[nabs-l] Law School's Power Over Readers for Outside of Class Work Paid for by the state

[Ashley Bramlett]

Amy,
I think this is a good question for the blind lawyers list or a blind lawyer 
such as Scott Labarre.

Since people with disablities by definition cannot do something, it seems to 
me a reasonable accommodation to use the assistance of another human to do 
the tasks you cannot do. Hearing impaired people use interpreters, a 
paraplegitic uses a personal care attendant to assist in transfering from 
wheelchairs, and blind people can and should use readers.

So, what you are using the reader for seems perfectly legal and an 
acceptable accommodation.

Also, I'm not sure how your school would find out that you used someone's 
help to do your homework anyway.

So, no I do not see how the school can penalize you for using outside 
assistance to mitigate your disability.

Ashley

-----Original Message----- 
From: Aimee Harwood via NABS-L
Sent: Friday, November 11, 2016 10:02 PM
To: andrew edgcumbe via Nabs-L
Cc: Aimee Harwood
Subject: [nabs-l] Law School's Power Over Readers for Outside of Class Work 
Paid for by the state

Greetings everyone,

I am getting a reader who is paid by the state.  This reader will perform 
reading of any material for school purposes that I need them to read.  They 
will also proof any assignments before I hand them in.  I will use them 
during research to help locate something on the screen that is hard to 
locate it is too time consuming to navigate to just to get that one bit of 
info. Basically the individual will assist with anything vision related.

My school assigns a judicial opinion the first semester of the 1L year. All 
graded assignments have restrictions on students getting outside assistance. 
We are not allowed to let anyone see our work or assist us in any way 
regarding the assignment including research. If a student violates any of 
the restrictions, they violate the honor code.

Now that you have the basic situation, can the school penalize me for using 
a reader to assist me in any visual aspect of the assignment? If I use the 
reader to verify the formatting or point out any issues they see that I may 
have missed because I didn't see it?  What about penalizing me for using the 
reader to assist in research to find what I ask them to find  or highlight 
what I ask them to highlight? Basically, can they penalize me for the reader 
performing non-essential tasks on graded assignments?  How much control does 
the school have over the person paid by the state to assist with outside of 
class activities as long as I am the one doing the legal work?



Aimee

Sent from my iPhone
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