[Ohio-talk] Fwd: Cincinnati Business Courier: Blind Miami student files discrimination suit against university

[Eric Duffy]

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Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Pare, John" <JPare at nfb.org>
> Date: January 14, 2014 at 8:20:49 AM EST
> To: "State President, Ohio" <eduffy at pobox.com>
> Cc: "Pierce, Barbara" <BBPierce at pobox.com>
> Subject: Cincinnati Business Courier: Blind Miami student files discrimination suit against university
> 
> Blind Miami student files discrimination suit against university
> 
> Jan 13, 2014, 2:37pm EST Updated: Jan 13, 2014, 4:19pm EST
> Andy Brownfield, Reporter- Cincinnati Business Courier
> 
> A blind student at Miami University is suing the school, alleging that it discriminated against her because of her disability.
> 
> Aleeha Dudley has been blind since birth and has been a student at Miami since 2011. She studies zoology with hopes of attending veterinary school. Her lawsuit claims that Miami violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 by deliberately failing to make accommodations for her disability.
> 
> “Ms. Dudley is only one of many blind students who experience frustrating and unnecessary barriers to a full and equal education in our nation’s institutions of higher education,” National Federation of the Blind President Marc Maurer said in a news release. The federation is assisting with the lawsuit. “Technology, if properly designed and implemented, can make it possible for students like Ms. Dudley to experience an equal education to an extent unheard of in the past, but Miami University has ignored its legal and moral obligations and failed to procure accessible technology and take other steps necessary to give Ms. Dudley the full benefit of her educational experience.”
> 
> The lawsuit claims that Miami failed to provide Dudley with timely and adequate access to Braille textbooks, tactile graphics to replace visuals in textbooks or assignments, course materials in accessible formats and trained assistants.
> 
> Miami spokeswoman Claire Wagner said the university does not comment on complaints involving current students but it does deny all allegations.
> 
> “Miami is committed to the success of all of its students and Miami is committed to equal access,” Wagner wrote in an email. “Miami’s office of disability resources serves 400 student, staff and faculty clients this year, with about 335 of them students.”
> 
> Dudley uses screen reading software for digital text, which can be displayed on a refreshable Braille display or listened to digitally. Miami’s Office of Disability Resources sent a letter to Dudley’s first semester teachers in 2011 that suggested they offer all class materials in rich text format, which would be readable by her screen reading software, and double time for exams and quizzes, according to the complaint.
> 
> “The specific needs of each student and employee with a disability are different and we determine how to accommodate those unique needs by engaging in an interactive dialogue or process with each individual,” Wagner wrote. “That process involves the individual making our Office of Disability Resources aware of his or her needs, after which that office works with him or her to provide an accommodation. That process is followed in every case.”
> 
> The lawsuit claims Dudley did not approve that letter and the accommodations didn’t go far enough. For instance, rich text format does not include tactile image representations to replace the diagrams and charts in a textbook. The suit claims that when she was given such tactile representations, they were not tagged and labeled in such a way to make them legible.
> 
> The suit claims that as a result of inadequate accommodations Dudley’s grades have suffered from no fault of her own and she will not be able to gain admittance to a veterinary school, or not be admitted in a timely manner.
> 
> Dudley is asking the court to require Miami to expunge her grades and pay tuition and costs for her to repeat her first three undergraduate years in addition to awarding compensatory damages and attorneys fees.
> 
> “Ms. Dudley’s experiences have been humiliating and demoralizing,” the lawsuit claims. “Ms. Dudley has not been given an equal and independent opportunity to learn. The grades she received do not accurately reflect her knowledge and skill, but instead reflect only the discrimination she has suffered.”
> 
> Brownfield covers technology, startups, manufacturing and courts.
>