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id=AOLMsgPart_0_8a8b2a91-d736-48a9-9d85-8b8444dd6448>NEWS RELEASE
<BR>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE <BR> <BR>November 3,
2009 <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR>CONTACTS: <BR> <BR>Chris
Danielsen, Director of Public Relations, NFB, (410) 659-9314, ext.
2330 <BR> <BR>Scott Labarre, Labarre Law Offices, P.C., (303)
504-5979 <BR> <BR>Daniel Goldstein, Brown, Goldstein & Levy,
LLP, (410) 962-1030 <BR> <BR>Larry Paradis, Disability Rights
Advocates, (510) 665-8644 <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR>NATIONAL
CONFERENCE OF BAR EXAMINERS (NCBE) DISCRIMINATES AGAINST BLIND AND LOW VISION
LAW SCHOOL GRADUATES <BR> <BR> <BR>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. <BR> <BR> <BR>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. <BR> <BR> <BR>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. <BR> <BR> <BR>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 bar
exam. <BR> <BR> <BR>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. <BR> <BR> <BR>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. <BR> <BR> <BR>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. <BR> <BR> <BR>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." <BR> <BR> <BR>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." <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR>### <BR>_______________________________________________ <BR>Nfbf-l
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