[Colorado-talk] NJ College Discriminates Against Blind Student - Yes, Even In 2014!

[Everett Gavel]

So when's the last time we came up against such a 
college here in Colorado? Hopefully Coloradans 
have never been this ignorant.

Strive On!
Everett


NJ College Discriminates Against Blind Student - 
Yes, Even In 2014!
"...has not been allowed on campus or to use 
campus facilities unless he is accompanied by a 
sighted person."


PRNewswire -- MAYS LANDING, N.J., April 15, 2014
Members of the National Federation of the Blind 
(NFB), the nation's oldest and largest 
organization of blind people, and its New Jersey 
affiliate, will hold a protest at the Mays Landing 
campus of Atlantic Cape Community College (ACCC) 
on Thursday, April 17, from 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM. 
Blind people from New Jersey and surrounding areas 
are gathering to protest discrimination by ACCC 
against Anthony Lanzilotti, a blind student 
studying criminal justice and cyber-security 
there. Mr. Lanzilotti has been denied even the 
most basic accommodations and at times has not 
been allowed on campus or to use campus facilities 
unless he is accompanied by a sighted person. He 
has also been prohibited from using campus 
laboratories because ACCC claims that this 
violates the fire code. ACCC has also refused to 
procure or create accessible copies of Mr. 
Lanzilotti's textbooks and course materials, a 
service routinely provided to blind students by 
other colleges and universities. If he wants his 
print textbooks to be scanned and converted to 
electronic files that can be read aloud by 
text-to-speech software or on a Braille display, 
he must do the scanning himself, and he cannot use 
campus facilities to do so unless he meets the 
requirement of having a sighted person with him.

Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National 
Federation of the Blind, said: "Blind students 
sometimes face challenges in the college setting, 
including lack of access to textbooks and course 
materials, but the vast majority of institutions 
of higher education make at least some effort to 
accommodate these students. Atlantic Cape 
Community College has not only refused to make the 
minimum effort to accommodate Mr. Lanzilotti, but 
has added insult to injury by segregating him from 
his fellow students and restricting his access to 
the campus and its facilities. Mr. Lanzilotti is 
not a child and does not need a chaperone. The 
National Federation of the Blind intends to make 
ACCC's outrageous discrimination against Mr. 
Lanzilotti known to the public and to do 
everything else in our power to assist him in 
fighting this discrimination. The laws of the 
United States and the state of New Jersey are 
firmly on Mr. Lanzilotti's side, and we will see 
that they are followed."

For full press release, go here: 
[www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/national-federation-of-the-blind-atlantic-cape-community-college-discriminates-against-blind-student-bans-him-from-freely-accessing-campus-255337111.html]