[blindLaw] Inaccessibility and Confidentiality

Fri Sep 8 20:25:49 UTC 2023

Julie:

A clinical experience needs to be as real as the real thing. This is clearly an instance where the clinic should be providing you with a human reader to assist. Indeed, you should not be asking your partner as this is not a class assignment but a program in which the learning should be mostly individualized.

Start by having a conversation along those lines with your clinic professor and explore making a formal request for reasonable accommodations. Otherwise, I'm afraid your clinical experience will not be providing you with the real-world experience that such a program should, as a form of preparation to help you succeed in the practice of law after law school.

Good luck!

Rod Alcidonis, Esq.

-----Original Message-----
From: BlindLaw <blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Sanho Steele-Louchart via BlindLaw
Sent: Friday, September 8, 2023 3:27 PM
To: Blind Law Mailing List <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Sanho Steele-Louchart <sanho817 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [blindLaw] Inaccessibility and Confidentiality

Julie:

A part-time reader seems necessary for exactly this reason. I also use them to give a once-over to any documents I'm put in front of a judge.
If the issue's caused by an internal procedure, I'd look into a change in that procedure so I could independently access the material. A change in internal procedure is irrelevant if the issue is with external records such as police reports, medical histories, or certain documents from clients.

Warmth,
Sanho

On 9/8/23, James Fetter via BlindLaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Julie,
> In situations like this, I would ask a paralegal or legal assistant to help.
> You may not have someone in that exact role in the clinic, but the law 
> school needs to provide a human reader, other than your clinic 
> partner, to enable you to do the work. A few years ago, I explored 
> using Aira for dealing with documents containing handwriting,but it 
> went nowhere due to confidentiality concerns which the company failed 
> to address in a serious way.
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On Sep 8, 2023, at 2:28 PM, Julie A. Orozco via BlindLaw 
>> <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> Thank you for all of your advice so far. Clinic is going well, and I 
>> am learning plenty.
>>
>> One thing is coming up sooner than I thought it would be a problem. I 
>> am encountering inaccessible documents, of course, but all my tricks 
>> for OCR are failing me. I am not yet sure why in this case, but my 
>> first guess is that there is handwriting on this particular document.
>> No matter what I do, I can't get anything from jibberish from Jaws 
>> when I try to read it.
>>
>> This is client info, so I can't just send it to someone else, call 
>> AIRA, or even get another blind person to take a crack at it. I have 
>> a clinic partner, but I hate having to ask her for every little 
>> thing, especially since this is supposed to be the assignment I 
>> agreed to do myself. I'm sure some of you have to deal with this on 
>> the job. What do you do when you have to maintain confidentiality and 
>> encounter inaccessible client documents? In addition, what 
>> accommodations do you ask for in these situations? Is a reader my 
>> best and only option? I know a human reader could sign a form stating 
>> that they will keep info confidential, and that's what I did in the 
>> past when I worked in a similar position at my university.
>>
>> Thank you for any advice,
>>
>> Julie
>>
>> --
>> Julie A. Orozco
>> MM Vocal Performance, 2015; American University Washington College of 
>> Law, JD Candidate 2023
>>
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--
He/Him

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