[blindLaw] Law School Accommodations

Fri Jun 3 23:00:46 UTC 2022

Hello,

Think through a typical day in law school as well as the exam at the
end of the course. Are there braille, large print, or tactile  numbers
beside the doors? Where do you need to sit in class to see, hear,
etcetera? How will you access your books? Do you want someone on staff
to spot check your formatting before submitting papers? How will you
access formatting on your legal writing exam? Do you want a reader
available to you for a certain number of hours each week in the event
something goes wrong? Do you want your books converted by the Disabled
Student Services office or do you want them converted by the law
library, assuming you even get a choice? Do you want JAWS, NVDA, both,
neither, or something else entirely? Do you need a visual tool as well
as a non-visual reading solution? Do you have a high-end Optical
Character Recognition program like ABBYY or K1000? Who is your point
person when materials are inaccessible? Who's your point person when
tech is inaccessible? Who's your point person if a professor simply
does not want to release an accessible copy of a book they just spent
ten years writing because they're terrified you're going to give it
away for free? So on and so forth.

Warmth,
Sanho

On 6/3/22, Julie McGinnity via BlindLaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Good evening,
>
> The two accommodations I was not prepared to fight for in law school
> were a human reader and fully accessible copies of my books.
>
> I am about half-way through with law school now, and I am finding my
> experience has improved so much with those two accommodations. I use a
> human reader to help me when systems aren't accessible, Jaws doesn't
> catch formatting or other errors, and to explain some visual concepts
> to me. I know; you're thinking, you're crazy, it's law school. But
> seriously, you are going to face the hardest formatting rules and the
> harshest grading of your life. Ever heard of curved versus straight
> appostrophes? Yeah, neither did I.
>
> As for the books, most law schools like to get publisher copies of
> books, and those are not always as accessible as they should be. If
> you have patience, you can format them the way you want, but my books
> came in files too large for my computer to open without crashing. And
> most of them did not have page numbers. I had a professor whose TA had
> to specifically contact me after every class my first semester to tell
> me what cases to read because I couldn't get to the pages I needed by
> number. I also really struggled following along in class when
> professors pointed out examples. Therefore, I fought for page numbers,
> and I am grateful I did.
>
> So, think about the way you want your books formatted, if you want the
> accessibility office to format them for you, etc.
>
> I agree that it is important to know how exams are handled at your
> school. Our university still lets us do exams online, and everyone
> downloads them in a Word document and goes from there. But it is my
> understanding that no exam software is accessible with assistive
> technology.
>
> Good luck!
>
> Julie
>
>
> On 6/3/22, Rod Alcidonis via BlindLaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> You should ask for what you believe you will need to succeed, providing
>> that
>> your request is reasonable. When it comes to accommodations, you should
>> utilize others' experience as information and education but not
>> necessarily
>> a list of things that you should ask without first assessing whether the
>> request will meet your needs. You have made it to law school, so you have
>> a
>> good idea of what has worked for you thus far. Too much deviation from
>> that
>> may be counterproductive, in my view.
>>
>> Be ready to offer a reason or rationale to justify your requests. Be
>> proactive. Be personable.
>>
>> It'll be different for everyone. When I attended law school, I was
>> assigned
>> a private study room in the law library for my entire time there. I had
>> all
>> my AT equipment configured the way I wanted to. It was one of the best
>> accommodations I received.
>>
>>
>> Rod,
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: BlindLaw <blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Robert Munro via
>> BlindLaw
>> Sent: Friday, June 3, 2022 1:41 PM
>> To: Blind Law Mailing List <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
>> Cc: Robert Munro <r.g.munro at gmail.com>
>> Subject: Re: [blindLaw] Law School Accommodations
>>
>> Ask about their exams. Do they use specialized software, and does it work
>> with your accessibility needs?
>>
>> My school allowed me to have an electronic copy of the exam on a usb
>> drive;
>> then I answered the questions in a word processer and saved it to the usb
>> drive. That was all coordinated by an assistant dean.
>>
>> You want to be as comfortable as possible when taking exams, so practice
>> using whatever system you will be using before exam day. You don't want
>> the
>> frustrations of learning a new set up while your under exam stress.
>>
>> If exams are your only grade, you want to give yourself every advantage.
>> Good luck.
>>
>>
>>
>> Onward!
>>
>> Rob
>>
>>> On Jun 3, 2022, at 12:11, Matthew Smith via BlindLaw
>>> <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>> Hello,
>>> I will be attending law school in the fall, is there any Accommodations
>>> that I should know or ask for that would be helpful for my law school
>>> experience? Also, is there anyone here that attends a historically black
>>> law school? Your experience would be great to hear from!
>>>
>>> Matthew J. Smith
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>
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>>
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>
>
> --
> Julie A. McGinnity
> MM Vocal Performance, 2015; American University Washington College of
> Law, JD Candidate 2023
>
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