[blindLaw] Inaccessibility of Legal Careers

Thu Nov 2 05:18:27 UTC 2023

Hi Julie:

First thing, you are in the right place.

Second thing -- there is a lot to unpack here. Feel free to reach me offline as well to chat further. I know you can do it because many of us on this listserv has done it successfully. This was one of my favorite activities in law school -- trial team and the legal clinic.

Rod,

Rod Alcidonis, Esq.

-----Original Message-----
From: BlindLaw <blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of James Garret Mooney via BlindLaw
Sent: Wednesday, November 1, 2023 10:14 PM
To: Blind Law Mailing List <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
Cc: James Garret Mooney <james.garret.mooney at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [blindLaw] Inaccessibility of Legal Careers

I would love to talk to you off-line, email me so we can set something up.

> On Nov 1, 2023, at 1:20 PM, Julie A. Orozco via BlindLaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi everyone,
> 
> I am really struggling and wonder if some of you can provide 
> perspective. First, how much of your legal work, particularly for 
> those of you with clients, is actually accessible to you as a blind 
> person? I ask this because I would guess that the work in my legal 
> clinic is 60 or 70 percent inaccessible, and there seems to be very 
> little I can do about it by the end of the semester.
> 
> I am currently taking a civil advocacy clinic through my law school.
> Each student works with a partner and interviews, files motions for, 
> and represents clients in court hearings. Ever since I started law 
> school, I've been blown away at the inaccessible nature of the legal 
> profession, especially considering my last career literally required 
> me to get Braille materials because music cannot be rendered in a Word 
> document. But this clinic is another level of inaccessibility I never 
> imagined.
> 
> We had to do several mailings last week. The instructions were 
> hand-written, and the entire process was inaccessible, so my partner 
> had to do it while I stood there with nothing to do to help. We 
> routinely have to work with scanned images that can't be converted 
> into text easily (if at all) because they contain hand writing. I 
> asked for a reader when I realized this would be a problem, but the 
> reader they gave me works for our disability support office and is 
> only available in the mornings when I am in class. He signed a 
> confidentiality agreement, which was a requirement for my clinic, but 
> he still shares what he's working on with his supervisor, who cannot 
> be granted access to client information. I'm attempting to work out 
> these issues, but while I try, the work continues.
> 
> When my professor, partner, and I edit motions and other writings, 
> it's a nightmare. First, I had to figure out Sharepoint, which lags 
> and doesn't seem to work well with Jaws. Another blind attorney gave 
> me some tips that really helped, but in the end, none of that mattered 
> because when the three of us started editing together, I was 
> completely lost. I was trying to listen to track changes, comments, 
> footnotes, and the text of the motion with Jaws while my professor and 
> partner were looking at printed pages and just marking off what they 
> wanted to change. I couldn't keep up. My professor apologized, but she 
> kept using the paper copies and changing things I couldn't see on my 
> document.
> 
> There are also lots of little things, like taking pictures, scanning 
> documents and checking them when documenting information, and putting 
> paper packets and visual aids together. Finally, when filing with the 
> DC Superior court, their system was not completely keyboard 
> accessible, so I couldn't even take the lead in filing our motion. I'm 
> frankly very overwhelmed. Although I know I have a lot to learn and I 
> accept that we live in a visual world, this level of inaccessibility 
> is making me question getting into the legal field at all. I 
> understand that sometimes I can do more to fight for accessibility, 
> but what am I supposed to do when I have three other classes, am 
> applying to take the Bar, and am also trying to apply for fellowships 
> and jobs? I cannot take on all these battles, and for the first time, 
> I don't even know which ones, if any, matter. My partner and professor 
> are tolerant of all these issues, but it feels awful that I have to 
> rely on my partner to do so much. My professor has also made it clear 
> that I have to improve over the course of the semester and put more 
> work into my clinic assignments.
> 
> I've tried to brain storm solutions. I've tried talking with my 
> partner about letting me figure out some of the inaccessible work.
> Sometimes she gets something done while I'm still trying to figure out 
> how to make it accessible. Whenever I bring up these issues with my 
> professor, she acts like I should just expect things to be 
> inaccessible. "It's a visual world." And while that's true, she and 
> the university still have a legal obligation to make things accessible 
> when possible.
> 
> I'm just not sure what to do, what to ask for, and how to proceed. I'm 
> tired, so tired, and I'm graduating at the end of the semester, so 
> part of me just wants to let all this go. But when I think about a 
> future career being like this, I just lose all desire to practice law 
> anymore.
> 
> Does anyone have any thoughts? Please be kind if you think I should 
> just suck it up and keep fighting. I know this but would also love 
> some support.
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> Julie
> 
> --
> Julie A. Orozco
> MM Vocal Performance, 2015; American University Washington College of 
> Law, JD Candidate 2023
> 
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