[blindLaw] Inaccessibility of Legal Careers

Thu Nov 2 05:51:42 UTC 2023

Hi Julie,

Being a blind attorney is hard because being a blind professional is hard. Being a blind law student in some ways is harder though because there’s a regimented, one size fits all approach to teaching, and very little desire to figure it out for one student for one semester. I’ve found that the practice of law is more accommodating, at least by those standards, if you find a good place and your niche where you can add value. 

I’ll leave it to others for specific solutions in this case because I absolutely detest litigation, and have avoided it like the plague where possible, but it does generally get better after law school (and the Bar exam), at least for me.  I’ve been practicing now for 8 years at two firms, and when I’ve raised issues around accommodations, I’ve generally been accommodated and it hasn’t materially impacted my ability to succeed with clients.

Best regards
Derek 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Nov 2, 2023, at 1:19 AM, Rod Alcidonis via BlindLaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> 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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> 
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