[kiryandil]

It is quite possible that the blind IRS computer tech who examined the hard drive is equal in his abilities and performance to anyone else in the field.

Or not.

I'm not even sure how a blind person would become a computer tech. Most of our job involves seeing things. Anything is possible, but it would be an enormous uphill battle.

[Rockingham]

Many blind people have significant residual vision. My friend, for example, needed a white cane to get around but was able to read using a TV amplification device on printed material. In some instances, using that device, he was able to read fine print better than most of us with normal vision.

Today, with even that residual vision gone, my friend has web pages, emails, and scanned printed material read to him by computer. Nowadays, most computer programs, including forensic programs, can be readily adapted for use by the blind, with audio replacing visual display.

Of course, a fully serious effort to recover the lost emails would have the hard drive analyzed by more than one technician and, if that failed, would send it out to a third party tech firm. The strongest reason to criticize using the blind tech is not that he is blind but that with twenty five years of experience he may not be expert with the newest recovery methods.