[blindlaw] What job can a blind lawyer do?

[Rovig, Lorraine]

If one cannot find a blind person who has already done the job you wish
to do as a blind lawyer, then research the different tasks within that
job, and become the expert.  Talk to blind teachers, other kinds of
lawyers or blind judges, blind stockbrokers, and so on. [See my original
note for more explanation.] 

The proactive reason you are well advised to attempt to locate and talk
to other blind persons already in the job that interests you is to
research what blind techniques are already proven to work and then you
adopt the ones that suit you and ignore the ones that don't. This is
your own research project which gets you ready to answer employer
questions during an interview in a positive way. Also, if you are
confident in your ability to handle the job in a competitive manner,
then you will project that confidence and will increase your chance of
convincing the employer you can handle the job.  Down the road, if a
part of the job comes up that you do not have a good blind technique for
handling, you can call on the other blind person or persons to help you
brainstorm a useful technique. You take charge of developing your own
think tank.

As to your other point, most employers do not know any two blind persons
doing the same job. 
It is doubtful comparisons can be made or will be made by employers
concerning particular methods of doing a job. The most common comparison
I've heard of is some employer had one incompetent blind person as an
employee and has come to believe all blind persons are incompetent.
Turning that around takes a lot of work.  When applying for a
professional job, telling the employer you know another blind person
already doing this job successfully would be a rare strategy, one better
employed for employment below the professional level.  I can't imagine
any reason you'd provide address and cell phone.  

Cordially,
Lorraine Rovig

-----Original Message-----
From: blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org]
On Behalf Of Mark BurningHawk
Sent: Tuesday, October 03, 2006 5:14 PM
To: NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List
Subject: Re: [blindlaw] What job can a blind lawyer do?

Where this encounters difficult is in "pushing the envelope," of what
jobs a blind person has *ALREADY* done and what jobs one would like to
do.  If one can find an NFB member or some other example of a blind
person doing the job or a similar or related job, fine.  But, in my
experience, convincing a perspective employer who has no such markers to
follow or examples to reassure them becomes a whole nother cauldron of
trout.  The other drawback with finding a blind person who is doing a
similar or exact job is that, if the original blind person wants to find
different or better ways of doing that job that suit him or her better,
the employer might resist, with the argument that, "OH, that' not how
[insert role model's name here] does it, so you can't do it that way."
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rovig, Lorraine" <LRovig at nfb.org>
To: "NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List" <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 03, 2006 1:25 PM
Subject: Re: [blindlaw] What job can a blind lawyer do?


> Dear Ger,
> I see in your responses your frustration with not getting what you 
> would consider a straight answer to a simple question.  You asked 
> blind lawyers on the NFB mailing list something like: "What specific 
> jobs can a blind lawyer handle in this competitive world?" The reason 
> you are getting answers that on the surface appear to be unhelpful 
> (and even
> testy) is related to our history of experience in jobs blind persons 
> can do. We have found that giving a straightforward answer to the 
> question as you asked it only produces the wrong answer, a useless 
> heart-breaking answer. The recommended time-tested method for deciding

> on your life's work, which Federationists learned from Dr. Kenneth 
> Jernigan from the days of his developing the NFB model training 
> program for blind adults in Iowa, goes like this:
>
> Blind adult: What job can a blind person do?
> Dr. Jernigan: If you were not blind, and had your current level of 
> education and your current interests, what job would you like to do?
> Blind adult: If I were not blind, I'd like to work as a [fill in blank

> with one job title of specific kind of attorney or judge or multiple 
> job titles].
> Dr. Jernigan: Alright. Now let's research ways that you can do the job

> you really want to do by using blind techniques, not the job that 
> someone said blind persons can do.  Let's talk with [name of blind NFB

> member already doing the preferred job] and with [blind NFB members 
> doing some aspect of the preferred job, such as recordkeeping or 
> testing or detective work, advertising a service, or traveling as part

> of the job].  Why waste your time researching a job that is right for 
> someone else? The best plan is to research the job that you would want

> to do if you were sighted.  If we in the NFB do not know someone who 
> is already doing the job you prefer, then break the job down into its 
> component parts and research answers from blind persons doing those 
> pieces of your preferred job by using blind techniques.
>
> Ger, back in the early 1960s, Dr. Jernigan was the director of the 
> Iowa Commission for the Blind, the state agency and training center. 
> He was told blind persons had never been electrical engineers and, 
> therefore, it was common sense that it was not possible for a blind 
> person to do this job.  However, 3 of his students in Iowa came along 
> that said that was the job they would like to do if they were sighted.

> He assisted these 3 blind persons to go to college to train for that 
> job. Two are still working as senior electrical engineers today, and 
> the third one retired last year from his job as a full-time electrical

> engineer. Other blind persons have since gone on to become electrical
engineers.
>
> Anyway, Ger, the answers you are getting result from the fact that you

> are asking the wrong question of Federationists. Let me ask you, "Ger,

> if you were sighted, and had your current education and interests, 
> what job in the law would you like to do?"
>
> Cordially,
> Lorraine Rovig
> Program Operations Specialist
> NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
> 1800 Johnson Street
> Baltimore, Maryland 21230
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org]
> On Behalf Of ger sadlier
> Sent: Tuesday, October 03, 2006 2:51 PM
> To: blindlaw at nfbnet.org
> Subject: Re: [blindlaw] blindlaw Digest, Vol 29, Issue 3
>
> With respect, there's a fundamental difference between good forward 
> planning and common sense and what you describe as "negative 
> stereotyp[ing]".
>
>  While I remain grateful for the answers received, i am forced to note

> that the devil remains in the detail or (lack there of).
>
>  As to your final point, re follow whatever career seems most 
> appealing, that's the plan, hense the questions.
>  kind regards
>  Ger
>
>
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