A Visually Impaired Law Clerk and the Supreme Court Linda C
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Accommodations: What Libraries Do to Serve Patrons with Disabilities Working with Isaac: A Visually Impaired Law Clerk and the Supreme Court Linda C. Corbelli, Research Librarian and Melissa A. Williams, Technology/Research Librarian, Supreme Court of the United States Library I. Introduction arrival, the law clerks receive training from the During the October 2008 Term, retired Justice Office of Data Systems as well as the Library. Sandra Day O’Connor employed the Supreme These training sessions are designed to intro- DCourt’s first blind law clerk, Isaac Lidsky1. Dur- duce the law clerks to the resources available ing his time at the Court, Isaac worked on cir- to them during their tenure at the Court. The cuit court cases assigned to Justice O’Connor, Library utilizes PowerPoint slides, video, discus- as well as cases before the Supreme Court with sion and handouts to introduce various Library Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s chamber. His services and their access points. At the conclu- unique needs presented the Library’s staff with sion of the presentation the clerks are taken on both opportunities and challenges. Our tra- a Library tour. ditional methods of providing services often A basic explanation is in order to understand did not work well, and sometimes not at all, how the Library staff generally serves sighted for Isaac. Several existing procedures had to be law clerks. There are four Library departments adapted and new processes had to be developed continued on page 3 in order to deliver information to him in a use- ful format. Because of the nature and volume of the law clerks’ work, prompt implementa- tion was critical. II. Background The official start of each Court Term is the first Monday of October. However, law clerks from the prior term begin to leave the Court in July and new clerks arrive to take their places. Upon 1Isaac J. Lidsky is an associate in the Supreme Court and Appellate Advocacy group of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld and currently works in their London office. He clerked for Justices Sandra Day O’Connor (retired) and Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg during the 2008 Court Term. As a child actor, Isaac played Barton ‘Weasel’ Wyzell in the first season ofSaved by the Bell: The New Class,before leav- ing Hollywood to attend Harvard College and Harvard Isaac Lidsky surrounded by members of the support team at the Supreme Court Law School. An extensive biography can be found here: of the United States. © Steve Petteway, Collection of the Supreme Court of the http://www.akingump.com/ilidsky/ United States. Volume 53, Number 2 • Spring 2010 1 FROM THE EDITOR Table of Contents Welcome! FEATURES Working with Isaac: A Visually Sara Sampson, Head of Reference, Georgetown Impaired Law Clerk and the Supreme Court Law Library, [email protected] Linda C. Corbelli 1 The theme of this issue is “Accommodations: Is There a Future for an e-USC? 9 TWhat Libraries Do to Serve Patrons with Dis- Andy Zimmerman abilities,” and our lead article by Linda Corbelli Points of Order: Congressional Rules and Melissa Williams explains how the Supreme Governing the Legislative Process Court Library served their first clerk with a John Cannan 11 visual impairment. This could be a model for how a library should serve patrons with disabili- OCLC Digital Forum West: A Review Alyssa Altshuler 13 ties: by working with the patron to determine how to best serve his or her needs. Dawn Bohls LLSDC 2010 Election News: reviews Understanding Disability: Inclusion, Candidate Biographies 17 Access, Diversity, and Civil Rights and does an In Memoriam: Michael J. Petit excellent job explaining why we should all be William T. Ryan 23 aware of disability issues. Universal Truths I Learned On the Mat: Andy Zimmerman and Trevor Rosen ex- What Being a Yoga Instructor Taught plore the question of whether there is a possi- Me About Teaching bility of an online, official U.S. Code and John Jill Smith 24 Cannon gives us a primer on House and Senate Rules. Newcomer to the profession, Jill Smith, continued on page 3 COLUMNS Editor’s Column Sara Sampson 2 President’s Column Cameron Gowan 6 Member News 7 Shannon O’Connell LLSDC Book Review Law Librarians’ Society of Washington, DC Dawn Bohls 8 A Chapter of the American Association of Law Libraries Tech Talk If you would like to write for Lights, please contact Deadline for Roger Skalbeck 26 Submissions Sara Sampson at [email protected]. For information regarding submission deadlines and AALL News 29 issue themes, visit the LLSDC Web site at www.llsdc. org. Law Library Lights is published quarterly by the Law Librarians’ Society of Washington, D.C., Inc. 20009, ISSN 0546-2483. Beginning with Vol. 50, #1 (Fall 2006), Law Library Lights is now published in PDF format on the LLSDC Web site: www.llsdc.org. Notification of avail- ability of each new issue will be sent to the LLSDC listserv. If you would like to receive individual e-mail notification when new issues are published, please send an e-mail to Sara Sampson at [email protected]. LLSDC LLSDC does not assume any responsibility for the statements advanced by Law Librarians’ Society of Washington, DC contributors to Law Library Lights. The views expressed herein are those of the A Chapter of the American Association of Law Libraries individual authors and do not constitute an endorsement by LLSDC. 2 Law Library Lights From the Editor continued from page 2 porated the information learned in their own The theme of this workplaces. Alyssa Altshuler reviews the OCLC issue of Lights is gives us some universal truths about teaching Digital Forum West and explains how the “Accommodations: that she learned from teaching yoga. William forum helped a digital preservation project at What Libraries Do Ryan has written a fitting tribute to Mike Petit, Ropes & Gray. Refugio Ramirez shares some of to Serve Patrons who we lost in 2009. In his “Tech Talk” column, Gary Price’s tips he learned at the joint LLSDC with Disabilities,” Roger Skalbeck gives a nice overview of free ser- and DCSLA presentation by Price. and our lead article vices that will embed documents and presenta- I hope you enjoy this issue. The next one by Linda Corbelli tions into an existing webpage. will focus on “Anything but Books.” Have an and Melissa Other authors bring us news of conferences article idea or want to write for Lights? Email Williams explains and presentations and how they have incor- me at [email protected]. LLL how the Supreme Court Library served their first Working with Isaac continued from page 1 and talk about his needs. This meeting was clerk with a visual extremely productive in identifying the screen impairment. —Collections Management, Research, Techni- reading software used by Isaac (JAWS), the cal Services, and Technology. The two depart- format in which he wanted to receive his ments with the most direct interaction with the materials, and how these documents should be clerks are the Collections Management Depart- named and placed in a mutually accessible lo- ment and the Research Department. Collections cation on the Court’s intranet. This provided Management uses an in-house database which us with concrete examples of what the Library allows users to send material requests through staff would need to do in order to assist Isaac in a web form. The Collections Management staff his work. can then track each request through comple- At the conclusion of the meeting, there tion. The Research Department also utilizes an was an opportunity for Isaac to test the Library in-house database. Law clerks use web forms databases used by sighted clerks, as well as from this database to send research requests to other Court resources. After testing Library re- the department, where they are then assigned sources it was easy for Isaac to determine that to a researcher. These research requests can run he would be unable to use our web forms to the gamut from simple ready reference ques- send in requests to either the Collections tions to extremely complicated research projects Management Department or the Research requiring weeks or months of work. Generally, Department. The database web forms did not sighted law clerks do not interact to a great de- have labels for all of the text entry boxes so it gree with either the Technical Services Depart- was impossible for Isaac to determine what ment staff or the Technology Department. the boxes were and therefore, how to en- During the Library orientation session, the law ter information into them. He was also un- clerks are shown both the Material Request able to navigate the Library’s site, “The Vir- Database (for requesting material from Collec- tual Library.” However, he was able to easily tions Management) and the Research Request access the Court’s email system and navigate Database (for submitting research requests) in within attachments, provided they were a fair amount of detail. Although most requests in a format compatible with his screen reader. are handled through the databases, law clerks Using his JAWS reader, Isaac could work through are also informed that they are welcome to call an amazing number of documents—“audio either department at any time with a request. would speed so fast it would be unintelligible Also welcome, though infrequent, are visits to to regular listeners.” either department in the Court Library. Some critical pieces of information that the Library staff came away from this meeting III. Pre-Term Preparation with were: 1) Isaac used JAWS for his screen A few days before the official start of Isaac’s reader and the manner in which he set it clerkship, a meeting was arranged for a few up did not accommodate PDF documents; members of Data Systems, a representative 2) the document format he was comfortable from the Reporter’s Office, the Library’s Tech- using was Microsoft Word and all docu- nology Department and the head of the ments sent to him must be in that format; and Research Department to sit down with Isaac continued on page 4 Volume 53, Number 2 • Winter 2010 3 Working with Isaac continued from page 3 A.