[gui-talk] Montgomery County Discriminates Against Blind Employee

Wed Apr 13 22:14:23 UTC 2011

Not gonna take sides,
but from a legal standpoint this is gonna be a hard one.

Wish the NFB the best.

Jorge

On Apr 13, 2011, at 6:12 PM, Nadia Cioffi wrote:

> what a sham we can't be "treated like normal" Sometimes people and their
> bottem dollor is they care about. Wish the NFB luck, this will be a
> landmarke case if won and teach people not to do this.
> 
> On Wed, Apr 13, 2011 at 5:17 PM, Freeh, Jessica <JFreeh at nfb.org> wrote:
> 
>> 
>> 
>> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> CONTACT:
>> 
>> Chris Danielsen
>> 
>> Director of Public Relations
>> 
>> National Federation of the Blind
>> 
>> (410) 659-9314, extension 2330
>> 
>> (410) 262-1281 (Cell)
>> 
>> <mailto:cdanielsen at nfb.org>cdanielsen at nfb.org
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Montgomery County Discriminates Against Blind Employee
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Rockville, Maryland (April 13, 2011): With the assistance of the National
>> Federation of the Blind, a blind woman who was until recently employed as an
>> information specialist with Montgomery County's Department of Health and
>> Human Services has filed suit against the County for unlawful discrimination
>> under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.  The suit arises from the County's
>> purchase of an inaccessible database program that employees of its new 311
>> call center must use to complete their tasks.  Yasmin Reyazuddin worked in
>> the call center of the County's Department of Health and Human Services:
>> Division of Aging and Disability Services until the County consolidated that
>> call center and others into its new Montgomery County 311 Call Center.  Ms.
>> Reyazuddin had been using screen access software, which converts information
>> on a computer screen into synthesized speech or into Braille that can be
>> displayed on a device known as a refreshable Braille display, to access the
>> computer programs with which she needed to interact in order to provide
>> accurate information to callers, keep records of calls, and perform other
>> tasks necessary for resolving the concerns of callers.  When she learned
>> that her agency's call center would be consolidated into the County's new
>> 311 call center, she repeatedly inquired of County officials whether the
>> software for the new call center would be accessible with screen access
>> technology and provided information to the County about accessible
>> solutions.  For the new call center, the County ultimately procured a
>> database system from Oracle known as Seibel Customer Relationship Management
>> (CRM).  According to its manufacturer, this software can be configured to
>> work with screen access software, but the County installed a custom
>> configuration of the software that is not accessible to blind employees.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Ms. Reyazuddin was originally scheduled to be transferred to the new call
>> center with other information specialists, but was not allowed to be
>> transferred when she raised concerns about the accessibility of the CRM
>> program.  Ms. Reyazuddin has not been allowed to test the software for
>> accessibility, and although Oracle provided the County with documentation
>> describing how the software could be made accessible, the County has not
>> implemented an accessible configuration of the software.  Ms. Reyazuddin has
>> been downgraded from an information specialist to a support staff position
>> at the County Department of Health and Human Services, and she is only given
>> duties that fill approximately half of an eight-hour work day.  She has been
>> informed that her pay will also be cut because the County claims that her
>> multilingual skills are no longer being used in her new assignment.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said:
>> "Yasmin Reyazuddin has been treated shamefully and with deliberate disregard
>> for her legal and civil rights by Montgomery County.  Instead of taking the
>> steps necessary to make the database program used by employees of the
>> Montgomery County 311 Call Center accessible, the County has reassigned her
>> to a lower-paying job in which her skills are not being used.  We cannot and
>> will not tolerate this discrimination against her and other blind County
>> employees."
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Ms. Reyazuddin said: "Despite my ten years of service to Montgomery County,
>> I am now being shifted to a lower-paying position with little to do.  I
>> could do all of my former job duties if the County would follow Oracle's
>> guidelines for making CRM accessible, but instead I am largely relegated to
>> idleness.  The situation has caused me considerable emotional distress.  I
>> did not want to resort to litigation but I feel that I have no choice if I
>> am to once again be a productive employee of Montgomery County."
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> The plaintiff is represented with the assistance of the National Federation
>> of the Blind by Joseph B. Espo and Timothy R. Elder of the Baltimore firm
>> Brown, Goldstein & Levy.
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> ###
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 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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