Accessibility Concern: Scratch Paper + Color Blind

[trentkannegieter]

Yesterday, a friend of mine who took the digital version of the July LSAT warned me that the scratch paper LSAC provides is a packet of flimsy, tan-colored sheets with dark gray watermarks across the paper. This concerned me because I am extremely color blind. I am afraid that I will not be able to read my pencil markings against the background (especially if I have to erase something.) For accessibility reasons, I would be very surprised if they weren’t using just straight-up white printer paper. However, I need to figure this out sooner rather than later. Has LSAC described the type of scratch paper they will provide publicly? If so, does PowerScore have a replica of this template or suggestions of how I could approximate the LSAT scratch experience? Is this something I should discuss with LSAC accessibility?

[Dave Killoran]

Hi Trent,

Thanks for the message! A few thoughts here that might help:

• 1. Your friend is correct about the scratch paper: it's cheap, and others have complained about the watermark on it making pen/pencil tough to read.
  
  2. No one has a prototype of the paper—it's not been released, and no one is allowed to remove scratch paper from the test itself over cheating concerns. So aside from knowing that the paper is the old, cheap LSAT paper that the test used to be printed on, you can't get a replica.
  
  3. You should definitely get in contact with LSAC over this. If you have accommodations, you can request that they address this as part of the accommodation. No one can handle this aside from them, so I'd get in touch with them immediately!

Our hope is that LSAC will change this paper—and the bizarre and inexplicable watermark—for upcoming tests, but we've heard nothing to that effect yet, so i wouldn't count on it.

Get in touch with them, and good luck!