[blindlaw] 6th Court of Appeals told lower course toreviewcasein light of ADAAA

[T. Joseph Carter]

Jim,

While I agree with you that we should not be asking for extra time in 
the workplace or things such as that, the university setting poses 
some unique challenges that warrant additional accommodations that we 
would not utilize in our careers.  Namely:

1. Use of aids and adaptive techniques.  In the workplace, we can and 
will use what our employer provides, and whatever else we can attain 
for ourselves.  In the university setting, you will use only what the 
university deems is appropriate.  Even when they determine that a 
desired accommodation is appropriate (reader, for example), they will 
generally not allow you to use a reader you have trained and work 
well with in the name of academic integrity.

2. Policy considerations.  When I began at Western Oregon University 
in 2007, I was told that the university faculty were prohibited from 
providing disability accommodations of any sort to students.  Union 
contracts state that this Bargaining Unit work was the responsibility 
of the appropriate employees and may not be performed by anyone else.  
Textbook publishers, in addition, will send electronic textbooks to a 
DSO, but not to a student, regardless of the student's disability and 
willingness to demonstrate it.  Such policies generally do not exist 
in the workplace, and any effort you can take to reduce or eliminate 
the effects of your disability without your employer's involvement is 
almost universally regarded as a positive trait.

3. Deadlines and time limits.  While these exist in the real world, 
they're far more arbitrary in academia.  Life doesn't usually present 
multiple choice questions, and you aren't asked to choose the best 
one based on the text.  Instead, you must determine the best answer 
you can based on what you know, and apply it.

4. Basically good work versus point thresholds.  Academia is full of 
cases where you must make a certain point cutoff to satisfy some 
requirement (such as a particular letter grade), and there is a 
significant consequence to a B+ versus an A-, even if that 
consequence is caused by a point representing 0.2% of the grade.  In 
the workplace, you're generally doing what you should be doing, or 
you aren't.  Even performance evaluations are geared toward that 
question.

I think I would accept extra time on the LSAT since I won't know 
until I show up to take it what sort of hoops I'll have to jump 
through at the last second to actually be able to take the thing 
since in the so-called real world, even if my deadline is tomorrow at 
9am, I still can take my work home and do whatever I have to do 
tonight to get it done.  That's not an option with high stakes 
testing.

Joseph

On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 08:40:43AM -0500, McCarthy, Jim wrote:
>We are spending a lot of time deciding if we would or wouldn't have this person perform medical services on us.  Though that may be an interesting discussion regarding how comfortable we with blindness are with people having our disability or other disabilities performing complicated procedures, that is not really the importance of the case.  As to Chuck's question, I think the person had a learning disability that he asserted caused him to process read material slower than others and required extra time as a result.  The original decision, I think, was that he did not have a disability under the ADA so there was no requirement to consider his request.  The decision of the 6th circuit was that because of the ADA amendments, it is clear that he has a disability.  Now the question is whether or not he should be accommodated in the manner he wants.  He has not won yet and he might not.  The arguments going forward will be many of those we are having here.  Maybe someone who is slow at reading or processing is steady as can be under surgical conditions or other high stress conditions of the practice of medicine and maybe too the person is competent to complete the school education and will do a type of practice not so high stress performance.  Perhaps the test advocates can argue successfully that performance of the test under those time limits really is a critical factor.
>
>Many of us on this list never had to take the LSAT at all.  Others of us who took it did so with accommodations like extra time.  Perhaps still others had no time accommodations at all.  Those who are practicing an those who went to law school know that reading is a big part of what you do in school and in practice.  Many got extra time or did not have to take the test at all, and yet I think most of us believe that it would not be correct practice despite some cases to the contrary to seek extra time from judges because of blindness and whatever challenges we think that might cause.  There is an obligation to represent your clients completely regardless.  I guess my point is that the career expectations should be the same for people with or without disabilities.  This guy may or may not get the chance to take the test the way he thinks he needs and I guess we will see.
>Jim McCarthy