[nabs-l] Montgomery County Discriminates Against Blind Employee

[Freeh, Jessica]

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.



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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.