Activities

SoVIL aims to undertake the following activities, amongst others:

To maintain this website as the first point of contact for anyone interested in practicing or studying law as a visually impaired person in the UK.
To maintain an email list through which members can exchange views and information, or post questions, on subjects of common interest; the list is also open to non-members who share this common interest. To join the email group, send a blank email to sovil+subscribe@groups.io. You don't need to have a subject line or any text in that email. You will receive an automated response asking you to send a reply to confirm your request to join. Once you have done that, you should receive confirmation that you have joined the group. Instructions to unsubscribe from the list appear at the bottom of each email posted to the list. After you have subscribed, you can send an email to the other members of the list by sending an email to sovil@groups.io or replying to someone else's email.
To work to ensure that members have ready access to periodicals such as the New Law Journal and Times Law Reports, and to lobby legal publishers to improve accessibility of legal databases for visually impaired students and practitioners.
To consider and respond to government and other consultations on proposed changes in substantive law, legal practice and other issues likely to affect members in pursuing their studies and careers.
To assist law students, trainees and newly-qualified practitioners by putting them in touch with members able and willing to offer mentoring or advice on how they might tackle practical problems arising from visual impairment in the context of their studies or careers in the law.
To be a focus to answer enquiries made about careers for visually impaired people in the law; about our members and their professional specialisms; and, generally, to act as a source of information about the professional activities of members.
To foster relations with and, if appropriate, to seek representation on bodies concerned with areas of legal practice and to appoint representatives to such bodies.
To assist candidates to negotiate with training institutions, examining bodies, potential employers and assessment centres if reasonable adjustments are needed.
To give members opportunities to get to know a range of other members with different experience in the legal profession. For example, most months, we invite members to express an interest in catching up online with another member.