[Nfbnet-members-list] Fwd: Federal Judge Issues Permanent Legal Resolution for Blind Law School Graduate Who Paved the Way for Blind Test Takers

[David Andrews]

>
>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASe
>
>
>
>CONTACT:
>
>Chris Danielsen
>
>Director of Public Relations
>
>National Federation of the Blind
>
>(410) 659-9314
>
>(410) 262-1281 (Cell)
>
><mailto:cdanielsen at nfb.org>cdanielsen at nfb.org
>
>
>
>Anna Levine
>
>Disability Rights Advocates
>
>(510) 665-8644
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>
>
>
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>Federal Judge Issues Permanent Legal Resolution for Blind Law School Graduate
>Who Paved the Way for Blind Test Takers
>
>
>
>Berkeley, California (October 26, 2011): On 
>Monday, October 24, the Honorable Judge Charles 
>R. Breyer ended a two-year legal battle between 
>a blind law school graduate and a national 
>testing corporation over the graduate’s right to 
>use a computer equipped with assistive 
>technology to take the California Bar 
>Exam.  Granting Stephanie Enyart’s motion for 
>summary judgment, Judge Breyer found that Ms. 
>Enyart is entitled to take the bar exam on a 
>computer equipped with text-to-speech screen 
>reading and visual screen magnification 
>software, as the method that will best ensure 
>that she is tested on her aptitude rather than her disability.
>
>
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>Stephanie Enyart, who graduated from UCLA School 
>of Law in 2009 and first sought to take the bar 
>exam that same year, was forced into court by 
>the refusal of the National Conference of Bar 
>Examiners (NCBE) to allow her to take the bar 
>exam using her primary reading method, a 
>computer equipped with screen reading and screen 
>magnifying software.  Ms. Enyart, who became 
>blind in her early adulthood as a result of 
>macular degeneration, has relied on screen 
>reading and screen magnifying technology to read 
>since college, through law school, and in her professional career.
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>
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>Although Ms. Enyart won a preliminary injunction 
>in early 2010, ordering NCBE to provide her 
>requested accommodations, the case has remained 
>in court for almost two years, as NCBE 
>unsuccessfully challenged the district court’s 
>preliminary injunction order first to the
>
>Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and then 
>to the United States Supreme Court. NCBE argued 
>that it fulfilled its legal obligations to Ms. 
>Enyart by offering accommodations such as 
>Braille or a human reader­notwithstanding 
>evidence that these alternatives do not work well for Ms. Enyart.
>
>
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>The courts resoundingly rejected that argument, 
>holding that licensing examinations must be 
>administered to exam takers with sensory 
>impairments in a manner that “best ensures” that 
>they are tested on what the examination purports 
>to measure, rather than on the exam takers’ impairments.
>
>
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>Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National 
>Federation of the Blind, said: “Although blind 
>people have practiced law successfully 
>throughout history, we still face unreasonable 
>and unwarranted barriers to entering and 
>achieving success in the profession.  Judge 
>Breyer’s decision is a tremendous step forward 
>in granting blind Americans seeking to enter the 
>practice of law full and equal access to the 
>process of acquiring their credentials.  We 
>applaud this common-sense ruling and expect full 
>compliance going forward from the National Conference of Bar Examiners.”
>
>
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>Anna Levine of Disability Rights Advocates, an 
>attorney representing the plaintiff, said, 
>“Judge Breyer’s decision vindicates Stephanie 
>Enyart’s request to take the bar exam on a 
>computer, so that she can be tested on what 
>other examinees are tested on, rather than on 
>how well she uses an unfamiliar reading 
>method.  We only wish that NCBE had not fought 
>this simple, justified request so aggressively 
>over the past two years.”
>
>
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>The suit was filed on November 3, 2009, and 
>charged that the NCBE violated the Americans 
>with Disabilities Act (ADA) and California’s 
>Unruh Civil Rights Act by denying accommodations 
>on the Multistate Bar Examination and the 
>Multistate Professional Responsibility 
>Examination, two components of the California 
>Bar Exam controlled by NCBE.  The State Bar 
>granted Ms. Enyart’s request to use a computer 
>on the essay portions of the bar exam, but was 
>unable to grant her request on the portions controlled by NCBE.
>
>
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>Ms. Enyart was represented with the support of 
>the National Federation of the Blind (NFB) by 
>Brown, Goldstein & Levy, LLP, in Baltimore, 
>Maryland, and the LaBarre Law Offices, P.C., in 
>Denver, Colorado.  The plaintiff was further 
>represented by Disability Rights Advocates 
>(DRA), a national nonprofit law center that 
>specializes in civil rights cases on behalf of 
>persons with disabilities, with offices in 
>Berkeley, California, and New York City.
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>
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>  ###
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>About the National Federation of the Blind
>
>With more than 50,000 members, the National 
>Federation of the Blind is the largest and most 
>influential membership organization of blind 
>people in the United States.  The NFB improves 
>blind people’s lives through advocacy, 
>education, research, technology, and programs 
>encouraging independence and 
>self-confidence.  It is the leading force in the 
>blindness field today and the voice of the 
>nation's blind.  In January 2004 the NFB opened 
>the National Federation of the Blind Jernigan 
>Institute, the first research and training 
>center in the United States for the blind led by the blind.
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