coordinator of the working group on accessibility, e-Committee, Supreme Court of India From NSingh at cov.com Mon Jul 25 13:19:59 2022 From: NSingh at cov.com (Singh, Nandini) Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2022 13:19:59 +0000 Subject: [blindLaw] jaws reads a lot of unnecessary information when reading out ocr-ed documents In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <3d93309a270d4fad96e4abdf824d55a7@cov.com> No, not without further document processing. The shape image indicators and text boxes are formatting and other artifacts from the page before it was OCR-ed. You can obviously delete these regions and reformat what remains so it all flows better. However, that takes time that I (and I imagine that you) often do not have. In a pinch, you can copy-and-paste the text in Note Pad and then copy-and-paste back into Word. Note Pad strips formatting, including the items that you are encountering. It also strips other formatting that you may want to retain. It probably works best for small documents whose content is paramount. -----Original Message----- From: BlindLaw On Behalf Of Rahul Bajaj via BlindLaw Sent: Monday, July 25, 2022 3:52 AM To: Blind Law Mailing List Cc: Rahul Bajaj Subject: [blindLaw] jaws reads a lot of unnecessary information when reading out ocr-ed documents [EXTERNAL] hi, i use fine reader 14, jaws 2021, office 16. when i ocr documents, in the word copy, jaws reads the following kinds of things before the actual text: a. graphic shape image s-and-so inches by s-and-so inches. textbox. This is quite annoying and a distraction. Any way to stop it from reporting this unnecessary information? Warmly, Rahul -- -- Rahul Bajaj Attorney, Ira Law Senior Associate Fellow, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy Rhodes Scholar (India and Linacre 2018), University of Oxford Co-Founder, Mission Accessibility Special Correspondent on the rights of persons with disabilities, Oxford Human Rights Hub Coordinator of the working group on accessibility, e-Committee, Supreme Court of India _______________________________________________ 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/nsingh%40cov.com From NSingh at cov.com Mon Jul 25 14:53:49 2022 From: NSingh at cov.com (Singh, Nandini) Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2022 14:53:49 +0000 Subject: [blindLaw] FW: Thomson Reuters Accessibility Support Contact Information In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Hi All-I wanted to pass along updated contact information for the JAWS specialist reference attorneys at Westlaw. From: Ibanez, Jennifer (Operations & Technology) Sent: Monday, July 25, 2022 10:36 AM Cc: Rust-Small, Stephanie (Operations & Technology) Subject: Thomson Reuters Accessibility Support Contact Information [EXTERNAL] My name is Jennifer Ibanez and I am one of the Reference Attorneys who provides support for using assistive technologies, such as JAWS, while using Westlaw and other Thomson Reuters platforms. I am writing this e-mail because you have either recently been in touch with myself and/or my colleague Stephanie Rust-Small, or you have recently been provided with our contact information. Our direct phone numbers have changed effective today. I have included our updated contact information below. Contact Information: Jennifer Ibanez Phone Number: 763-326-6541 Email: Jennifer.Ibanez at thomsonreuters.com Stephanie Rust-Small Phone Number: 763-326-6554 Email: Stephanie.Rust-Small at thomsonreuters.com Best regards, Jennifer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Jennifer Ibanez Reference Attorney Pronouns: she/her Thomson Reuters Phone: 1-800-REF-ATTY (733-2889) Jennifer.Ibanez at thomsonreuters.com thomsonreuters.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . This e-mail is for the sole use of the intended recipient and contains information that may be privileged and/or confidential. If you are not an intended recipient, please notify the sender by return e-mail and delete this e-mail and any attachments. Certain required legal entity disclosures can be accessed on our website: https://www.thomsonreuters.com/en/resources/disclosures.html From graham.hardy at gmail.com Mon Jul 25 17:28:13 2022 From: graham.hardy at gmail.com (graham.hardy at gmail.com) Date: Mon, 25 Jul 2022 10:28:13 -0700 Subject: [blindLaw] jaws reads a lot of unnecessary information when reading out ocr-ed documents In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <083c01d8a04b$eb19d640$c14d82c0$@gmail.com> If you want to avoid this type of extraneous formatting, you can choose the Options button before saving your file and selecting "Plain text" under "Document layout". This will disable a lot of layout information and alternative fonts from being saved with the document, although you will still get features like tables, tables of contents, footnotes, and so on. You can still enable the "Keep bold, italic, and underlined text styles in plain text" check box as well as the check boxes for whatever other document features you want to keep. -----Original Message----- From: BlindLaw On Behalf Of Rahul Bajaj via BlindLaw Sent: Monday, July 25, 2022 12:52 AM To: Blind Law Mailing List Cc: Rahul Bajaj Subject: [blindLaw] jaws reads a lot of unnecessary information when reading out ocr-ed documents hi, i use fine reader 14, jaws 2021, office 16. when i ocr documents, in the word copy, jaws reads the following kinds of things before the actual text: a. graphic shape image s-and-so inches by s-and-so inches. textbox. This is quite annoying and a distraction. Any way to stop it from reporting this unnecessary information? Warmly, Rahul -- -- Rahul Bajaj Attorney, Ira Law Senior Associate Fellow, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy Rhodes Scholar (India and Linacre 2018), University of Oxford Co-Founder, Mission Accessibility Special Correspondent on the rights of persons with disabilities, Oxford Human Rights Hub Coordinator of the working group on accessibility, e-Committee, Supreme Court of India _______________________________________________ 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/graham.hardy%40gmail.c om From slabarre at labarrelaw.com Tue Jul 26 14:11:05 2022 From: slabarre at labarrelaw.com (Scott C. LaBarre) Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2022 08:11:05 -0600 Subject: [blindLaw] FW: [DRBA] Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law - Hiring Legal Director In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <005c01d8a0f9$8bc935b0$a35ba110$@labarrelaw.com> FYI From: Disability Rights Bar Association On Behalf Of Eve Hill Sent: Tuesday, July 26, 2022 7:34 AM To: DRBA at LISTSERV.SYR.EDU Subject: [DRBA] Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law - Hiring Legal Director Dear Disability Rights Legal Brains There’s still time to apply for this great job! Eve Eve Hill Attorney BROWN GOLDSTEIN & LEVY 120 E. Baltimore Street, Suite 2500 Baltimore, MD 21202 T 410.962.1030 x1311 C 202.802.0925 F 410.385.0869 E ehill at browngold.com Admitted in Maine, DC, California, Maryland, Virginia Pronouns: she/her/hers About Brown, Goldstein & Levy, LLP Brown, Goldstein & Levy handles both civil and criminal litigation and has active practices in many other areas of the law, including family law, disability rights, and health care. For more information, visit browngold.com. CONFIDENTIALITY: This email and any attachments are confidential, except where the email states it can be disclosed; it may also be privileged. If received in error, please do not disclose the contents to anyone, but notify the sender by return email and delete this email (and any attachments) from your system. Thank you. Disclaimer The information contained in this communication from the sender is confidential. It is intended solely for use by the recipient and others authorized to receive it. If you are not the recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, copying, distribution or taking action in relation of the contents of this information is strictly prohibited and may be unlawful. This email has been scanned for viruses and malware, and may have been automatically archived by Mimecast Ltd, an innovator in Software as a Service (SaaS) for business. Providing a safer and more useful place for your human generated data. Specializing in; Security, archiving and compliance. To find out more Click Here . REMINDER: The DRBA listserv is intended to facilitate open discussion and sharing of ideas. Members need to feel confident that their discussions will not be distributed beyond the group unnecessarily. PLEASE CONSULT WITH THE SENDER(S) BEFORE FORWARDING ANY LISTSERV DISCUSSIONS BEYOND THE DRBA GROUP. DONATE: The DRBA is a valuable free resource to its members. But the DRBA does have expenses for management, web and listserv services. PLEASE DONATE TODAY. Send a check payable to “Burton Blatt Institute” to: Burton Blatt Institute at Syracuse University c/o Joseph Smith 950 Irving Avenue Dineen Hall, Suite 446Syracuse, New York 13244-2130 And indicate “DRBA” on the memo line. BRIEF BANK: Are you sharing briefs, interrogatories, decisions or other non-confidential resources on this listserv? ARCHIVE them for all present and future members by logging in to the DRBA website, going to the MEMBERS AREA and selecting ONLINE DOCUMENT DATABASE for further instructions. Contact DRBA-Law at law.syr.edu for login credentials and related help. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Position Announcement_Legal Director_Bazelon Center_6.16.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 190372 bytes Desc: not available URL: From rothmanjd at gmail.com Tue Jul 26 17:34:34 2022 From: rothmanjd at gmail.com (Ronza Othman) Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2022 13:34:34 -0400 Subject: [blindLaw] Online LSAT Message-ID: <4015A76A-AF2B-421A-961D-169545C4849E@gmail.com> Hi everyone, I received an inquiry from a student who is interested in taking the LSAT, and she is considering the online remote version. If anyone has taken this version of the exam in the last year or so, can you reach out to me? Ronza Othman, President National Federation of the Blind of Maryland 443-426-4110 Sent from my iPhone From ctate2076 at att.net Tue Jul 26 17:44:07 2022 From: ctate2076 at att.net (Camille Tate) Date: Tue, 26 Jul 2022 13:44:07 -0400 Subject: [blindLaw] Online LSAT In-Reply-To: <4015A76A-AF2B-421A-961D-169545C4849E@gmail.com> References: <4015A76A-AF2B-421A-961D-169545C4849E@gmail.com> Message-ID: <00cd01d8a117$4f4cc2a0$ede647e0$@att.net> I took the online LSAT in November of last year. I would be happy to speak to the student. Sincerely, Camille Tate 2nd Vice President, National Federation of the Blind of Florida President, Melbourne Space Coast Chapter, National Federation of the Blind of Florida Phone: 321 372 4899 -----Original Message----- From: BlindLaw On Behalf Of Ronza Othman via BlindLaw Sent: Tuesday, July 26, 2022 1:35 PM To: blindlaw at nfbnet.org Cc: Ronza Othman Subject: [blindLaw] Online LSAT Hi everyone, I received an inquiry from a student who is interested in taking the LSAT, and she is considering the online remote version. If anyone has taken this version of the exam in the last year or so, can you reach out to me? Ronza Othman, President National Federation of the Blind of Maryland 443-426-4110 Sent from my iPhone _______________________________________________ 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/ctate2076%40att.net From Noel.Nightingale at ed.gov Wed Jul 27 18:46:00 2022 From: Noel.Nightingale at ed.gov (Nightingale, Noel) Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2022 18:46:00 +0000 Subject: [blindLaw] Landmark case against Oregon over treatment of workers with disabilities ends - OPB - July 25, 2022 In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: https://www.opb.org/article/2022/07/25/landmark-case-against-oregon-treatment-of-workers-with-disabilities-ends/ Landmark case against Oregon over treatment of workers with disabilities ends By Jamie Diep OPB July 25, 2022 A decadelong court case ends with higher wages and greater job access to Oregonians with disabilities Litigants in a 10-year long legal case stand together in Judge John Acosta's courtroom at the federal courthouse in Portland. Left to right are Steven J. Schwartz, litigation director, Center for Public Representation; Emily Cooper, legal director, Disability Rights Oregon; Anna Keenan-Mudrick, executive director, Community Access Services; Gabrielle Guedon, executive director, Oregon Self-Advocacy Coalition; Tom Stenson, deputy legal director, Disability Rights Oregon; Justin Park, Civil Rights Division, Disability Rights Section, U.S. Department of Justice; and Jake Cornett, executive director, Disability Rights Oregon. Disability Rights Oregon / Disability Rights Oregon All eyes are on Gabrielle Guedon as she approaches the witness stand at the federal courthouse in Portland. She swears in and sits next to U.S. Magistrate Judge John Acosta. Lawyers and state officials listen intently as she talks about her experiences finding work as a person with an intellectual disability. In 2014, a government employment service office referred Guedon to a state-funded sheltered workshop - a segregated workspace for individuals with intellectual or developmental disabilities. There, she and her coworkers were isolated from workers without disabilities. She was paid a subminimum wage completing menial tasks such as stapling. "I would go to the back area on the bench and actually cry at lunch, because it hurt so bad knowing that I was being told I was too disabled to work," Guedon said. Guedon's testimony last Thursday came at the final hearing for a landmark disability rights case: Lane v. Brown. The federal lawsuit against the state of Oregon closed this month after 10 years of litigation. When the plaintiffs in Lane v. Brown won, it ensured people with disabilities would be paid at the same rate as workers without disabilities, and that they would receive employment support from the state to find a job that suits them. Judge Acosta determined the state complied with a settlement agreement reached in 2015, ending a decadelong legal fight for employment rights for people with disabilities. Sheltered workshops in Oregon Sheltered workshops have existed in the United States for roughly a century. Acacia McGuire Anderson, a special projects unit manager with the Oregon Department of Developmental Disabilities Services, stated in an email that Oregon originally used the sheltered workshop model to serve people with disabilities who previously lived in an institution. "The theory behind a Sheltered Workshop was that it would be an opportunity for people with disabilities to learn work skills," Anderson wrote, "There were concerns from people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families, that they would not be adequately supported or successful working outside of a segregated setting." In Oregon, private businesses and Medicaid services were permitted to have spaces dedicated to workers with disabilities. These workers received state funded employment services that placed them in these sheltered workshops, where they were paid less than minimum wage. This model continues to be used in parts of the U.S. to this day. In Oregon, it led to a lawsuit against the state 10 years ago. The case of Lane v. Brown In 2012, Disability Rights Oregon, United Cerebral Palsy of Oregon and S.W. Washington, and multiple named plaintiffs sued the state for allegedly violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by segregating workers with disabilities. The suit argued the state was violating the ADA by funding sheltered workshops and paying workers with disabilities less than minimum wage. Guedon was one of the plaintiffs. "I was actually pretty devastated," she said. "I'd been told I was too disabled to work, many times, multiple times" The parties drafted a settlement agreement in 2015 containing requirements the state needed to fulfill by 2022. The plaintiffs did not receive any money as part of the settlement, but the agreement would change the state's approach to people with disabilities. The new requirements affected two groups of people: those working in sheltered workshops at the time; and people with intellectual and developmental disabilities aged 14 to 24, who are transitioning to work or higher education. The state needed to stop funding all sheltered workshops and provide career planning to over 1,000 workers who wanted to find other employment. Furthermore, jobs offered to these workers needed to integrate employees with and without disabilities. Transition-age people with disabilities, at the time the lawsuit was filed, were often trained to work in a sheltered workshop. But after the settlement, that training ended. Instead, under the agreement, the state's Department of Developmental Disabilities Services and the Oregon Office of Vocational Rehabilitation Services were required to provide specialized job training and career planning services to people with disabilities who wanted to work. Effects of the settlement agreement Anderson, with Oregon Department of Developmental Disabilities Services, was in charge of ensuring the state was complying with the settlement terms. This meant making sure people were receiving the appropriate job services and training. Additionally, the state was on a deadline to help 1,115 workshop employees obtain new jobs in an integrated setting by June 30 of this year. According to Anderson, grants and federal funding including the COVID-19 relief money from the American Rescue Plan allowed the state to exceed the requirements outlined in the settlement. They completely shut down all sheltered workshops and helped 1,138 former workshop employees find other jobs, ahead of last month's deadline. Guedon was among those who got a new job. Employment services helped her find work as a dog daycare attendant. She also worked as an employment outreach specialist, and has been a peer mentor for the Oregon Self-Advocacy Coalition, a coalition of groups and people with disabilities in the state. By the end of 2016, she accepted a job as the coalition's executive director. "We do a lot of things from holding our quarterly meetings and talking to state leaders to talking to legislators," Guedon said, "We help out different organizations on training... we connect advocates to different opportunities to be able to advocate and be involved in their community." For Emily Cooper, legal director for Disability Rights Oregon, this means more than providing jobs for people. "At the end of the day, what really matters is knowing that there are thousands of Oregonians now who see themselves in their work as having value, having equal value and that level of confidence and dignity and sense of self worth," Cooper said. After the case: maintaining support and building capacity As the state carried out the terms laid out in the settlement, an independent reviewer tracked the state's progress for the court. Nicole Jorwic, the independent reviewer for the case, found that by the end of the settlement period, the state complied with the requirements. She said, "Overall my findings were that the state not only hit their numbers but put the systems in place to just continue to sustain the advances that they've made in expanding access to these services." Jorwic said that while the state carried out the settlement agreement quickly compared to other cases, there would be challenges in maintaining the systemic changes. Funding also remains an issue, Anderson says, especially when looking at training job coaches and counselors. "We want to be able to continue to advocate within the state legislature and the federal legislature to continue to fund these as professional positions," Anderson said. Cooper said her organization has identified three areas where DRO will keep watching because "the state is still struggling a little bit." To improve the quality of services, Cooper wants the state to provide adequate counselors to people seeking services, as well as enough job opportunities to those seeking employment. She also wants the state to provide specialized resources for people with multiple disabilities. Guedon said this program, under the recently-approved agreement, helps people with disabilities live in the greater community and move the state away from supporting segregated institutions. "This is a good step forward to continue to shut down those systems." From rahul.bajaj1038 at gmail.com Sun Jul 31 05:34:55 2022 From: rahul.bajaj1038 at gmail.com (Rahul Bajaj) Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2022 11:04:55 +0530 Subject: [blindLaw] Using Office Online with JAWS 21 in Chrome Message-ID: Hi All, My current firm uses Office Online a great deal for their work. I find that my existing tech skills are not enough to help me navigate this platform effectively. I am also unable to open in the One Drive desktop app documents that are opened in Office Online. Any guidance on the above or leads for using Office Online would be greatly appreciated. Warmly, Rahul -- -- Rahul Bajaj Attorney, Ira Law Senior Associate Fellow, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy Rhodes Scholar (India and Linacre 2018), University of Oxford Co-Founder, Mission Accessibility Special Correspondent on the rights of persons with disabilities, Oxford Human Rights Hub Coordinator of the working group on accessibility, e-Committee, Supreme Court of India -- -- Rahul Bajaj Attorney, Ira Law Senior Associate Fellow, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy Rhodes Scholar (India and Linacre 2018), University of Oxford Co-Founder, Mission Accessibility Special Correspondent on the rights of persons with disabilities, Oxford Human Rights Hub Coordinator of the working group on accessibility, e-Committee, Supreme Court of India From ThomasDukeman at outlook.com Sun Jul 31 12:51:45 2022 From: ThomasDukeman at outlook.com (Thomas Dukeman) Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2022 12:51:45 +0000 Subject: [blindLaw] Point of having Westlaw and/or LexusNexus Message-ID: Hello fellow legal beagles! I was wondering what the point of having those two legal databases was? I mean is there any information in those databases I couldn’t get access to any other way or that it is just a more efficient way to find law related information then just trying to look it up on your own with google? I know that many law firms through out the US at least use them but that the license for it can be pretty expensive to keep up sometimes so I was just trying to understand if the whole point of using something expensive was because it is the only way to get important information or that is just what we have gotten used to using? Thanks for your time in advance, Tom Sent from Mail for Windows From rjaquiss at earthlink.net Sun Jul 31 16:20:05 2022 From: rjaquiss at earthlink.net (rjaquiss at earthlink.net) Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2022 10:20:05 -0600 Subject: [blindLaw] Using Office Online with JAWS 21 in Chrome In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <007d01d8a4f9$65eb48c0$31c1da40$@earthlink.net> Hello Rahul: I suggest you have the Office software installed on your PC. It is my experience that the online versions are barely accessible. I am currently using Office365 and this message is being written in Outlook. I was until recently using Word 2007. The newer version of Word when installed on a PC is accessible. It does have some quirks that take some getting used to. Hope this helps. Regards, Robert -----Original Message----- From: BlindLaw On Behalf Of Rahul Bajaj via BlindLaw Sent: Saturday, July 30, 2022 11:35 PM To: Blind Law Mailing List Cc: Rahul Bajaj Subject: [blindLaw] Using Office Online with JAWS 21 in Chrome Hi All, My current firm uses Office Online a great deal for their work. I find that my existing tech skills are not enough to help me navigate this platform effectively. I am also unable to open in the One Drive desktop app documents that are opened in Office Online. Any guidance on the above or leads for using Office Online would be greatly appreciated. Warmly, Rahul -- -- Rahul Bajaj Attorney, Ira Law Senior Associate Fellow, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy Rhodes Scholar (India and Linacre 2018), University of Oxford Co-Founder, Mission Accessibility Special Correspondent on the rights of persons with disabilities, Oxford Human Rights Hub Coordinator of the working group on accessibility, e-Committee, Supreme Court of India -- -- Rahul Bajaj Attorney, Ira Law Senior Associate Fellow, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy Rhodes Scholar (India and Linacre 2018), University of Oxford Co-Founder, Mission Accessibility Special Correspondent on the rights of persons with disabilities, Oxford Human Rights Hub Coordinator of the working group on accessibility, e-Committee, Supreme Court of India _______________________________________________ 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/rjaquiss%40earthlink.n et From laura.wolk at gmail.com Sun Jul 31 16:45:42 2022 From: laura.wolk at gmail.com (Laura Wolk) Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2022 12:45:42 -0400 Subject: [blindLaw] Using Office Online with JAWS 21 in Chrome In-Reply-To: <007d01d8a4f9$65eb48c0$31c1da40$@earthlink.net> References: <007d01d8a4f9$65eb48c0$31c1da40$@earthlink.net> Message-ID: Rahul, are you talking about Sharepoint? No one in their right mind, sighted or blind, would do the actual editing on the website version. Or at least, they shouldn't. You should be able to map the files onto your desktop so you can open them just like you normally would on a computer. You also can set all of your defaults so that any links are opened automatically in the corresponding office application rather than on the website. I don't have the time or ability to track down those settings for you, but my work uses Sharepoint and that's what I did. Lastly, in the short term, you still can from within a file opened online open that file within the corresponding office application. I hope some of that is helpful. But truly, I would be shocked if sighted people at your firm were editing using the stripped down website capability rather than the actual desktop applications. On 7/31/22, Robert Jaquiss via BlindLaw wrote: > Hello Rahul: > > I suggest you have the Office software installed on your PC. It is my > experience that the online versions are barely accessible. > I am currently using Office365 and this message is being written in > Outlook. > I was until recently using Word 2007. The newer version of Word when > installed on a PC is accessible. It does have some quirks that take some > getting used to. Hope this helps. > > Regards, > > Robert > > > -----Original Message----- > From: BlindLaw On Behalf Of Rahul Bajaj via > BlindLaw > Sent: Saturday, July 30, 2022 11:35 PM > To: Blind Law Mailing List > Cc: Rahul Bajaj > Subject: [blindLaw] Using Office Online with JAWS 21 in Chrome > > Hi All, > > My current firm uses Office Online a great deal for their work. I find that > my existing tech skills are not enough to help me navigate this platform > effectively. I am also unable to open in the One Drive desktop app > documents > that are opened in Office Online. > > Any guidance on the above or leads for using Office Online would be greatly > appreciated. > > Warmly, > Rahul > > -- > -- > Rahul Bajaj > Attorney, Ira Law > Senior Associate Fellow, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy Rhodes Scholar > (India > and Linacre 2018), University of Oxford Co-Founder, Mission Accessibility > Special Correspondent on the rights of persons with disabilities, Oxford > Human Rights Hub Coordinator of the working group on accessibility, > e-Committee, Supreme Court of India > > > > > -- > -- > Rahul Bajaj > Attorney, Ira Law > Senior Associate Fellow, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy > Rhodes Scholar (India and Linacre 2018), University of Oxford > Co-Founder, Mission Accessibility > Special Correspondent on the rights of persons with disabilities, Oxford > Human Rights Hub > Coordinator of the working group on accessibility, e-Committee, Supreme > Court of India > _______________________________________________ > 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/rjaquiss%40earthlink.n > et > > > _______________________________________________ > 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 > From mnowicki4 at icloud.com Sun Jul 31 17:06:34 2022 From: mnowicki4 at icloud.com (Michal Nowicki) Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2022 12:06:34 -0500 Subject: [blindLaw] Point of having Westlaw and/or LexusNexus In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <01a901d8a4ff$e39247a0$aab6d6e0$@icloud.com> Thomas, Google and other popular free search engines are no match for a dedicated legal database like Westlaw or LexisNexis, especially for case law research. These databases are very useful - and sometimes essential - for verifying whether a particular court decision is still good law; this obviously cannot be done from the text of a court opinion alone. Additionally, legal databases offer very advanced searching and results filtering and sorting functionalities you won't find elsewhere. Furthermore, Westlaw and LexisNexis both offer robust editorial annotations for statutes, regulations, and other primary sources. Those are just a few tremendous advantages of these legal databases that make the cost worthwhile for many practitioners. For attorneys who work on a tight budget, however, there are several cheaper alternatives, among them Casetext, Fastcase, and Casemaker (which apparently has recently merged with Fastcase). Most state bar associations offer complementary access to one of these alternative databases to their members. These cheaper alternatives do not offer all the benefits of Westlaw or LexisNexis, but are still much more powerful than free online searches. Hope this helps. Michal -----Original Message----- From: BlindLaw On Behalf Of Thomas Dukeman via BlindLaw Sent: Sunday, July 31, 2022 7:52 AM To: 'Blind Law Mailing List' Cc: Thomas Dukeman Subject: [blindLaw] Point of having Westlaw and/or LexusNexus Hello fellow legal beagles! I was wondering what the point of having those two legal databases was? I mean is there any information in those databases I couldn't get access to any other way or that it is just a more efficient way to find law related information then just trying to look it up on your own with google? I know that many law firms through out the US at least use them but that the license for it can be pretty expensive to keep up sometimes so I was just trying to understand if the whole point of using something expensive was because it is the only way to get important information or that is just what we have gotten used to using? Thanks for your time in advance, Tom Sent from Mail for Windows _______________________________________________ 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/mnowicki4%40icloud.com From michael.mcglashon at comcast.net Sun Jul 31 17:20:54 2022 From: michael.mcglashon at comcast.net (MIKE MCGLASHON) Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2022 13:20:54 -0400 Subject: [blindLaw] Point of having Westlaw and/or LexusNexus In-Reply-To: <01a901d8a4ff$e39247a0$aab6d6e0$@icloud.com> References: <01a901d8a4ff$e39247a0$aab6d6e0$@icloud.com> Message-ID: <032b01d8a501$e9dc0310$bd940930$@comcast.net> I would also add here that west and lexis are becoming the official reporters in some states such as Illinois and Indiana; (who has no official reporter at all anymore; they use west as their official reporter now). Second, one thing you get with west and lexis is codified statutes; lexis and west also provide top cases that correspond to the statute you are looking at. I would worry that other sources may not be able to show the most current statutes, and may not be able to provide matching cases for those statutes. Third, west and lexis provide boiler plate forms for motions and pleadings that other less sophisticated sources may not be able to do. Just my two cents worth; By the way, I just finished the Illinois Bar the other day. So, don't take my word on anything. Please advise as you like. Mike M. Mike mcglashon Email: Michael.mcglashon at comcast.net Ph: 618 783 9331 -----Original Message----- From: BlindLaw On Behalf Of Michal Nowicki via BlindLaw Sent: Sunday, July 31, 2022 1:07 PM To: 'Blind Law Mailing List' Cc: Michal Nowicki Subject: Re: [blindLaw] Point of having Westlaw and/or LexusNexus Thomas, Google and other popular free search engines are no match for a dedicated legal database like Westlaw or LexisNexis, especially for case law research. These databases are very useful - and sometimes essential - for verifying whether a particular court decision is still good law; this obviously cannot be done from the text of a court opinion alone. Additionally, legal databases offer very advanced searching and results filtering and sorting functionalities you won't find elsewhere. Furthermore, Westlaw and LexisNexis both offer robust editorial annotations for statutes, regulations, and other primary sources. Those are just a few tremendous advantages of these legal databases that make the cost worthwhile for many practitioners. For attorneys who work on a tight budget, however, there are several cheaper alternatives, among them Casetext, Fastcase, and Casemaker (which apparently has recently merged with Fastcase). Most state bar associations offer complementary access to one of these alternative databases to their members. These cheaper alternatives do not offer all the benefits of Westlaw or LexisNexis, but are still much more powerful than free online searches. Hope this helps. Michal -----Original Message----- From: BlindLaw On Behalf Of Thomas Dukeman via BlindLaw Sent: Sunday, July 31, 2022 7:52 AM To: 'Blind Law Mailing List' Cc: Thomas Dukeman Subject: [blindLaw] Point of having Westlaw and/or LexusNexus Hello fellow legal beagles! I was wondering what the point of having those two legal databases was? I mean is there any information in those databases I couldn't get access to any other way or that it is just a more efficient way to find law related information then just trying to look it up on your own with google? I know that many law firms through out the US at least use them but that the license for it can be pretty expensive to keep up sometimes so I was just trying to understand if the whole point of using something expensive was because it is the only way to get important information or that is just what we have gotten used to using? Thanks for your time in advance, Tom Sent from Mail for Windows _______________________________________________ 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/mnowicki4%40icloud.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/michael.mcglashon%40co mcast.net From sai at fiatfiendum.org Sun Jul 31 18:27:54 2022 From: sai at fiatfiendum.org (Sai) Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2022 19:27:54 +0100 Subject: [blindLaw] Point of having Westlaw and/or LexusNexus In-Reply-To: <032b01d8a501$e9dc0310$bd940930$@comcast.net> References: <01a901d8a4ff$e39247a0$aab6d6e0$@icloud.com> <032b01d8a501$e9dc0310$bd940930$@comcast.net> Message-ID: Adding only a bit to the good advice below: 1. Many court decisions, law reviews, etc. give citations only in the form "X vs Y, 123 WL/LEXIS 456, 1987". It's very difficult, if possible at all, to resolve this citation without access. 2. Many court decisions or other legal documents are not electronically available at all in other places. For example: • almost anything reported in F. Appx. • ungranted and unfamous Supreme Court motions or applications for cert (before the last couple years, when they adopted a CM/ECF type system) — including virtually all pro se cases (and yes they do get cited by court decisions) • lots and lots of Canadian and UK case law, e.g. anything reported in IRLR (UK employment law) 3. Shepardization (checking whether a case is still valid) is a huge pain to do otherwise, if indeed possible at all. This is one of the things I had to do routinely when I was working as a judicial extern. And yes, I did often catch litigants citing things that were overturned, or citing something wildly out of context for a conclusion that it definitely did not support. That happened often enough, even in DoJ submitted briefs, that I simply stopped trusting anything they said about anything unless I had personally read the entire cited case. 4. Lots of very useful stuff is not in case law, but in law reviews, treatises, etc. Most law reviews are available on scholar.google.com. Treatises aren't. Moore's Federal Practice & Procedure, for instance. I cannot approve of the existence of such paywalled law; I consider a commercial control over access to any of the above to be absolutely antithetical to fundamental requirements of justice, like that people should be equally able to know the law. But the blunt fact is that right now, this is the situation. Even more so if you're blind. Going to a law library (if you're even allowed to do so) to literally find a book containing a cited case is not really an option. You need an electronic version that's searchable etc. I've not used the alternative services that Michal Nowicki mentioned. Maybe they provide similar levels of access at a cheaper price. I don't know either way. But one way or another, if you're practicing law, you will need regular access to such services to get competitive professional result in any reasonable amount of effort and time. This is one of many "is, not ought" facets of law. Alas. One tip: The Massachusetts Law Library will send you almost anything they have access to, for free, by email. You just tell them the citation. They don't care where you live, whether you're registered anywhere or the like. It isn't really as workable as being able to do searches yourself, they won't give you more than a chapter or subsection of a book, they'll get annoyed if you ask for more than about 5 to 10 things a day, and they don't have access to some things — but they do have quite a lot. In particular, they have almost everything with a WL or LEXIS cite, most Law Reports and similar publications, most academic legal publications on the usual paywalled sites, etc. They will also send you the Shepardization / Westlaw appendix also, but only if you specifically ask for it. They will give you the electronic version if they have it, but often they don't, and they'll send a scan — literally they just find the print book and put it on a flatbed scanner. The resulting OCR is not at all reliable, so scans are probably not going to be blind accessible, but that's a separate problem that I assume you know how to deal with. Anyway, if you want stuff from them, just fill out this form: https://www.mass.gov/forms/document-delivery-service-request-form I suggest you try just asking for a few random things and find out for yourself what it's like vs. what you can get directly on free & open services. Much easier to learn from examples than to describe, in my experience. Sincerely, Sai President, Fiat Fiendum, Inc., a 501(c)(3) Sent from my mobile phone; please excuse the concision and autocorrect errors. On Sun, 31 Jul 2022, 18:23 MIKE MCGLASHON via BlindLaw, wrote: > I would also add here that west and lexis are becoming the official > reporters in some states such as Illinois and Indiana; (who has no official > reporter at all anymore; they use west as their official reporter now). > > Second, one thing you get with west and lexis is codified statutes; lexis > and west also provide top cases that correspond to the statute you are > looking at. > > I would worry that other sources may not be able to show the most current > statutes, and may not be able to provide matching cases for those statutes. > > Third, west and lexis provide boiler plate forms for motions and pleadings > that other less sophisticated sources may not be able to do. > > Just my two cents worth; > > By the way, I just finished the Illinois Bar the other day. > > So, don't take my word on anything. > > > Please advise as you like. > > Mike M. > > Mike mcglashon > Email: Michael.mcglashon at comcast.net > Ph: 618 783 9331 > > -----Original Message----- > From: BlindLaw On Behalf Of Michal Nowicki > via > BlindLaw > Sent: Sunday, July 31, 2022 1:07 PM > To: 'Blind Law Mailing List' > Cc: Michal Nowicki > Subject: Re: [blindLaw] Point of having Westlaw and/or LexusNexus > > Thomas, > > Google and other popular free search engines are no match for a dedicated > legal database like Westlaw or LexisNexis, especially for case law > research. > These databases are very useful - and sometimes essential - for verifying > whether a particular court decision is still good law; this obviously > cannot > be done from the text of a court opinion alone. Additionally, legal > databases offer very advanced searching and results filtering and sorting > functionalities you won't find elsewhere. Furthermore, Westlaw and > LexisNexis both offer robust editorial annotations for statutes, > regulations, and other primary sources. Those are just a few tremendous > advantages of these legal databases that make the cost worthwhile for many > practitioners. > > For attorneys who work on a tight budget, however, there are several > cheaper > alternatives, among them Casetext, Fastcase, and Casemaker (which > apparently > has recently merged with Fastcase). Most state bar associations offer > complementary access to one of these alternative databases to their > members. > These cheaper alternatives do not offer all the benefits of Westlaw or > LexisNexis, but are still much more powerful than free online searches. > > Hope this helps. > > Michal > > -----Original Message----- > From: BlindLaw On Behalf Of Thomas Dukeman > via > BlindLaw > Sent: Sunday, July 31, 2022 7:52 AM > To: 'Blind Law Mailing List' > Cc: Thomas Dukeman > Subject: [blindLaw] Point of having Westlaw and/or LexusNexus > > Hello fellow legal beagles! > > I was wondering what the point of having those two legal databases was? I > mean is there any information in those databases I couldn't get access to > any other way or that it is just a more efficient way to find law related > information then just trying to look it up on your own with google? I know > that many law firms through out the US at least use them but that the > license for it can be pretty expensive to keep up sometimes so I was just > trying to understand if the whole point of using something expensive was > because it is the only way to get important information or that is just > what > we have gotten used to using? > > Thanks for your time in advance, > Tom > > Sent from Mail for Windows > > _______________________________________________ > 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/mnowicki4%40icloud.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/michael.mcglashon%40co > mcast.net > > > > _______________________________________________ > 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/sai%40fiatfiendum.org > From NSingh at cov.com Sun Jul 31 18:45:44 2022 From: NSingh at cov.com (Singh, Nandini) Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2022 18:45:44 +0000 Subject: [blindLaw] Point of having Westlaw and/or LexusNexus In-Reply-To: References: <01a901d8a4ff$e39247a0$aab6d6e0$@icloud.com> <032b01d8a501$e9dc0310$bd940930$@comcast.net> Message-ID: And one more idea: Westlaw and Lexis host in a centralized location a ton of administrative law materials. These include the federal register (though the actual online one is the most up-to-date to the hour), both federal and state regulations, and a decent amount of the opinion letters/advisories/administrative court opinions from federl and state agencies. Of course, you could go to the AG of CA's website to locate AG opinions or the online federal code of regulations, but having them in one place with the ability to run advanced searching is a tremendous benefit when doing regulatory work in my opinion. -----Original Message----- From: BlindLaw On Behalf Of Sai via BlindLaw Sent: Sunday, July 31, 2022 2:28 PM To: Blind Law Mailing List Cc: Sai Subject: Re: [blindLaw] Point of having Westlaw and/or LexusNexus [EXTERNAL] Adding only a bit to the good advice below: 1. Many court decisions, law reviews, etc. give citations only in the form "X vs Y, 123 WL/LEXIS 456, 1987". It's very difficult, if possible at all, to resolve this citation without access. 2. Many court decisions or other legal documents are not electronically available at all in other places. For example: • almost anything reported in F. Appx. • ungranted and unfamous Supreme Court motions or applications for cert (before the last couple years, when they adopted a CM/ECF type system) — including virtually all pro se cases (and yes they do get cited by court decisions) • lots and lots of Canadian and UK case law, e.g. anything reported in IRLR (UK employment law) 3. Shepardization (checking whether a case is still valid) is a huge pain to do otherwise, if indeed possible at all. This is one of the things I had to do routinely when I was working as a judicial extern. And yes, I did often catch litigants citing things that were overturned, or citing something wildly out of context for a conclusion that it definitely did not support. That happened often enough, even in DoJ submitted briefs, that I simply stopped trusting anything they said about anything unless I had personally read the entire cited case. 4. Lots of very useful stuff is not in case law, but in law reviews, treatises, etc. Most law reviews are available on scholar.google.com. Treatises aren't. Moore's Federal Practice & Procedure, for instance. I cannot approve of the existence of such paywalled law; I consider a commercial control over access to any of the above to be absolutely antithetical to fundamental requirements of justice, like that people should be equally able to know the law. But the blunt fact is that right now, this is the situation. Even more so if you're blind. Going to a law library (if you're even allowed to do so) to literally find a book containing a cited case is not really an option. You need an electronic version that's searchable etc. I've not used the alternative services that Michal Nowicki mentioned. Maybe they provide similar levels of access at a cheaper price. I don't know either way. But one way or another, if you're practicing law, you will need regular access to such services to get competitive professional result in any reasonable amount of effort and time. This is one of many "is, not ought" facets of law. Alas. One tip: The Massachusetts Law Library will send you almost anything they have access to, for free, by email. You just tell them the citation. They don't care where you live, whether you're registered anywhere or the like. It isn't really as workable as being able to do searches yourself, they won't give you more than a chapter or subsection of a book, they'll get annoyed if you ask for more than about 5 to 10 things a day, and they don't have access to some things — but they do have quite a lot. In particular, they have almost everything with a WL or LEXIS cite, most Law Reports and similar publications, most academic legal publications on the usual paywalled sites, etc. They will also send you the Shepardization / Westlaw appendix also, but only if you specifically ask for it. They will give you the electronic version if they have it, but often they don't, and they'll send a scan — literally they just find the print book and put it on a flatbed scanner. The resulting OCR is not at all reliable, so scans are probably not going to be blind accessible, but that's a separate problem that I assume you know how to deal with. Anyway, if you want stuff from them, just fill out this form: https://www.mass.gov/forms/document-delivery-service-request-form I suggest you try just asking for a few random things and find out for yourself what it's like vs. what you can get directly on free & open services. Much easier to learn from examples than to describe, in my experience. Sincerely, Sai President, Fiat Fiendum, Inc., a 501(c)(3) Sent from my mobile phone; please excuse the concision and autocorrect errors. On Sun, 31 Jul 2022, 18:23 MIKE MCGLASHON via BlindLaw, wrote: > I would also add here that west and lexis are becoming the official > reporters in some states such as Illinois and Indiana; (who has no > official reporter at all anymore; they use west as their official reporter now). > > Second, one thing you get with west and lexis is codified statutes; > lexis and west also provide top cases that correspond to the statute > you are looking at. > > I would worry that other sources may not be able to show the most > current statutes, and may not be able to provide matching cases for those statutes. > > Third, west and lexis provide boiler plate forms for motions and > pleadings that other less sophisticated sources may not be able to do. > > Just my two cents worth; > > By the way, I just finished the Illinois Bar the other day. > > So, don't take my word on anything. > > > Please advise as you like. > > Mike M. > > Mike mcglashon > Email: Michael.mcglashon at comcast.net > Ph: 618 783 9331 > > -----Original Message----- > From: BlindLaw On Behalf Of Michal > Nowicki via BlindLaw > Sent: Sunday, July 31, 2022 1:07 PM > To: 'Blind Law Mailing List' > Cc: Michal Nowicki > Subject: Re: [blindLaw] Point of having Westlaw and/or LexusNexus > > Thomas, > > Google and other popular free search engines are no match for a > dedicated legal database like Westlaw or LexisNexis, especially for > case law research. > These databases are very useful - and sometimes essential - for > verifying whether a particular court decision is still good law; this > obviously cannot be done from the text of a court opinion alone. > Additionally, legal databases offer very advanced searching and > results filtering and sorting functionalities you won't find > elsewhere. Furthermore, Westlaw and LexisNexis both offer robust > editorial annotations for statutes, regulations, and other primary > sources. Those are just a few tremendous advantages of these legal > databases that make the cost worthwhile for many practitioners. > > For attorneys who work on a tight budget, however, there are several > cheaper alternatives, among them Casetext, Fastcase, and Casemaker > (which apparently has recently merged with Fastcase). Most state bar > associations offer complementary access to one of these alternative > databases to their members. > These cheaper alternatives do not offer all the benefits of Westlaw or > LexisNexis, but are still much more powerful than free online searches. > > Hope this helps. > > Michal > > -----Original Message----- > From: BlindLaw On Behalf Of Thomas > Dukeman via BlindLaw > Sent: Sunday, July 31, 2022 7:52 AM > To: 'Blind Law Mailing List' > Cc: Thomas Dukeman > Subject: [blindLaw] Point of having Westlaw and/or LexusNexus > > Hello fellow legal beagles! > > I was wondering what the point of having those two legal databases > was? I mean is there any information in those databases I couldn't get > access to any other way or that it is just a more efficient way to > find law related information then just trying to look it up on your > own with google? I know that many law firms through out the US at > least use them but that the license for it can be pretty expensive to > keep up sometimes so I was just trying to understand if the whole > point of using something expensive was because it is the only way to > get important information or that is just what we have gotten used to > using? > > Thanks for your time in advance, > Tom > > Sent from Mail for > Windows > > _______________________________________________ > 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/mnowicki4%40iclo > ud.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/michael.mcglasho > n%40co > mcast.net > on%40comcast.net> > > > _______________________________________________ > 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/sai%40fiatfiendu > m.org > _______________________________________________ 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/nsingh%40cov.com From heidicruiz at gmail.com Sun Jul 31 20:27:42 2022 From: heidicruiz at gmail.com (Heidi Contreras Ruiz) Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2022 13:27:42 -0700 Subject: [blindLaw] court forms using Lexis Nexis or Westlaw Message-ID: Hello everyone. I am interested in becoming a legal document preparer for those who don't know it's a person who helps clients fill out documents such as for simple divorce's those kind of things. I have been looking on my state's website for different types of forms I would be using. I have noticed that some of them are not accessible for me to fill in independently. They are encrypted resulting in my inability to use OCR. I saw that Lexis Nexis and Westlaw provide court forms. Does anyone have experience filling out such forms and how accessible they are? Thank you for any information or assistance Heidi