[nfbmi-talk] Fw: Federal Judge Issues Permanent Legal Resolutionfor Blind Law School Graduate Who Paved the Way for BlindTest Takers

[joe harcz Comcast]

Thank you Larry sir,

Now here we have case law that goes to the very right to access to the legal 
system, and effective communications therein showing how utterly corrupt and 
discriminatory this system is to those of us who are blind.

Yet, here in Michigan the very federally funded system for rehabilitation 
for the blind MCB does not remit information in a timely maner via simple 
e-mail let alone Braille affirmatively let alone upon request.

There are and have been battles over simple delivery of meeting minutes let 
alone vital documents such as IPEs or even federally required documents such 
as those required documents related to the RSA monitoring.

Man oh man we've had folks within the BEP program who've requested Braille 
or other accesssable information for years and not received one with of it.

We've seen in documented fashion my and your and other requests for simple 
and basic information from the agency funded to do this in part and mandated 
to do it period by a variety of laws.

Yet, you and I and others get vilified for pointing out the 
obviousviolations in law and equity?

Our tactics are adjudged by some as not quite right while clear cut and 
documented violators of tvarious laws on a mass scale are somehow 
exonerated?

I've followed this particular case for now close to a decade.

Doesn't the passage of time and the lack of justice simply enrage folks 
here?

And back to MCB can we make any progress in this world when the very agency 
that is supposed to be the lead agency in these regards acts contrary to our 
interests?

Honestly this goes to the clucking and the weird and the counterproductive 
issues brought up by Elizabeth and Donna on this very list.

Folks we are in this together or we are doomed.

Asking for you, Larry to be censorred or me to be censorred for simply 
ddenoting facts or deaming us ad hoc as annoyances hurts all blind folks let 
alone those who are Federationists.
As Martin Luther King stated, "An insult or injustice to one is an injustice 
to all."

Moreover, the divides amonst NFB, ACB, or the non-aligned are as irrelevent 
in most cases in these regards as are the political divides between nominal 
democracts or republicans.

Bottom line is that law is law. And we are supposed to be a government of 
law and not of man.

Bottom line as regardless as to victims of discrimination Pat Cannon has 
violated the collective civil and other rights of Michiganders who are blind 
for decades.

In fact whilst being particularly attentive to violating the rights of 
Federationists over the past few years he has singularly violated directly 
or through his subordinates the rights of others.

In short he has again in documented fashion been a sort of "equal 
opportunity offender"

Sorry for the ramble and the restatements o facts and the obvious.

Thanks for the inadvertent therapy through allowing me to "vent"...Smile....

Regardless, I highly praise NFB in its role and Stephanie for her long 
battle for justice.

There is an old saying though and that is, "Justice delayed is justice 
denied."

I want justice yesterday especially within the very federal and state funded 
institution that is supposed to be the leader and within the very court 
systems and the very administrative law venues that are supposed to dispense 
justice period for one and all yet do not do so.

Man, I've been accused of being a reckless anarchist by some. But here we 
have a case and we've demonstrated other cases were the very legal system 
violates several laws or those associated with it do.

Some call me "crazy" for pointing this out or railing on this.

Perhaps I am so, but I'm not wrong and the crazy making is when officers, 
institutions, and persons charged with fulfilling the law become violators 
of it in fact and deed.

Finally, Marry Wertzel brought this up brilliantly at a teleconference 
meeting  in Jully ... You know the one with Tom Warren with theMichigan 
A.G.'s office or perhaps it wasanother...Regardless she asked simply, "What 
good are laws if no one follows them?"

I ask and am asking the same question over and over again.

Joe
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Larry Posont" <president.nfb.mi at gmail.com>
To: "nfbmi List" <nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Wednesday, October 26, 2011 12:31 PM
Subject: [nfbmi-talk] Fw: Federal Judge Issues Permanent Legal Resolutionfor 
Blind Law School Graduate Who Paved the Way for BlindTest Takers


>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: Freeh, Jessica
> To: Alpidio Rolon ; Amy Buresh ; Art Schreiber ; Beth Rival ; Bill Packee 
> ; Bob Kresmer ; Carl Jacobsen ; Cassandra McNabb ; Cathy Jackson ; 
> Charlene Smyth ; Christine G. Hall ; Dan Hicks ; Daniel Burke ; Donna Wood 
> ; Duane Iverson ; Elsie Dickerson ; Frank Lee ; Franklin Shiner ; Fred 
> Schroeder ; Garrick Scott ; Gary Ray ; Gary Wunder ; Grace Pires ; J.W. 
> Smith ; James Antonacci ; Jeannie Massay ; Jennifer Dunnam ; Joe Ruffalo ; 
> John Batron ; John Fritz ; Joy Harris ; Joyce Scanlan ; Ken Rollman ; Kim 
> Williams ; Kimberly Flores ; Larry Posont ; Lynn Majewski ; Mary Willows ; 
> Melissa Riccobono ; Michael Barber ; Michael Freeman ; Mika Pyyhkala ; 
> Nani Fife ; Pam Allen ; Parnell Diggs ; Patti Chang ; Patty Estes ; Rena 
> Smith ; Ron Brown ; Gardner, Ron ; Sam Gleese ; Scott LaBarre ; Shawn 
> Callaway ; Terry Sheeler
> Sent: Wednesday, October 26, 2011 12:15 PM
> Subject: Federal Judge Issues Permanent Legal Resolution for Blind Law 
> School Graduate Who Paved the Way for Blind Test Takers
>
>
> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>
>
> CONTACT:
>
> Chris Danielsen
>
> Director of Public Relations
>
> National Federation of the Blind
>
> (410) 659-9314
>
> (410) 262-1281 (Cell)
>
> cdanielsen at nfb.org
>
>
>
> Anna Levine
>
> Disability Rights Advocates
>
> (510) 665-8644
>
>
>
>
>
> Federal Judge Issues Permanent Legal Resolution for Blind Law School 
> Graduate
> Who Paved the Way for Blind Test Takers
>
>
>
> Berkeley, California (October 26, 2011): On Monday, October 24, the 
> Honorable Judge Charles R. Breyer ended a two-year legal battle between a 
> blind law school graduate and a national testing corporation over the 
> graduate's right to use a computer equipped with assistive technology to 
> take the California Bar Exam.  Granting Stephanie Enyart's motion for 
> summary judgment, Judge Breyer found that Ms. Enyart is entitled to take 
> the bar exam on a computer equipped with text-to-speech screen reading and 
> visual screen magnification software, as the method that will best ensure 
> that she is tested on her aptitude rather than her disability.
>
>
>
> Stephanie Enyart, who graduated from UCLA School of Law in 2009 and first 
> sought to take the bar exam that same year, was forced into court by the 
> refusal of the National Conference of Bar Examiners (NCBE) to allow her to 
> take the bar exam using her primary reading method, a computer equipped 
> with screen reading and screen magnifying software.  Ms. Enyart, who 
> became blind in her early adulthood as a result of macular degeneration, 
> has relied on screen reading and screen magnifying technology to read 
> since college, through law school, and in her professional career.
>
>
>
> Although Ms. Enyart won a preliminary injunction in early 2010, ordering 
> NCBE to provide her requested accommodations, the case has remained in 
> court for almost two years, as NCBE unsuccessfully challenged the district 
> court's preliminary injunction order first to the
>
> Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and then to the United States 
> Supreme Court. NCBE argued that it fulfilled its legal obligations to Ms. 
> Enyart by offering accommodations such as Braille or a human 
> reader-notwithstanding evidence that these alternatives do not work well 
> for Ms. Enyart.
>
>
>
> The courts resoundingly rejected that argument, holding that licensing 
> examinations must be administered to exam takers with sensory impairments 
> in a manner that "best ensures" that they are tested on what the 
> examination purports to measure, rather than on the exam takers' 
> impairments.
>
>
>
> Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said: 
> "Although blind people have practiced law successfully throughout history, 
> we still face unreasonable and unwarranted barriers to entering and 
> achieving success in the profession.  Judge Breyer's decision is a 
> tremendous step forward in granting blind Americans seeking to enter the 
> practice of law full and equal access to the process of acquiring their 
> credentials.  We applaud this common-sense ruling and expect full 
> compliance going forward from the National Conference of Bar Examiners."
>
>
>
> Anna Levine of Disability Rights Advocates, an attorney representing the 
> plaintiff, said, "Judge Breyer's decision vindicates Stephanie Enyart's 
> request to take the bar exam on a computer, so that she can be tested on 
> what other examinees are tested on, rather than on how well she uses an 
> unfamiliar reading method.  We only wish that NCBE had not fought this 
> simple, justified request so aggressively over the past two years."
>
>
>
> The suit was filed on November 3, 2009, and charged that the NCBE violated 
> the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and California's Unruh Civil 
> Rights Act by denying accommodations on the Multistate Bar Examination and 
> the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination, two components of 
> the California Bar Exam controlled by NCBE.  The State Bar granted Ms. 
> Enyart's request to use a computer on the essay portions of the bar exam, 
> but was unable to grant her request on the portions controlled by NCBE.
>
>
>
> Ms. Enyart was represented with the support of the National Federation of 
> the Blind (NFB) by Brown, Goldstein & Levy, LLP, in Baltimore, Maryland, 
> and the LaBarre Law Offices, P.C., in Denver, Colorado.  The plaintiff was 
> further represented by Disability Rights Advocates (DRA), a national 
> nonprofit law center that specializes in civil rights cases on behalf of 
> persons with disabilities, with offices in Berkeley, California, and New 
> York City.
>
>
>
> ###
>
>
>
> 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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