1. Accommodating Clients who have Low Vision or Blindness Kim Borowicz Legal Aid Committee Meeting October 17, 2013

2. Have Documents Available as Plain Text to Convert to Large Print or Braille Brief Service documents Contracts, such as retainer agreements Demographic forms, such as Income verification forms Releases Informational handouts Brochures

3. Plain Text Plain text can simply be a document typed in Microsoft Word Have electronic plain text versions of all documents available. Can be read by screen reader software or printed in Braille

4. Depends on the Person Large Print Ask what size font they prefer Or show them documents in different size fonts There are different Grades of Braille May want the documents read to them Provide a private location to fill out documents Can ship free matter for the blind Must be marked 'Free Matter for the Blind or Handicapped' in the upper right corner of the address side.

5. Reasonable Accommodations Make sure your office has A designated staff member to handle reasonable accommodation requests A policy on how to provide reasonable accommodations A method for clients and training attendees to request a reasonable accommodation

6. Reasonable Accommodations Law offices (including non-profits) have a duty under the Americans with Disabilities Act to provide reasonable accommodations As long as the client says they need something done differently because of a physical or mental condition Please work to accommodate clients with disabilities rather than simply referring them to disability focused organizations Clients might not self identify as having a disability

7. Fillable Online Forms

9. Adaptive Software Screen reader software reads the screen to a user who is blind or has low vision Demo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IK97XMibEws Assistive software can enlarge any computer screen Demo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P55IVlpSXIg

10. Website Accessibility: Contrast

11. Website Accessibility: Image Descriptions

12. Screen Reader Accessibility Tools Web Accessibility Evaluation Tool http://wave.webaim.org Web Content Accessibility Guidelines www.w3c.org/WAI/Resources Website Accessibility Assessment http://www.nablement.com/services/website- accessibility-assessment/ Equal Access to Software and Information http://easi.cc/

13. PDF Accessibility Scanned images of text Tags Fillable Forms Alt text on images or hyperlinks Accessibility Quick Check (6.0 versions of Adobe) http://www.adobe.com/enterprise/accessibilit y/pdfs/acro6_pg_ue.pdf

14. Vision/Blindness Organizations Chicago Lighthouse for the Blind http://chicagolighthouse.org/ (312) 666-1331 Second Sense (formerly the Guild for the Blind) www.second-sense.org (312) 236-8569 National Federation of the Blind www.nfb.org (773) 307-6440 American Council of the Blind www.acb.org (800) 424-8666 Blind Services Association www.blindserviceassociation.org (312) 458-9006

15. I am happy to help! Kim Borowicz Staff Attorney Access Living 115 W. Chicago Ave. Chicago, IL 60654 (312) 640 2155 (312) 640 2169 tty (312) 640 2101 fax kborowicz@accessliving.org