[Nfbc-info] Enyart v. National Conference of Bar Examiners

Mon Feb 1 10:04:07 UTC 2010

The NFB maintains the NFB blind law mailing list which you can subscribe to 
off the NFB web site or by going to www.nfb.net. This is list is affiliated 
with the National Association of Blind Lawyers which is open to any legal 
professionals students or other interested parties. Additionally there is a 
group for blind law students and potential blind law students at 
blindlawstudents at googlegroups.com. The ACB also has an affiliate for blind 
lawyers called the American Association of Visually Impaired Lawyers and I 
think that they also have a list serve. A posting from one of the lawyers on 
the NFBlaw list stated that while the ruling in this case only applies to 
this matter it is unlikely that the Council of Bar Examiners will try to 
contest this in the future. Feel free to contact me off list if needed and 
good luck with your law school application process.
Chuck Krugman, M.S.W., Paralegal
1237 P Street
Fresno ca 93721
559-266-9237
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "gary melconian" <garymelc at msn.com>
To: "'NFB of California List'" <nfbc-info at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, February 01, 2010 12:46 AM
Subject: Re: [Nfbc-info] Enyart v. National Conference of Bar Examiners

Hello I would like to know what list are available for blind lawyers on
nfbc. If you can give me those I would truely appreciate it. I will be
applying for the LSat or to online law schools and so I am wondering if
these new ruling will also apply to those online law schools as well who are
registerd with the national council of bar examiners or other bar examining
organizations. I would truly appreciate some feedback on my questions as
promptly as possible.

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbc-info-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfbc-info-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Scott C. LaBarre
Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 2010 2:32 PM
To: NFB of California List
Subject: [Nfbc-info] Enyart v. National Conference of Bar Examiners

Friends:

We, the NFB, are pursuing  an important case against the National Conference
of Bar Examiners on behalf of a blind, law school graduate.  We are arguing
the case in front of the Honorable Judge Breyer in the United States
District Court for the Northern District of California on Friday at 10:00
a.m.  We would be delighted to have a bunch of blind people and our friends
in the court room.  Here is the press release we will be using  By the way,
I would be surprised  if the hearing lasts more than an hour but you never
know with these things..
Thanks,
Scott C. LaBarre, Esq.

NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 28, 2010

CONTACTS:

Chris Danielsen, Director of Public Relations, NFB, (410) 659-9314, ext.
2330

Scott Labarre, Labarre Law Offices, P.C., (303) 504-5979

Daniel Goldstein, Brown, Goldstein & Levy, LLP, (410) 962-1030

Larry Paradis, Disability Rights Advocates, (510) 665-8644

FEDERAL JUDGE TO HEAR MOTIONS ON WHETHER A BLIND LAW SCHOOL GRADUATE WILL
RECEIVE REQUESTED ACCOMMODATIONS ON THE FEBRUARY, 2010, CALIFORNIA BAR
EXAMINATION

San Francisco, Calif. - On Friday, January 29, 2010, United States District
Court Judge Charles R. Breyer  will hear motions on whether a blind law
school graduate will receive the accommodations she needs on the February,
2010 California Bar Examination. This hearing, scheduled for 10:00 a.m. in
Courtroom 8, 19th Floor, at the Phillip Burton United States Courthouse, 450
Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco, stems from a suit filed on November 3,
2009 alleging 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).

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, California.

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
including California. The California Bar examination has two sections; a
California section and the MBE, a national multiple-choice section.
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.

The NCBE has also denied Plaintiff certain of the requested accommodations
on the MPRE exam. This is a separate multiple choice exam that bar
applicants must pass to be admitted to practice.

Stephanie Enyart is a law school graduate of the University of California

At Los Angeles School of Law who is legally blind and requires
accommodations to take the California Bar exam, including 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, programs
she relies upon for reading. Ms. Enyart has relied on this combination of
assistive technology as an accommodation on her exams throughout law school
and in her current work as a law school graduate at DRA, on issues
concerning people with disabilities who are homeless.

The NCBE has refused to allow Ms. Enyart the reasonable accommodations at
issue for the MBE and MPRE on several occasions during the past years.  In
response to the lawsuit, 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 prevent Ms.
Enyart from obtaining admission to the bar, impeding her career.

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."

The Plaintiff, Stephanie Enyart, said "As a person who was born sighted and
became visually impaired later in my teens and twenties, I have learned to
rely on a combination of assistive technology for accommodation. This
assistive technology is not cutting edge; it has been around for more than a
decade. The NCBE offered to provide different forms of accommodation that
are simply not effective for my disability. They want me to use an
accommodation that I have never used and as a result, are setting me up for
failure. The NCBE should recognize that there is diversity within disability
and stop applying a one-size-fits-all model for accommodations. In this
technological age, people who are blind and visually impaired have the
opportunity to utilize various types of assistive technology to be
competitive students in law school and to lead independent lives."

Scott LaBarre, one of Ms. Enyart's attorneys who is himself blind,
commented:  "The law requires that NCBE provide the accommodation that best
insures Ms. Enyart's ability to take the exam and the evidence gathered thus
far in the case suggests that NCBE has not met this legal requirement.  We
look forward to a swift and positive ruling from Judge Breyer in this
crucial case affecting the rights of the blind and disabled."

###

LaBarre Law Offices P.C.
1660 South Albion Street, Ste. 918
Denver, Colorado 80222
303 504-5979 (voice)
303 757-3640 (fax)
slabarre at labarrelaw.com (e-mail)
www.labarrelaw.com (website)

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