[blindLaw] Experience with Law Firm Software Tools

tim at timeldermusic.com tim at timeldermusic.com
Fri Mar 18 13:43:22 UTC 2022


Syed,

Almost every timekeeping software has an import function.  Even though I use a time entry system that has a relatively accessible interface on the web/app, regularly importing time from an Excel template is much faster than entering time entries into the native interface.  It might take me an extra 4 minutes per day to enter time using the web/app interface as compared to my Excel template.  That adds up to about two hours of lost time each month, 24 hours of lost time per year, and so on.  
I use Zoom for VOIP telephone and message service.  It is very accessible.  It looks just like Zoom meetings with an additional tab for "Phone."  

Best wishes on the summer adventure.  


-----Original Message-----
From: Singh, Nandini <NSingh at cov.com> 
Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2022 8:06 PM
To: blindlaw at nfbnet.org
Subject: Re: [blindLaw] Experience with Law Firm Software Tools

Chiming in to add that many of my sighted colleagues also dislike iManage Work10. It is not the most intuitive software, especially in comparison to saving a document to a regular old drive. And once you get past the immense learning curve, you can easily spend lots of time filling in little boxes with information in order to make the search utility function properly. The vaunted superior search function is one of the main reasons firms opt for a document management system: when things go south, with a litigation hold smacked down on the table, the document management system permits a firm to conduct discovery on itself. However, the database search is a blunt force instrument for document collection and review.

I am going to put aside the fundamental flaws of iManage's very design, because you should note that iManage can be customized to integrate with Microsoft Office applications. That integration can and does adversely affect how JAWS behaves with otherwise accessible software, like Outlook and Word. I had to disable Work10's Outlook plug-in to prevent JAWS bizarre tendency to perceive editable emails as read-only dialog boxes that I could not edit. You can imagine how the simple act of replying to an email could become a time-consuming challenge.

But please do not worry about all the accessibility issues too much. The ground work as you are doing is vital, but you will not have the time to change your firm's internal software architecture during your summer associate program. If it is anything like ours, you will be quickly moving from one assignment or team to another so you can get a taste for a bunch of different practices. You just need to make sure that you have the alternative techniques available for the essential lawyering skills, which your future colleagues will understand are still developing. It is way more important to learn as much as you can about the practice, its attorneys, and how they manage themselves at all levels of the firm.

Best,
Nikki

-----Original Message-----
From: Derek Manners <dmanners at jd16.law.harvard.edu>
Sent: Thursday, March 17, 2022 9:31 PM
To: Blind Law Mailing List <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Singh, Nandini <NSingh at cov.com>
Subject: Re: [blindLaw] Experience with Law Firm Software Tools

[EXTERNAL]

Hi Syed,

iManage is awful in general. I absolutely hate it accessibility issues aside. But agree 100% it’s accessibility also sucks.  I would say its the worst part of my job other than time entry (which is perfectly accessible, just soul sucking). Good luck. Our build of it actively interferes with my accessibility software to the point it slows my computer down to an absolute crawl. Ever since we switched to it, I’ve complained incessantly to IT about it.  I also always rate our IT a 1 in our firm surveys and site specifically to how terrible in general, and how terrible in particular for me iManage is. Everyone I know at my firm who is sighted also hates it.  If you have issues, we should do a class action suit against it. It’s right up there with how bad Barbri used to be accessibility wise.

We have intapp to capture suggested time, but use carpe diem to actually enter time  I wasn’t aware intapp had its own application so not sure about it’s accessibility.

Best regards
Derek

Sent from my iPhone

> On Mar 14, 2022, at 5:18 PM, Singh, Nandini via BlindLaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>
> Hi Syed,
>
> Responses are preceded by "NS" and are in the body of your original email. One global consideration to keep in mind is that firms can and do customize commercial practice software, so predicting screen reader accessibility bumps up against both the original software design and any additional work that IT completed.
>
> Best,
> Nikki
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: BlindLaw <blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Syed Rizvi 
> via BlindLaw
> Sent: Monday, March 14, 2022 10:12 AM
> To: Blind Law Mailing List <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
> Cc: Syed Rizvi <syedrizvinfb at gmail.com>
> Subject: [blindLaw] Experience with Law Firm Software Tools
>
> [EXTERNAL]
>
> Hi All,
>
>
>
> Below is a preliminary list of the software tools I will be using this 
> summer at my firm. I would greatly appreciate any insight based upon 
> your experience regarding the accessibility of any of these tools.
>
>
>
> 1.       Time Keeping: InTapp
>
> NS: My firm uses this mostly for new matter processing, something you are unlikely to do as a summer. It is 90-95% JAWS accessible. I work with our in-house developer for the remaining inaccessible parts. I am unsure about the accessibility of the time entry function though.
> 2.       Document Management: iManage
>
> NS: This is largely inaccessible. We used to use Desk Site and now use Work10; both have poorly executed interfaces for screen reader accessibility, e.g., lack of intelligent labels in multiple locations. Things are a bit easier if a document has already been saved to the system, since you can open, edit, and close out using typical Windows-based commands. The browser interface is somewhat helpful, but the lack of labels remains a significant challenge. I also understand some folks here have had better luck with File Site, but I always found it just as inadequate as the other two versions. By way of work around, be sure to request that folks send you local copies, which should be the usual practice. Co-counsel and other external parties are obviously not part of the iManage system, so they will require local copies saved as Word documents, PDFs, etc.
> 3.       Videoconferencing / messaging / phone: Zoom (I know zoom video
> conferences are accessible, but I have no experience using Zoom as a 
> messaging and calling platform. I hope the accessibility carries
> over.)
> NS: I am not sure that I had occasion to use these functions. We have a bunch of audio/visual conferencing options. Most folks, including myself, use MS Teams for internal calls and chat. Historically, MS Teams was more secure than Zoom, which took a while to improve the security aspect. people as a result default to Teams. However, I just opened my Zoom app, and calling and chat look totally accessible. A link for a big webpage of Zoom keyboard commands follows, but you can explore by tabbing around the app window:
>
> https://www.howtogeek.com/669467/zoom-keyboard-shortcut-and-how-to-use
> -them/
>
>
>
> Thank you so much for any insight you may be able to provide!
>
>
>
> Syed
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> --
>
>
>
> Syed Mahmud Rizvi
>
>
>
> SyedRizviNFB at gmail.com
>
> (413)250-3523
>
>
>
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