[blindLaw] Questions Regarding Blindness and Accessibility in Law School & the Legal Profession

Brian Unitt BrianUnitt at holsteinlaw.com
Sat Apr 6 00:55:34 UTC 2024 

I agree completely about QRead. For straight reading of PDFs especially large files, it can't be beat. 
Brian

Brian C. Unitt
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By the State Bar of California

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-----Original Message-----
From: BlindLaw <blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org> On Behalf Of Lauren Bishop via BlindLaw
Sent: Friday, April 5, 2024 4:39 PM
To: Blind Law Mailing List <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
Cc: Lauren Bishop <laurenbishop96 at icloud.com>
Subject: Re: [blindLaw] Questions Regarding Blindness and Accessibility in Law School & the Legal Profession

Hello,
I just graduated law school and I’m currently working as a certified legal intern in a prosecutors office while I wait for our results. My answers to your questions are below.
In law school, I used jaws and I had a braille display that I would use in class. A friend introduced me to this software called Q read. It is developed by a blind person, and it handles big law school textbook like a dream! It’s approximately $30, and it is the best $30 you’ll ever spend. You can do all kinds of things with your books and even place bookmarks and notes  in the book that you can find. Highly recommend.
With regards to visual evidence, it is perfectly acceptable to have a sided person described the evidence to you. You would need this accommodation and a lot of different legal fields, so there’s no reason to fret about asking it.  I highly recommend doing two things if you’re going to pursue prosecution or any field that involves a lot of court room practice. They are: left parent one right parent take some course in trial advocacy or do the mock trial team; and left parent to right parent a law school clinic. Trial advocacy allowed me to use trial and error to determine how I was going to navigate the courtroom and read my notes and testimonies.  School clinic to further troubleshoot and use trial and error to determine how I would do things in a real world setting. It also gave me practice dealing with sided employees that didn’t have a clue about how blind people did anything, which was tremendous preparation for the workforce. It also , afforded me a financial advantage that my appears waiting for results aren’t always experiencing.
I would say that accessibility is going to depend a lot on where you go to school and where you go to work. I went to school with a dedicated disability service office, and it was in a lot of ways, very helpful. They reached out to the publishers of my textbooks on my behalf, and I received accessible PDF copies of my textbooks. They , also arranged my accommodated final exams, helped me advocate when I was having problems with professors, and even employed a student to act as my reader working in a prosecution clinic.

Sent from my iPhone

> On Apr 5, 2024, at 5:15 PM, Nikki Singh via BlindLaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Lots of good suggestions here.
> 
> 
> 
> Using a human reader is sometimes the best way to access information, 
> whether it is in print, a photograph, or a video. Many attorneys use 
> the services of paralegals or litigation assistants. Law firm partners 
> use associates, and judges have law clerks.
> 
> 
> 
> A screen reader and a good document conversion software are going to 
> be integral to reviewing voluminous records and other materials. You 
> may also use a paralegal to handle some document review as needed.
> 
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Nikki
> 
>> On Sat, Mar 16, 2024 at 12:03 AM Natasha Ishaq via BlindLaw < 
>> blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> 
>> Thanks Syed! I am indeed a JAWS and VoiceOver user. I have been 
>> exploring various apps that can potentially help with navigating 
>> inaccessible documents, such as scanned PDFs or other PDFs that are 
>> inaccessible with JAWS. I’ve heard that VoiceDream is great for this. 
>> I’m also looking into apps such as Seeing AI or potentially even AIRA 
>> to assist with visuals and images. If you have any additional 
>> suggestions or recommendations, I’d love to learn about them!
>> 
>> Thanks!
>> 
>> Regards,
>> Natasha
>> 
>> 
>>> On Fri, Jan 19, 2024 at 2:38 PM Syed Rizvi <syedrizvinfb at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> Hi Natasha,
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Congrats on beginning your legal journey!
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> I am a blind law school student and will try my best to answer your 
>>> questions.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Regarding your second question, how do you currently do the bulk of 
>>> your reading? Many blind lawyers employ the use of a screen reading 
>>> software, such as Job Access With Speech, to quickly and accurately 
>>> read through large amounts of text. I think acquiring this skill 
>>> would also be helpful for law school and not only for work. You can 
>>> potentially receive
>> training
>>> in how to use such software from your state’s vocational 
>>> rehabilitation agency. I’m happy to jump on a call to show you how I use this tool.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Regarding your first and last questions, I wondered about the same 
>>> potential barriers in my own career. While there are ever growing 
>>> technological solutions to such visual barriers, sometimes the 
>>> easiest
>> path
>>> is the low tech one. It is common for sighted attorneys to employ 
>>> the services of paralegals and professional assistants. Blind 
>>> attorneys, like their sighted counterparts, also receive assistance 
>>> in their work from
>> such
>>> support staff. However, the type of assistance they may receive from
>> their
>>> support staff for particular tasks may differ. It is most important 
>>> for
>> you
>>> to do your job efficiently. If that entails asking your support 
>>> staff to provide you with a description of an image or check for a 
>>> signature on a printed page, then that is a perfectly acceptable 
>>> solution that does not hinder your own independence.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> I am happy to connect and discuss further if you would like.
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> Best of luck!
>>> 
>>> -Syed
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On Thu, Jan 18, 2024 at 10:46 AM Natasha Ishaq via BlindLaw < 
>>> blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Hello All,
>>>> 
>>>> I will be starting law school in the fall and have a few specific 
>>>> questions regarding blindness and accessibility in law school and 
>>>> the legal profession as a whole.
>>>> 
>>>> First, I was wondering whether anyone on this mailing list who is a 
>>>> prosecutor, defense attorney or judge would be willing to speak 
>>>> with me about navigating accessibility within their work. As 
>>>> someone interested
>> in
>>>> pursuing criminal law, I understand that viewing photographic 
>>>> images and videos are often part of the job when it comes to 
>>>> reviewing evidence. I would like to know how blind attorneys and 
>>>> judges are best able to overcome this kind of accessibility barrier 
>>>> and still maintain independence in their line of work?
>>>> 
>>>> Second, what is the best software application that can be used to 
>>>> review annd navigate through electronic documents that are hundreds 
>>>> of pages long?
>>>> 
>>>> Finally, what is the best approach to take when given inaccessible 
>>>> documents, such as inaccessible scanned PDFs or handwritten files?
>>>> 
>>>> My goal is to have the solutions for the above barriers planned out
>> prior
>>>> to starting law school so that i can better focus on coursework, 
>>>> clinics and professional training without having to feel “stuck” 
>>>> because of inaccessibility. Essentially, I want to have a plan I 
>>>> can immediately follow to prevent these problems from arising in the first place.
>>>> 
>>>> I am grateful for any and all insight and help. Thank you all so much.
>>>> 
>>>> Warm Regards,
>>>> Natasha
>>>> 
>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>> for
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>>>> 
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>> gmail.com
>>>> 
>>> 
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