[nfbmi-talk] common problem with cros here too

Mon Jan 27 20:59:59 UTC 2014

MPAS shall continue to do business-as-usual with respect to documented and
presented systematic and individual discrimination--ABSOLUTELY NOTHING!  Do
Do you really expect MPAS to jeopardize their funding by doing the correct,
just, and legal action? 

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbmi-talk [mailto:nfbmi-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of joe
harcz Comcast
Sent: Saturday, January 25, 2014 8:02 AM
To: Elmer Cerano MPAS
Cc: BRIAN SABOURIN; MARK CODY; MARK MCWILLIAMS MPAS; nfbmi-talk at nfbnet.org
Subject: [nfbmi-talk] common problem with cros here too

Blind folks have had similar and even worse issues in receiving
accommodations from the likes of Peckham, Goodwill and others here. But then
again we don't get information in alternate format from BSBP.

Now what is MPAS going to do about these long standing documented issues?

Joe Harcz

Source:

http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2014/01/agency_for_disabled_sued_over
_blind_employees_claim_of_disability_discrimination.html

Blind employee sues Syracuse agency for disabled, claims disability
discrimination (video) | syracuse.com

Blind employee sues Syracuse agency for disabled, claims disability
discrimination (video)

-75e0a778493b7fac.jpg

Christine Delay, who's blind, is suing her employer, Arc of Onondaga,
claiming the agency violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by refusing
to provide

her with a computer software program that allows her to read her screen as
she had been doing for more than 20 years. (John O'Brien |
jobrien at syracuse.com)

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John O'Brien | jobrien at syracuse.com

By

John O'Brien | jobrien at syracuse.com

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on January 25, 2014 at 5:45 AM

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SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Arc of Onondaga promotes its advocacy for disabled people
with this motto: "Turning disabilities into abilities."

But one of its own employees says the agency turned her disability into a
greater hardship, and she's suing Arc in federal court.

Christine Delay says

Arc of Onondaga

violated the Americans with Disabilities Act by refusing to accommodate her
blindness starting in 2009, after the agency decided to buy a new electronic

file system for its computers.

She raised concerns that the new program wasn't compatible with a software
program she uses to read computer screens, in which a computerized voice
reads

the words on the screen aloud.

"I tried to muddle through," Delay said in a recent interview. "But there
were lots of things I could no longer do." At the time, she was a
rehabilitation

supervisor.

Christine Delay sues Arc of Onondaga

Christine Delay, who's blind, is suing her employer, Arc of Onondaga,
claiming the agency for disabled people refused to accommodate her
disability.

Part of the problem was that the new program required her to use a mouse.
But she can't see the cursor, so she's unable to use the mouse.

Delay said she raised her concerns with her supervisor, Kristen Morey, and
with Stanfort Perry, then the agency's chief executive officer. When the
problem

persisted, she hired a lawyer, Rick Guy, who wrote to Arc and asked that the
agency cooperate with Delay.

Instead of resolving the problem with new software, her supervisors
retaliated, Delay says.

They had her sit through three 90-minute training sessions about the
computer program they'd bought, she said.

The training was useless because of her blindness, she said: It consisted of
her sitting through videos that she could not see.

"I said to them, 'If we're going to do this, why don't you guys turn the
screen off so you can watch it like I am,'" Delay said. "They laughed."

In her lawsuit, filed last month in U.S. District Court, she alleged that
Arc of Onondaga demoted her and cut her pay by 25 percent after she
requested

a reasonable accommodation with an adaptive software program. She was
demoted to vocational counselor specialist.

Delay's lawsuit also described the video training as cruel and said it
caused her "substantial humiliation and embarrassment because of her
disability."

The lawsuit names Arc of Onondaga, Perry and Morey as defendants, along with
New York state Arc.

Perry is now director of Arc in another area, said Ellen Gutmaker, Arc of
Onondaga's new chief executive officer.

"Arc of Onondaga has historically treated all of its employees respectfully,
in compliance with federal and state law," Gutmaker said this week. "The
agency's

committed to furthering the rights of all individuals with disabilities."

She would not comment on the specific allegations in the lawsuit.

Delay, 54, accused Perry of being biased against her because of her
disability even before the computer software problem. In 2008, she was
disciplined for

not noticing that one of Arc's clients had a cut on his or her finger, the
lawsuit said.

Because of her blindness, Delay could not possibly have seen the cut, she
said. And reporting such matters was not part of her job description, she
said.

Contact John O'Brien at

jobrien at syracuse.com

or 315-470-2187.

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