Law School and Disabiity Forum

[MattM]

Hello,

I wasn't sure where to post this ...but I decided to post here to see if I should choose any law school given my vision condition.

I had normal reading vision in both eyes prior to January 2012 when I had an accident and detached my retina in my left eye and had to sit out a year from school to recover. Due to the detachment, from that point on I have had no short range reading vision in my left eye but i can still read perfectly fine out of the right eye.

Would law school and a career as a lawyer be a mistake given the large amounts of reading and my disability? Honest advice appreciated

Thanks!

[BVest]

You're really the only person who can answer that. How is it for you reading lots of material in a sitting?

I will say that if you do go to law school, you should probably choose one in a city large enough to have at least one or two reasonably sized (5+ ophthalmologist) retina-specialty practices, in case something else comes up. You don't want to have to be going out of town for referrals or seeing the retina guy who comes to town just one day out of the week (which of course will happen to be your busiest day of classes).

ETA: If the disability does interfere with your schoolwork in some measurable fashion (i.e. measurable by a professional such as an ophthalmologist or educational psychologist who can put it into a report), the school is required to provide reasonable accommodations. These would include such accommodations as large format reading materials, note takers (though, according to the emails I've seen about these, you have to attend the particular class to get the notes), separate exam rooms, etc. Here's the top search result for disability accommodations: http://www.disabilityrightsca.org/pubs/530901.pdf

[MattM]

Missing class due to eye doctor appointments would not be a problem as i can schedule those around the breaks.

I usually only see the eye doctor once every 6 months during Christmas Break and summer break

[AReasonableMan]

Law school will accommodate you. Whether it will be enough to make it an even playing field depends but this should be a big factor in selection of schools. Going to a slightly better school will be outweighed by having a big detriment on exams.

Employment is trickier. You're technically protected, but a lot of places would rather take someone with lower credentials but no disability. Just the nature of the beast. It's illegal yes, but you'll never prove its because you're blind. Don't bring it up until people will be judging you over a prolonged period, and not in 20 minutes. I would say rank and scholarship money becomes more important. With a disability, everything else has to be perfect as people will be looking for reasons to ding you. You can research legal hiring and disability to see the data on grades becoming more irrelevant for these people. You can overcome it but don't assume you'll be diverse or on an equal playing field to non-disabled candidates.

[MattM]

The reason I say that is because I think its possible it could affect my schoolwork.

I noticed from the retina detachment to today I have been spending a lot more time on my schoolwork. I am not sure to what extent but I believe its certainly possible the lack of short range reading vision in one eye could slow me down. It could also be because I trasnferred from community college to a university in which A's are hard to come by even if you put in the effort.

The concern increased when I took practice LSAT's .....I'm fine on LR and LG but the larger amounts of reading in RC are hard to keep up with reading out of one eye.

Even if I do go into law school and get accommodations there...what is your thoughts on my vision condition going into law as a career after I graduate ?

[MattM]

So even if I broke 170 on LSAT...going to a regional will be a better choice because of my eyesight instead of a T 14 school?

I could break a 170 but that would be very hard given how reading out of only one eye affects me in RC....I would have to be near perfect everywhere else. ( it doesn't bother me as much in LR as the stimulus are shorter and in LG the reading is minimal)

[AReasonableMan]

Having a disability is going to lower your chances. It's not like racial diversity where it's potentially a benefit because of social progress. It's either neutral or bad.

Most of what lawyers do is reading and writing. You may be able to get audio tapes or print stuff out in a certain way. I don't know.

In addition, to today's legal economy you are also facing a market where having a disability will frighten or turn off many employers. You need to cast a wider net. There are good people, but you generally need to be much better than the competition. If you're equal or slightly better but blind then you're going to be rejected. I'm not saying quit. I'm saying 170 is a minimum.

[MarkfromWI]

The reason I say that is because I think its possible it could affect my schoolwork.

I noticed from the retina detachment to today I have been spending a lot more time on my schoolwork. I am not sure to what extent but I believe its certainly possible the lack of short range reading vision in one eye could slow me down. It could also be because I trasnferred from community college to a university in which A's are hard to come by even if you put in the effort.

The concern increased when I took practice LSAT's .....I'm fine on LR and LG but the larger amounts of reading in RC are hard to keep up with reading out of one eye.

Even if I do go into law school and get accommodations there...what is your thoughts on my vision condition going into law as a career after I graduate ?

Even if this is your first semester back at school, you're 2 months in now plus have been studying for the LSAT- If by now you can't say for certain if it's hurting you or not, it probably isn't hurting you enough to worry about, or enough to stop you from going. Sure, it might be making you marginally slower, but if it were significant, you would know.

[MattM]

I think it does affect me. I wanted to say possible because I don't want to blame it all on my eyesight. The difficulty of the school is another factor. So it probably is both.

What about legal employment for partially blind? I am not totally blind. the retina detachment only affects the reading vision out of one eye. My right eye can see perfectly normal for close range reading distance.

I also notice it in RC of LSAT where I scored the exact same score on June 2014 LSAT on RC as in my first diagnostic

[AReasonableMan]

Just don't mention it until you get an offer. How would they know? The issue is this: your role is to make the senior attorney's life easier. Any disability suggests drama and liability. Because of the statute, they likely won't ask you how you'll do the work, etc. bec then you know it played a role in the decision. They will just reject you.

Get accommodation in law school, don't mention it until you have a job. Unless it means you can't do the job or hurts your work product, they won't fire you. If it does then, yes, law is a bad decision.

[MattM]

^ why did you mention earlier that a higher ranked school may not be a good choice? if a regional is a better idea why should a 170 be the minimum as I don't need 170 if I only planned on going to a regional . Outside of UT Austin the other regionals in Texas aren't too competitive

And what types of schools would you recommend? I'm from Texas looking at T 14

[AReasonableMan]

Oh, I just mentioned it because your chances of not getting a job will be higher than a randomly selected student. Depending on how prominent your disability is (i.e. if people notice), there will be people who will not hire you regardless of your grades or interpersonal skills because you have a disability. There will also be many places that won't hold it against you. However, a randomly selected student won't have to worry about this so will therefore have more opportunities, and thus less risk. Depending on what your wants are, a full ride may be safer. Your strikeout chances may be higher because of your disability so it might make sense to plan accordingly.

I didn't say go to a worse school. I'm merely saying that law school represents a higher risk for you, because the legal world simply isn't as enlightened as one hopes it will be in the future. This doesn't mean that a regional with 200k is better than a t-14 with 200k in debt. I'm saying the risk of not being able to repay 200k is higher for you. You can do it. People overcome obstacles every day, but it is an obstacle.

[WichitaShocker]

Hello,

I wasn't sure where to post this ...but I decided to post here to see if I should choose any law school given my vision condition.

I had normal reading vision in both eyes prior to January 2012 when I had an accident and detached my retina in my left eye and had to sit out a year from school to recover. Due to the detachment, from that point on I have had no short range reading vision in my left eye but i can still read perfectly fine out of the right eye.

Would law school and a career as a lawyer be a mistake given the large amounts of reading and my disability? Honest advice appreciated

Thanks!

I just wanted to add that I have a friend with a detached retina that has trouble reading from the left eye. She has started wearing an eye patch over her left eye only while reading, and it has sped up her reading significantly.

[AReasonableMan]

Yeah, don't rock the patch when you're doing anything professional other than reading/writing. You will look like a pirate. The one eye thing is a minor disability, if a disability at all. Most books are on audiotapes. I'd try to get accommodations at your school now so you could show them to a law school later on.

[michael2015]

So, I was born blind in one eye. You'll get used to reading if this is a relatively new development for you. I never took any disability time or mentioned it really. Just build up your stamina and figure out if you need breaks after certain amounts of time reading.

[03152016]

just want to add that although there's a lot of reading in ls, you can do all of it on your comp and blow it up
i use an app to scan my textbooks and another to straighten out the text, takes no time at all
that way i can read on my laptop resize the text as needed
(plus, no books to carry around)

[AReasonableMan]

just want to add that although there's a lot of reading in ls, you can do all of it on your comp and blow it up
i use an app to scan my textbooks and another to straighten out the text, takes no time at all
that way i can read on my laptop resize the text as needed
(plus, no books to carry around)

You also don't need to do all the readings, really. There are videos and audio lectures that are useful. Reading and writing are not necessarily indicative of each other. You could be a slower reader, but do better on exams. Reading tends to be more language based where as law school writing insofar as grading is concerned tends to be more thought based. How quickly are you thinking, how intelligent are your thoughts and do they reflect an in depth knowledge of the material?

[bl1nds1ght]

just want to add that although there's a lot of reading in ls, you can do all of it on your comp and blow it up
i use an app to scan my textbooks and another to straighten out the text, takes no time at all
that way i can read on my laptop resize the text as needed
(plus, no books to carry around)

What programs are these? I'm at 20/60 corrected in my only eye and am very interested in this.

Thank you!

[03152016]

camscanner to scan
finereader to straighten out

[bl1nds1ght]

camscanner to scan
finereader to straighten out

Mah bru, thank you.

I am going to try these out later.

[MattM]

Where are these apps?

I may try if needed