[nfbmi-talk] Fw: very important for list serve

Thu Jun 11 15:02:58 UTC 2015

Hello Dave,

Unfortunately, not every student receives the support they need to fight
discrimination they face as a blind college student. How and why the NFB
selects those who it will support is something I most likely will never
understand. Discrimination like this happens at colleges here in Michigan
too. Maybe someday someone will step up and take some action on this so
blind college students here in Michigan do not have to fight these battles
of discrimination all on their own.

Warm regards,
Elizabeth

-----Original Message-----
From: nfbmi-talk [mailto:nfbmi-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of David
Robinson via nfbmi-talk
Sent: Thursday, June 11, 2015 10:19 AM
To: NFB of Michigan Internet Mailing List
Cc: David Robinson
Subject: [nfbmi-talk] Fw: very important for list serve

----- Original Message ----- 
From: joe harcz Comcast 
To: David Robinson NFB MI 
Cc: terry Eagle ; Mark Eagle ; Larry Posont NFBMI Pres. 
Sent: Wednesday, June 10, 2015 8:51 AM
Subject: very important for list serve

This is very important! Note the fact that this case is going on in our
region. Note the fact that the DOJ, Office for Civil Rights in the
Department of Ed, Ohio's Protection and Advocacy Service and the National
Federation of the Blind have intervened in this case over basically access
to information. Now they are joined by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Now, contrast that with Michigan where I've documented systemic abuses by
even our Bureau of Services for Blind Persons and virvirtually all state
agencies including DHHS and the Michigan Department of Civil Rights on these
various issues.

We should hold our heads in shame that tere is not similar actions here in
Michigan for our blind citizens in this the 25th year of the ADA!

Joe Harcz

Department of Justice intervenes in discrimination lawsuit against
university

List of 2 items

. By

Victoria Slater

. .   June 7, 2015

list end

By Victoria Slater, Managing Editor

When 21-year-old Aleeha Dudley, a former Miami University student who is
blind, sued the university for discrimination in January 2014, she had no
idea

it would become a federal case.

Now the U.S. Department of Justice is intervening in her lawsuit, supporting
her claims that the university denied her access to the proper tools and
equipment

she needed to learn, and failed to accommodate disabled students as a whole.

The Justice Department has since concluded that Miami University has
violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and will proceed to reach a
resolution

out of court.

Dudley, a resident of New Paris, Ohio, chose Miami because of its close
proximity to home and its navigable campus, and also because the disability
office

seemed to show a willingness to provide for her and other students with
disabilities.

She enrolled at Miami as zoology major in 2011, and, guided by her life-long
passion for animals and work with horses, she set on the path toward
becoming

a veterinarian. But as soon as she arrived on campus and started her classes
inside vast lecture halls crowded with hundreds of students, she said she

struggled to keep up.

"I had issues since day one," said Dudley, who has now withdrawn from Miami.
"I just couldn't learn the same way as my peers without the proper
resources."

To read and write, Dudley uses a screen reader that can read aloud written
text or send it to another device that translates it to Braille. According
to

court documents, Miami provided Dudley with copies of her textbooks that she
fed to her screen reader, only to discover the text was incompatible with

her device.

In other classes, she was required to access online materials through forums
like Niihka, Miami's learning management system, that were also incompatible

with her devices. In addition, she said The Degree Audit Report system
(DARs), which tracks a student's academic progress, was also extremely
difficult

to navigate without the use of a human aide, many of whom were incompetent
or poorly trained, according to the initial court filing.

After coming to Miami as a scholarship recipient and with a high school GPA
of 3.6, Dudley said she began failing classes, jeopardizing her chance at
becoming

a veterinarian.

This prompted her to file a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Southern
Ohio last January, alleging the university discriminated against her because

of her disability. She sought counsel with The Ohio Disability Rights Law
and Policy Center, a nonprofit advocacy group in Columbus, and received
support

from the National Federation of the Blind.

"A person with a disability has every right to be on an equal playing field
with their peers," Dudley said. "Denying disabled students access to the
tools

they need to succeed at the same level as their peers is wrong. We all
should be able to compete at the same level, whatever that takes."

In their court filing, the Department of Justice cited several other
examples to support its case, including instances when a visually impaired
Miami student

was required to watch a video with no audio descriptions in class, and when
a deaf student was given a video to watch with incorrect captioning.

The department demands Miami provide the proper tools disabled students need
to succeed, and pay damages to those students who may have not received
adequate

accommodation.

Miami University denies all allegations related to the case.

"We take our obligations under the American Disabilities Act very seriously.
Miami provides extensive resources and accommodations for our disabled
students,

and will continue to do so," said Claire Wagner, director of University News
and Communications.

The Office of Disability Resources at Miami caters to about 300 students a
year, and to each differently.

"Our staff is passionate about advancing and sustaining an environment of
equal access, diversity and inclusiveness for all members of the university
community,"

said Andrew Zeisler in a January 2014 Miami Student article.

Despite these efforts, Dudley's attorney, Kerstin Sjoberg-Witt of Disability
Rights Ohio, said the lack of accessibility for disabled students is a
common

vice on college campuses.

"Miami is not alone in this. It's a very common problem in higher
education," she said, citing lack of resources and proper communication
between departments

about a disabled student's specific needs as the biggest hindrances.

While the case is still in its initial proceedings with a trial date yet to
be set, Dudley, who will be attending Ohio State University in the fall, is

hopeful.

"My goal is to make things better for the next person. That is something
that I strongly believe in," she said. "A lot of issues need to be
addressed, and

if I don't come out and say it, who will?"

Source:

http://miamistudent.net/?p=17005960
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