[blindlaw] Seeking Sighted Assistance for Reading Documents

Sun Aug 6 07:43:18 UTC 2017

Thank you, Angie and Nandini. Your suggestions are very helpful.
I recently joined a law firm, so I am still developing coping
strategies to work as effectively and efficiently as my sighted
colleagues. One great resource that you have access to as an employee
of a large Indian law firm is legal interns. I often take their help
in reading documents, getting handwritten documents converted into an
accessible format by getting them typed, formatting documents
correctly, etc.

Like the two of you, I don't feel that, in the larger scheme of
things, my demands or needs are out of the ordinary. A lot of partners
at our firm, and in fact at most firms, still prefer reading documents
in hard copy, so they get them printed. What I ask for is generally
the reverse -- that's the only difference.

While this strategy works great most of the time, since I seek help on
an ad hoc basis, I am sometimes not able to deliver the end product as
expeditiously as I'd like to because interns aren't always immediately
available to help me. This being the case, I was wondering if I should
ask my firm to assign someone to help me with these kinds of things,
so as to transform this from an ad hoc arrangement into something more
permanent.

Further, one related question that I have for you is this: Over a
period of time, have you discovered that there are certain kinds of
tasks that are particularly hard for you to perform as a blind
attorney. If so, have you apprised your firm of this fact, and what
has their response to the same been like?
For instance, I find that I am able to perform tasks that require
greater intellectual ability such as drafting and research more
efficiently than tasks such as preparing a synopsis/list of dates
because I have to seek sighted assistance for obtaining some pieces of
information in case of the latter.
In other words, I have no difficulty converting large 200-300 page
documents into an accessible format and taking all other steps that I
need to in order to perform a meaningful task effectively, but when
the task is of a somewhat clerical nature, I sometimes feel that
converting everything into an accessible format and seeking sighted
assistance is not really a worthwhile exercise because someone with a
functioning pair of eyes can obviously do it much faster.
Does that make sense?

Best,
Rahul

On 06/08/2017, Angie Matney via BlindLaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> My firm has also re-typed handwritten documents on occasion. I forgot to add
> that they have done this, as well as created editable Word versions of
> documents, for other attorneys in the firm who need to be able to revise
> something that we receivd as a PDF or in another format. Again, I don't
> think that the way I use my secretary is all that unusual at the end of the
> day. I also sometimes ask her to add appointments to my callendar or to add
> contacts for me in Outlook, but my sighted colleagues ask their assistants
> to do this too. (I sometimes do these things, but sometimes it is more
> efficient to ask her to do it.)
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On Aug 5, 2017, at 2:22 PM, Singh, Nandini via BlindLaw
>> <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>
>> I work at a large firm and still use human readers, who are usually one of
>> my two secretaries (two secretaries serve about 10-12 attorneys). Use of a
>> human reader is a matter of efficiency for me, the firm, and the client.
>> My secretaries most often read small administrative documents that are not
>> worth OCR-ing, handwritten documents, some date and signature lines, and
>> any sort of online form that has graphical elements.
>>
>> Much like Angie, I also task my secretaries and our document support
>> services personnel to check my formatting and, when necessary, to apply
>> the firm styles for formal documents. I do feel like I have a strong
>> command of the JAWS keystrokes to perform formatting steps independently,
>> but I appreciate having a visual once-over to correct anything I might
>> have missed or to improve general spacing and alignment aesthetics that
>> would not always strike me.
>>
>> Our document support services people can also retype handwritten documents
>> into Word documents. I had to do this for a pro bono case where the other
>> side was a pro se plaintiff.
>>
>> The other place where I use readers relates to accessing our Ediscovery
>> platform. This is inaccessible using JAWS, so I often locate a paralegal
>> or a litigation support services personnel (usually assigned to the
>> matter) to run document searches that I supply them. Once I understand the
>> number of hits of each search, communicated through email, I ask the
>> paralegal or LSS tech to print the documents as PDFs and save them to my
>> working folder.
>>
>> I have not worked at my firm long, but I know the attorneys here have a
>> range of working styles and habits. Some of the more old school types even
>> request a secretary to dial the number at the start of conference calls! I
>> have not perceived that my requests of secretaries, paralegals, and other
>> support staff are out of the ordinary. All that being said, my firm has a
>> ton of resources, and I am grateful that I can make use of all of them.
>> Hope this helps.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Nikki
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: BlindLaw [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Rahul
>> Bajaj via BlindLaw
>> Sent: Saturday, August 5, 2017 7:28 AM
>> To: blindlaw at nfbnet.org
>> Cc: Rahul Bajaj
>> Subject: [blindlaw] Seeking Sighted Assistance for Reading Documents
>>
>> Hi Everyone,
>>
>> I hope this message finds you well. While I am able to read most
>> documents independently after converting them into an accessible
>> format, I have to rely on sighted assistance from time to time.
>> This is obviously the case when handwritten documents are involved,
>> but also when the quality of the converted documents is not so good as
>> to enable me to decipher some pieces of information such as dates of
>> events or the page numbers of the written submissions on which the
>> annexures I need can be found.
>> In this respect, I was wondering if any of you could comment on: (1)
>> the principles that you adopt to decide when you want to rely on a
>> sighted reader as opposed to using assistive technology; and (2) for
>> those of you who work in a law firm, have you formally asked the firm
>> to make someone available to you for this purpose, or does this work
>> on an ad hoc basis?
>> Further, is your sighted reader generally an intern, a secretary or
>> someone else?
>>
>> Best,
>> Rahul
>>
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