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National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) Sued for Refusing to Accommodate Law School Grad who is Blind

Press Release

National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) Discriminates Against Blind & Low Vision Law School Graduates

A suit filed November 3, 2009 in Federal court alleges that The National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) discriminates against blind and low vision law school graduates.

November 3, 2009

OAKLAND, Calif. - A suit filed today in Federal court alleges that The National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) discriminates against  blind and low vision law school graduates. The suit charges that the  NCBE is violating Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act  (ADA) and California's civil rights law by denying accommodations on  the Multistate Bar Exam (MBE) and the Multistate Professional  Responsibility Exam (MPRE) to a law school graduate who is blind.

The Plaintiff is represented with the support of the National  Federation of the Blind ("NFB") by Labarre Law Offices, P.C., in  Denver, CO, and by Brown, Goldstein & Levy, LLP, in Baltimore, MD.  The Plaintiff is further represented by Disability Rights Advocates  (DRA), a non-profit law center that specializes in civil rights cases  on behalf of persons with disabilities, based in Berkeley, CA.

The NCBE provides standardized examinations for the testing of applicants for admission to the practice of law. Two of the tests it controls, the Multistate Bar Exam (MBE) and the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination (MPRE) are required for admission to the bar by most states. The California Bar examination has two sections; a California section and the MBE. Although both parts of the exam are administered by the California State Bar, the NCBE controls the type of accommodations each state can offer test takers with disabilities for the MBE portion of the bar exam.

Even though the California State Bar is a named Defendant in the suit, they have offered to provide the Plaintiff with all the accommodations she requested for the California section of the bar examination. However, the NCBE refuses to allow the California Bar Examiners to give the Plaintiff certain of the accommodations that she needs on the MBE portion of the bar exam. The California State Bar is fulfilling its legal obligation and is only named in the complaint as an indispensable party. Plaintiff hopes that the lawsuit will convince the NCBE to follow the California State Bar's example and provide the requested accommodations on the MBE portion of the barexam.

The NCBE has also denied Plaintiff the accommodations at issue on the MPRE exam.  This is a separate exam that bar applicants need to pass to be admitted to practice.  The ACT is also named in the complaint since it administers the MPRE examination for NCBE and is thus also an indispensable party.

The Plaintiff Stephanie Enyart is a law school graduate who is legally blind and requires accommodations to take the MBE and MPRE. She has requested to take the exams on a laptop computer equipped with screen reading (JAWS) and screen magnification (ZoomText) software. Ms. Enyart has relied on this combination of assistive technology as an accommodation on her exams throughout law school and in her current legal work.

The NCBE has refused to allow Ms. Enyart these reasonable accommodations for the MBE and MPRE on several occasions during the past years. In recent discussions with Plaintiff's counsel, the NCBE has indicated that it will continue to deny Ms. Enyart her requested accommodations.  Instead, the NCBE has offered alternative accommodations that are not suited to Ms. Enyart's disability and are not effective. The NCBE's denials of accommodations are preventing Ms. Enyart from obtaining admission to the bar, impeding her career.

Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), supporting the lawsuit, said "Too often law students who are blind or have low vision have to prolong their prospects for licensing while they fight to get the same accommodations they've had throughout their educational history. Those that opt to settle for inadequate accommodations usually struggle to pass or sometimes do not pass at all. Those who control admission to the practice of law must obey the law."

Janice Ta, President of the National Association of Law Students with Disabilities (NALSWD), which expressed support for the lawsuit, said "The legal profession must recognize and be prepared for the spectrum of conditions and disabilities that law students have. Testing entities need to be open to a wide range of accommodations. But we find that time and again they don't seem to understand their obligation for providing individualized accommodations and adaptive technologies that reflect the way real law students with disabilities get tested, study, and make their way around the world."

CONTACTS:

Chris Danielsen, Director of Public Relations, NFB, (410) 659-9314, ext. 2330

Scott Labarre, Labarre Law Offices, P.C., (303) 504-5979

Daniel Goldstein, Brown, Goldstein & Levy, LLP, (410) 962-1030

Larry Paradis, Disability Rights Advocates, (510) 665-8644

>>> For More

Sidewalks become battlegrounds

From USA Today (10/25/09):

Sidewalks become battlegrounds
By Chris Joyner, USA TODAY

JACKSON, Miss. — The nation's crumbling sidewalks have disabled residents taking their wheelchairs to the streets, a potentially dangerous practice that has cash-strapped cities and disability-rights advocates at odds over how to fix the problem.

Cities across the nation are dealing with eroding sidewalks that do not meet standards set by the Americans with Disabilities Act. Under the ADA, state and local governments cannot discriminate against the disabled in providing "services, programs or activities," including access to sidewalks.

Although there are no specific statistics on the number of accidents involving wheelchairs in streets, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation's Fatality Analysis Reporting System, disability was a factor in 617 pedestrian traffic fatalities last year.

Disabled residents here take their lives in their hands getting from point A to point B, says Scott Crawford, a disability-rights advocate...

...In the past 10 years, the Justice Department has inked settlement agreements of ADA complaints with dozens of cities as part of a push called Project Civic Access, an effort to ensure cities eliminate physical and communication barriers for people with disabilities.

Elsewhere:

•In California, state officials are fighting a federal class-action lawsuit filed by disability-rights advocates who want thousands of wheelchair ramps installed along 2,500 miles of sidewalks on state roads across the state. Mary-Lee Kimber, staff attorney at Disability Rights Advocates, a non-profit law firm representing the plaintiffs, said the two sides are working toward a settlement after a judge last month halted the trial to allow more negotiations. If the state loses, it faces potentially billions of dollars in sidewalk-repair costs.

•In Arlington, Texas, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in June that two disabled residents could proceed with a lawsuit against the city over the condition of its sidewalks. John Nevins, attorney for residents Richard Frame and Wendell Decker, said his clients, who are disabled, sued because they could not access the sidewalks in their wheelchairs, keeping them from getting to medical and city services.

•In Columbia, Mo., the City Council last week passed an ordinance making it a misdemeanor for motorists to harass disabled people in the public rights of way. Mayor Darwin Hindman said the language for wheelchairs and walkers was added to an existing law for bicyclists to protect "more vulnerable classes" of pedestrians...

>>> For the Full Article

CA: Victory! Judge Halts State Cuts to Prevent "Incredible Human Suffering"

From Disability Rights California (10/19/09):

Judge Halts Home Care Cuts: Says approach would likely violate federal law and cause “incredible human suffering” to seniors and people with disabilities who need these services

Oakland, CA –U.S. District Court Judge Claudia Wilken ruled today that the state cannot go forward on November 1 with its planned cuts of In-Home Supportive Services (IHSS) to an estimated 130,000 Californians because of the substantial harm, damage and injury which would result. The Judge said that the state’s Functional Index rankings were clearly not based on need, that essential services could be withdrawn arbitrarily, and “people could lose something irreplaceable – the ability to remain safely in their homes.”

Therefore, she enjoined all IHSS cuts as requested by people who use IHSS and local unions, in the class action lawsuit, V.L. v Wagner.
 
The judge ruled that the plaintiffs were likely to show at trial that the cuts to services, enacted in the recent state budget, violate federal law. Approximately 40,000 low-income seniors and people with disabilities would have lost all their IHSS services, including personal care; another 90,000 would have lost such services as meal preparation, food shopping and help with laundry and housecleaning.
 
“We are convinced a humanitarian disaster would have resulted from the precipitous and arbitrary withdrawal of essential services approved by the legislature and the administration in the budget, and are delighted that the Court agreed with us,” stated lead counsel Melinda Bird of Disability Rights California.
 
“This is a big day for people with disabilities, their families and seniors throughout the state – their right to stay safely in their homes - and not be forced into nursing homes or other institutions - has been reaffirmed by the Court,” said Paula Pearlman of the Disability Rights Legal Center.
 
“We told the Court that the method being used to decide who would be cut was arbitrary and particularly discriminated against children with disabilities and people with cognitive or mental health disabilities”, stated Stacey Leyton of Altshuler Berzon LLP.
 
Leyton summarized: “Talking to people who use IHSS and the workers who provide IHSS, I came to realize how important this program is, and how cost-effective it is. Some receive only a few hours a week of help, but that's what enables them to stay at home and be part of their community."
 

The lawsuit was brought by 5 people who use IHSS services, on behalf of a proposed class of IHSS consumers, represented by Disability Rights California, the Disability Rights Legal Center, the National Senior Citizens Law Center, the National Health Law Program and attorney Charles Wolfinger; and by 5 SEIU locals and United Domestic Workers – AFSCME, bringing the case on behalf of IHSS providers.

Details at http://www.disabilityrightsca.org

The Secret World of Deaf Prisoners

From Mother Jones (10/2/09)

The Secret World of Deaf Prisoners
— By James Ridgeway

...The deaf face a nightmare when they fall into the criminal justice system. They live in a world apart to begin with; but in prison they are thrown into a dreaded new environment where they literally can’t understand the language of either their jailers or the other prisoners. When people who have never heard a spoken word try to speak, the sounds come out jumbled and weird—leading ill-informed jailers to think they are obstreperous or crazy. As a consequence, some deaf prisoners can end up in solitary.

I discovered numerous examples of abuses and violations of the rights of deaf prisoners as part of an ongoing investigative reporting project. But the most troubling discovery I made was how little has been done about the problem in the criminal justice system—and how little is known about it outside prison walls...

...The abuses begin as soon as a deaf prisoner enters the criminal justice system and faces accusers in court. Often the hard of hearing and deaf can’t hear the charges against them, don’t know what the trial is all about, don’t know why the guards are screaming at them, can’t hear bells or commands from others. If they are close enough to the judge and look hard at him, they can read his lips. But, as McCay Vernon points out, only 50 percent of spoken sounds can be translated into sign language.

On occasion, deaf persons will be given a court interpreter who knows sign language. But this can be a doubly frustrating experience: sign language can’t convey the legalistic, often arcane lingo used by defense lawyers, prosecutors and judges. Most deaf people don’t read lips. The idea they can hear normally, or at least hear enough to act as if they can hear normally, is a myth of the hearing world...

...Such anecdotes illustrate that deaf prisoners are faced daily with violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which mandates equal treatment for deaf and other disabled persons. There is even a provision under the Act to pay attorneys additional sums to bring cases to correct inequities suffered by deaf inmates—a provision which, like other parts of the act, is honored mostly in the breach...

>>> For the Full Article

PA: Harkin to Speak about Disability Law and Policy

Thornburgh Family Lecture series
Disability Law & Policy

Senator Tom Harkin
U.S. Senator from Iowa

Monday, October 26, 2009 1–2:30 p.m.

Reception to follow

University of Pittsburgh School of Law

Barco Law Building, Teplitz Memorial Courtroom

3900 Forbes Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15260

Tom Harkin
Since first being elected to the U.S. Congress in 1974 and later to the U.S. Senate in 1984, Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) has led the fight to ensure equality amongst the millions of Americans with disabilities.

Harkin considers the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990 his signature legislative achievement. Known as the “Emancipation Proclamation for people with disabilities,” this landmark law protects the civil rights of millions of Americans with physical and mental disabilities. The law has literally changed the landscape of America by requiring accessible buildings and transportation and workplace accommodations for people with disabilities. Harkin learned firsthand about the challenges facing people with disabilities from his late brother, Frank, who was deaf from an early age. To preserve the intent of ADA after several court rulings weakened standards, Harkin led efforts to pass the ADA Amendments bill to ensure that all Americans with disabilities are protected from discrimination. It was signed into law in September 2008.

Harkin currently serves as chair or a senior member of several Senate committees.

“People with disabilities—like all people—have unique abilities, talents, and aptitudes. And America is better, fairer, and richer when we make full use of those gifts.”
–Senator Tom Harkin

If you have accessibility needs or questions, please call 412-648-1418.

The Thornburgh Family Lecture Series in Disability Law and Policy is sponsored by the Thornburgh Forum for Law and Public Policy. The series was created through the generosity of Dick and Ginny Thornburgh. As 2003 recipients of the Henry B. Betts Award, the Thornburghs donated the proceeds from the award to the University of Pittsburgh to establish this lecture series. The fund has been supplemented by grants from the Office of the Chancellor, School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, and School of Law.

This course has been approved by the Pennsylvania Continuing Legal Education Board for one and one-half (1.5) hours of substantive credit. Register at the door.

Disability Employment Awareness in the News

It seems as if the media have caught on to Disability Employment Awareness Month, but we can never get enough.  Check out the articles I found and add your own below.

Nationally

From Business Week (10/2/09):
Disabled Workers; Employer Fears Are Groundless
Studies show that hiring the disabled does not lead to higher accommodation costs, worker comp, or sick leave, yet these myths persist
By Ralph Braun

>>> For the Full Article

Locally

From the Frederick News Post (10/9/09):
Hiring disabled workers is good business decision
By Adam Behsudi

>>> For the Full Article

From the Tallahassee Democrat (10/8/09):
Jim DeBeaugrine: Be sure to look past the disability

>>> For the Full Editorial

Comment Below: As more Disability Employment Articles are published in your city, state or region please post them to the blog in the comments below.

President Obama Announces New Initiatives During National Disability Employment Awareness Month

From the White House (10/5/09):

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

President Obama Announces New Initiatives During National Disability Employment Awareness Month

Washington, D.C.  – President Obama today announced that his Administration is taking several steps to ensure that there is fair and equal access to employment for all Americans, particularly the 54 million people in this country living with disabilities.  The announcement comes during National Disability Employment Awareness Month.

“My Administration is committed to ensuring that all Americans have the chance to fulfill their potential and contribute to our nation,” said President Obama.  “Across this country, millions of people with disabilities are working or want to work, and they should have access to the support and services they need to succeed.  As the nation’s largest employer, the Federal Government and its contractors can lead the way by implementing effective employment policies and practices that increase opportunities and help workers achieve their full potential. We must also rededicate ourselves to fostering an inclusive work culture that welcomes the skills and talents of all qualified employees. That’s why I’ve asked the responsible agencies to develop new plans and policies to help increase employment across America for people with disabilities."
 
The following are some of the steps the Obama Administration will take:

• The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) and Department of Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) will collaborate to sponsor and organize a day long Federal Government-wide job fair for people with disabilities.  The Fair will take place in early spring 2010.  In addition to the Job Fair, OPM, ODEP, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and  the Department of Defense's office on Computer and Electronic Accommodations Program (CAP) will provide workshops throughout the day on a variety of topics including the Schedule A hiring waiver and the right to the provision of reasonable accommodations including information on assistive and communications technology.

• OPM will develop training on Schedule A for federal Human Resources specialists, hiring managers and selective placement coordinators that will be easily accessible and includes on line training.

• EEOC and the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division will hold four Town Hall meetings throughout the nation to share information about the ADA Amendments Act proposed regulations and to gather comments on them.  All Town Hall meetings will consist of two sessions - one for disability advocates and one for the employer community. These sessions will be completed by November 20th. The four locations are Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, and New Orleans.

• The Department of Justice will release a video that will identify and respond to a number of common myths held by employers about workers with disabilities.
  

• OPM will create and lead a task force comprised of representatives from key Federal Departments and Agencies that have developed and implemented model practices for recruiting, retaining and advancing employees with disabilities.  The task force will report on the innovative practices agencies use to encourage the employment of individuals with disabilities.  The report will identify and promote successful practices for conducting outreach, recruiting, hiring qualified candidates, successful accommodations, and providing opportunities for career advancement at all levels.

National Council on Disability Calls for Health Care Reform for People with Disabilities

From NCD (9/30/09):

National Council on Disability Calls for Health Care Reform for People with Disabilities

WASHINGTON—The National Council on Disability (NCD) today released a report entitled The Current State of Health Care for People with Disabilities, calling for immediate health care reform for people with disabilities.

According to NCD Chairperson John R. Vaughn, “NCD undertook this study in 2007 to focus the nation’s attention on the health care disparities experienced by people with disabilities, and to provide information and recommendations that can help to eliminate health care inequities for people with disabilities.“

The report provides a road map for eliminating the pervasive barriers to health care for people with disabilities, which will improve the quality of life, productivity, and well-being of greater numbers of Americans as the population ages.

Some of the recommendations include:

●    Congress should amend the Minority Health and Health Disparities Research and Education Act to broaden the definition of “health disparity population” found in 42 U.S.C. § 287c-31(d) to encompass “populations for which there is a significant disparity in the quality, outcomes, cost, or use of health care services or access to or satisfaction with such services as compared to the general population,” as specified in 42 U.S.C. § 299a-1(d).

●    Congress should establish a technical assistance system through which states, health plans, clinics, hospitals, diagnostic and treatment centers, individual medical practitioners, equipment manufacturers, people with disabilities, and others can easily obtain centralized information on universal standards of care and related practical resources for ensuring full access to culturally competent health care services for people with disabilities.

●    The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) must step up monitoring and enforcement of the ADA and Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act for health care facilities and programs. DOJ must focus additional resources on compliance monitoring and investigation of Title III complaints concerning programmatic access violations of the ADA and Section 504 by health care providers.

●    Congress should ensure that reform of the health care system in the United States responds to the basic needs of people with disabilities by making certain that health care coverage is available and affordable to all people with disabilities without pre-existing condition limitations.

According to NCD Health Care Committee Co-Chair Anne M. Rader, “People with disabilities bear a disproportionate burden of poor health compared with the general population and use preventive services at a lower rate than people who do not have disabilities.”

For many, health care in the United States is not always available or affordable, and gaps in coverage can present insurmountable obstacles to obtaining appropriate care and maintaining good health. Lack of health care provider education and disability cultural awareness and competency also creates significant barriers for people with disabilities when they try to access care.

The root causes of these longstanding health and health care inequities involve multiple, complex factors that are embedded in the historical evolution of the nation’s health care structure, and the parallel research and public health emphasis on disability prevention and cure. One especially serious outcome of this evolutionary process is a highly fragmented health care delivery system, which is unable to reconcile the competing interests of cost containment and patient-centered care, which is an important tool for achieving culturally competent care for people with disabilities.

According to NCD Health Care Committee Co-Chair Victoria Ray Carlson, “Immediate action must be taken where existing research reveals the clear need for such strategies as enhanced health care provider education, greater clinical research, enhanced payment systems, and the removal of policy and procedural barriers and other physical barriers to receiving quality health care services.”

There is no simple solution to the complex and entrenched problems people with disabilities experience when they seek health care. Key elements of any move toward reform must include action by Congress, Federal agencies that have a role in health care, professional medical associations, organizations of medical educators, accreditation organizations, the public health community, and the disability community. 

>>> For the NCD Report

EEOC Open for Comments on ADA Amendments Regulations

Press Release from the EEOC (9/16/09):

COMMISSION APPROVES PROPOSED ADA REGULATIONS FOR PUBLIC COMMENT
New Regulations Conform to Changes Made by ADA Amendments Act of 2008

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) today approved a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) revising its regulations to provide that an individual seeking protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) establish that he or she has a disability consistent with the original, expansive intent of Congress when it enacted the ADA in 1990.  The NPRM, approved by 2-1 vote, carries a 60-day period for public comment.

The NPRM makes several significant changes to the definition of the term “disability” necessitated by enactment of the ADA Amendments Act of 2008.  The NPRM is posted on the Commission’s website, www.eeoc.gov, along with a question-and-answer guide about the proposal and instructions for submitting public comments.

“Today’s Commission action marks a key step in implementing the landmark Amendments Act, which will smooth the road for those trying to establish disability under the ADA,” said Acting EEOC Chairman Stuart J. Ishimaru.  “The Commission acted following careful and thorough deliberations, and we look forward to reviewing any and all public comments before issuing our final regulation.”

Acting EEOC Vice Chair Christine M. Griffin said, “Congress recognized that the intent of the ADA was being misread, that its goals were being compromised, and that action had to be taken.  These regulations will shift the focus of the courts away from further narrowing the definition of disability, and put it back where Congress intended when the ADA was enacted in 1990.”

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), an antidiscrimination statute, was signed into law in July 1990. The EEOC is responsible for enforcing Title I of the ADA, which prohibits employment discrimination against individuals with disabilities. The statute requires employers to make reasonable accommodations to employees and job applicants with disabilities—defined as people with mental or physical impairments that substantially limit a major life activity, persons with a record of a disability, or who, while not actually disabled, are regarded as disabled. 

The ADA Amendments Act, which went into effect Jan. 1, 2009, states that Congress expects the EEOC to revise its regulations to conform to changes made by the Act, and expressly authorizes the EEOC to do so.  The new law rejected the holdings in several Supreme Court decisions and portions of EEOC’s ADA regulations that Congress believed construed the definition of “disability” too narrowly, preventing individuals with impairments such as cancer, diabetes, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, muscular dystrophy, post-traumatic stress disorder, and bipolar disorder from bringing discrimination claims.   The ADA Amendments Act (ADAAA) and the proposed rule make it easier for an individual alleging employment discrimination based on disability to establish that he or she meets the ADA’s definition of “disability.” The ADA Amendments Act also modifies the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibits employment discrimination in the federal workforce on the basis of disability.

The EEOC voted June 17 to adopt the rules changes, which then went to the Office of Management and Budget for review, and to federal agencies.

Consistent with the ADAAA, the NPRM emphasizes that the definition of disability -- an impairment that poses a substantial limitation in a major life activity -- must be construed in favor of broad coverage of individuals to the maximum extent permitted by the terms of the ADA, and should not require extensive analysis; that major life activities include “major bodily functions”; that mitigating measures, such as medications and devices that people use to reduce or eliminate the effects of an impairment, are not to be considered when determining whether someone has a disability; and that impairments that are episodic or in remission, such as epilepsy, cancer, and many kinds of psychiatric impairments, are disabilities if they would “substantially limit” major life activities when active.  The regulation also provides a more straightforward way of demonstrating a substantial limitation in the major life activity of working, and implements the ADAAA’s new standard for determining whether someone is “regarded as” as having a disability.  

The 60-day public comment period on the proposed rule-making will officially commence upon publication of the NPRM in the Federal Register, which is expected to be published the week of September 21, 2009.  The EEOC encourages the public to offer its views and suggestions.

The EEOC is responsible for enforcing federal laws prohibiting employment discrimination. Further information about the EEOC is available on its web site at www.eeoc.gov.

>>> For More Information on the ADAAA and EEOC Procedure

Higher Education's Studied Indifference to People with Disabilities Reflects the "Rehab Model" Ad Nauseum

From Planet of the Blind (7/19/09):

Higher Education's Studied Indifference to People with Disabilities Reflects the "Rehab Model" Ad Nauseum
By Stephen A. Kuusisto

There's a great article over at Getting Hired dot Com about the lawsuit that's been filed against Arizona State University by several blindness advocacy groups. The issue has to to with ASU's decision to provide its students with the Kindle Reader as a means of accessing textbooks--and yes, the Kindle is still inaccessible to blind people. I'll leave aside for the time being the relative technical issues involved in making the Kindle accessible for the talking points are tedious. Trust me, the Kindle can be made to talk without difficulty save for the fact that it needs a more expensive "out of the box" operating system.

ASU adopted the Kindle because it seemed easy. It seemed like a good thing. My general point (such as it is) is that higher education administrators tend to imagine that "someone else" will "take care" of "those people" who have disabilities. American higher education still imagines that the Victorian approach to disability is acceptable--that the disabled are taken care of by people who will read to them in the dark or laboriously turn their books into tape recordings or Braille.

This "rehab" model of Disability is of course the very thing that disability studies has dissected and about which we know a good deal. We know for instance that college administrators who imagine that accessibility is merely an inconvenience and that they can pass along the issue to others are ignoring the ADA and many state laws. But they do so with the built in assurance that the rehab model is acceptable. Someone else will retrofit inaccessible learning environments or physical facilities and assure accessibility for the blind or the wheelchair users or the deaf or what have you. Those "rehab people" will take care of that.

Here at my own university there's a Victorian rehab assumption in place wherein the administration routinely fails to make restrooms accessible for people with disabilities and they claim any variety of things depending on who you talk to. One fellow tells me that the ADA doesn't apply to the University of Iowa. Another tells me that they don't have any money. A third tells me that the university's philosophy is that "we've let you in, what more do you want?" Set against this is the old fashioned rehab model--the administrators I've talked to at the U of Iowa believe that disability accommodations are someone else's issue. So of course nothing gets done. How embarrassing it is that the University of Iowa, the leading public institution in the state that is proudly represented by Senator Tom Harkin, co-author of the Americans with Disabilities Act is indifferent to making its major academic buildings accessible.

The lawsuit against Arizona State reflects the indifference of ASU's administrators to the contemporary reality that students and staff with disabilities are no longer secondary citizens who can be told to "wait" for access. And yet the indifference of the ASU administrators is widely reflected across the U.S.. I see the same forces at work in my own back yard.

>>> For more from Planet of the Blind