<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">NYABS NFBNY</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:nyabs.board@gmail.com">nyabs.board@gmail.com</a>></span><br>
Date: Thu, Oct 27, 2011 at 4:37 PM<br>Subject: Fwd: [Nfbnet-members-list] Fwd: Federal Judge Issues Permanent Legal Resolution for Blind Law School Graduate Who Paved the Way for Blind Test Takers<br>To: <a href="mailto:bridgetawalker13@aol.com">bridgetawalker13@aol.com</a>, <a href="mailto:galpierre@gmail.com">galpierre@gmail.com</a>, <a href="mailto:emiliegossiaux@gmail.com">emiliegossiaux@gmail.com</a>, <a href="mailto:alundgard@gmail.com">alundgard@gmail.com</a>, <a href="mailto:amaks21@gmail.com">amaks21@gmail.com</a>, <a href="mailto:vparadiso92@gmail.com">vparadiso92@gmail.com</a><br>
<br><br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div class="im">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">David Andrews</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:dandrews@visi.com" target="_blank">dandrews@visi.com</a>></span><br>
Date: Wed, Oct 26, 2011 at 3:41 PM<br></div><div><div></div><div class="h5">
Subject: [Nfbnet-members-list] Fwd: Federal Judge Issues Permanent Legal Resolution for Blind Law School Graduate Who Paved the Way for Blind Test Takers<br>To: <a href="mailto:nfbnet-members-list@nfbnet.org" target="_blank">nfbnet-members-list@nfbnet.org</a><br>
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<font size="4" face="Helvetica, Helvetica"><b>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASe<br>
</b></font><font face="Garamond"><br>
</font><font size="5" face="Helvetica, Helvetica"><b> <br>
</b></font><font face="Garamond"><br>
</font><font face="Helvetica, Helvetica"><b>CONTACT:<br>
</b></font><font face="Garamond"><br>
</font><font face="Helvetica, Helvetica">Chris Danielsen <br>
</font><font face="Garamond"><br>
</font><font face="Helvetica, Helvetica">Director of Public
Relations<br>
</font><font face="Garamond"><br>
</font><font face="Helvetica, Helvetica">National Federation of the
Blind<br>
</font><font face="Garamond"><br>
</font><font face="Helvetica, Helvetica"><a href="tel:%28410%29%20659-9314" target="_blank" value="+14106599314">(410) 659-9314</a><br>
</font><font face="Garamond"><br>
</font><font face="Helvetica, Helvetica"><a href="tel:%28410%29%20262-1281" target="_blank" value="+14102621281">(410) 262-1281</a> (Cell)<br>
</font><font face="Garamond"><br>
</font><font face="Helvetica, Helvetica">
<a href="mailto:cdanielsen@nfb.org" target="_blank">cdanielsen@nfb.org</a><br>
</font><font face="Garamond"><br>
</font><font face="Helvetica, Helvetica"> <br>
</font><font face="Garamond"><br>
</font><font face="Helvetica, Helvetica">Anna Levine<br>
</font><font face="Garamond"><br>
</font><font face="Helvetica, Helvetica">Disability Rights Advocates<br>
</font><font face="Garamond"><br>
<a href="tel:%28510%29%20665-8644" target="_blank" value="+15106658644">(510) 665-8644</a> <br><br>
</font><font size="5" face="Helvetica, Helvetica"> <br>
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</font><font size="5" face="Garamond"><b> <br>
</b></font><font face="Garamond"><br>
</font><div align="center"><font size="4" face="Garamond"><b>Federal Judge
Issues Permanent Legal Resolution for Blind Law School Graduate<br>
Who Paved the Way for Blind Test Takers<br>
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<b>Berkeley, California (October 26, 2011):</b> 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. <br><br>
<br><br>
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. <br><br>
<br><br>
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 <br><br>
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
readernotwithstanding evidence that these alternatives do not work well
for Ms. Enyart. <br><br>
<br><br>
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. <br><br>
<br><br>
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.”<br><br>
<br><br>
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.”
<br><br>
<br><br>
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. <br><br>
<br><br>
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.<br><br>
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<div align="center"><b> <br>
</b></div>
<br>
<b>About the National Federation of the Blind<br>
</b><br>
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. <br><br>
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