[Nfbn-announce] Federal Judge Issues Permanent Legal Resolution for Blind Law School Graduate Who Paved the Way for Blind Test Takers

[Amy Buresh]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

CONTACT:

Chris Danielsen 

Director of Public Relations

National Federation of the Blind

(410) 659-9314

(410) 262-1281 (Cell)

 <mailto:cdanielsen at nfb.org> 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.

 

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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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