[Nfbk] FW: Please distribute on nfb listservs

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Subject: Please distribute on nfb listservs








NEWS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

November 3, 2009





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





NATIONAL CONFERENCE OF BAR EXAMINERS (NCBE) DISCRIMINATES AGAINST BLIND AND
LOW VISION LAW SCHOOL GRADUATES



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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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."



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."







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