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Bar Prep Accessibility

We reached out to leading bar prep companies and gathered input from attorneys and bar candidates to prepare this accessibility guide. The chart below provides a quick comparison guide. Keep scrolling for more detailed information.


Why are we doing this? Glad you asked. There are two reasons:


(1) To help bar candidates assess what company and course format will best serve their learning style and access needs.
(2) To encourage bar prep companies to provide equal access to disabled customers.


Disabled customers pay good money for these courses and deserve an equal user experience. Equal access includes:


• Activating accessibility features without requiring lengthy request forms and private medical information.
• Accurate and well-synced lecture captions available to all users.
• Availability of all course materials in formats accessible to deaf, hard of hearing, blind, and vision-impaired customers.


Several leading companies require customers to submit medical information so that the company can decide what accessibility features they deserve. That is backwards. The company should provide information to customers on course format and materials so that the customer can tell the company what accessibility modifications they require. Disabled people are the experts on their own educational access needs, especially coming off of three years of law school.


This is a living document, and we strive to keep it as up-to-date and comprehensive as possible. If you would like to offer further input or feedback on these or other companies, please e-mail us at info@ndlsa.org.

CompanyLecturesAccommodationsCaptionsMaterial FormatsScreen Reader Compatibility
Themis Themis's video lectures are 5 to 20 minutes long.Themis requires a request form and supporting documentation for most accessibility modifications.Captions available to all users for most courses. The captions are mostly, but not entirely, accurate.Several coursebooks (six for the UBE course), with all material also available to all users in PDF format.Compatible with commonly-used screen readers.
Barbri Barbri’s online/on demand lectures are recorded in 15 – 30 minutes modules; classroom lectures and live broadcast are a total of 3-4 hours but feature regular assessments and breaks during the lecture.Barbri requires a request form and supporting documentation for most accessibility modifications.Some caption access requires accommodations, Barbri provides CC on all online/on-demand lectures, no accommodations requests necessary. Captions are often highly inaccurate. All Barbri lectures come with filled-in handouts and fillable PDFs online; Barbri provides printed written materials and an online digital library for all materials in the course.Barbri has partnered with Usablenet to ensure their site meets WCAG 2.0 AA standards.
KaplanLive and pre-recorded course options.Kaplan requires a lengthy request form for most accessibility modifications. Some captions are only available by request. Captions are highly inaccurate.Some written materials are available for download only through accessibility team.Kaplan told NDLSA that its materials are screen reader-compatible.
Crushendo Audio and PDF outlines are available.Crushendo accommodates access needs with no paperwork required.Illustrated outlines in video format all have human-transcribed captioning.Audio and PDF outlines. Audio available both streaming and MP3 download format.Users can contact Crushendo for screen-reader compatible PDFs.

 

Full disclosure: NDLSA has a partnership with Crushendo, but neither NDLSA nor its board members profit from the partnership. We partnered with Crushendo because of their enthusiastic commitment to accessibility, but we do not maintain it will be the best fit for every bar candidate. Our intent in this guide is to provide information that will allow bar candidates to select the course that best meets their learning style and access needs.

 

Kaplan

kaptest.com/bar-exam

Contact Kaplan at accessibility@kaplan.com

Themis

themisbar.com

Contact Themis at ada@themisbar.com

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