[rehab] Penn State Discriminates Against Blind Students and Faculty

[Freeh, Jessica]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE



CONTACT:

Chris Danielsen

Director of Public Relations

National Federation of the Blind

(410) 659-9314, extension 2330

(410) 262-1281 (Cell)

<mailto:cdanielsen at nfb.org>cdanielsen at nfb.org




Penn State Discriminates Against Blind Students and Faculty




National Federation of the Blind Files Complaint Against Penn State



Baltimore, Maryland (November 12, 2010): The 
National Federation of the Blind (NFB), the 
nation’s oldest and largest organization of blind 
people, announced today that it has filed a 
complaint with the United States Department of 
Education, Office for Civil Rights, requesting an 
investigation of Pennsylvania State University 
(Penn State) for violating the civil rights of 
blind students and faculty.  The NFB filed the 
complaint because a variety of computer- and 
technology-based services and Web sites at Penn 
State are inaccessible to blind students and 
faculty.  Title II of the Americans with 
Disabilities Act requires public state 
universities to offer equal access to their programs and services.



The accessibility problems at Penn State include:
    * The library at Penn State hosts a Web site 
with access to the library catalog that is 
available to any registered student.  The Web 
site, however, is not fully accessible to blind 
students due to improper coding that prevents 
screen access software used by the blind from properly interpreting the site.
    * Many of Penn State’s departmental Web sites 
are not fully accessible to the blind, including, 
ironically, the Web site for the Office of Disability Services.
    * Penn State utilizes the ANGEL course 
management system.  ANGEL is an integral part of 
the learning and teaching experience at Penn 
State that allows students and professors to 
interact with each other online and perform 
various  course-related functions. This course 
management software is almost completely inaccessible to blind users.
    * Many teachers at Penn State use a “smart” 
podium, which allows the professor to connect 
his/her laptop to a computer at the podium and 
display images and videos loaded from the laptop 
on a screen at the front of the room.  The podium 
is operated by an inaccessible touchscreen keypad 
that controls almost all podium functions.  Thus, 
blind faculty members must rely on assistance 
from a sighted person to utilize the podium.
    * Penn State contracts with PNC Bank to 
enable students to use their identification cards 
as debit cards.  The PNC Web site is nearly 
inaccessible with screen access software, and 
there is only one ATM on the entire Penn State 
campus with audio output through a headphone jack 
so that blind students can use it privately and independently.

Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National 
Federation of the Blind, said: “The number and 
scope of the accessibility problems at Penn State 
demonstrate the institution’s blatant­and 
unlawful­lack of regard for the equal education 
of its blind students and failure to accommodate 
its blind faculty members and employees.  There 
is simply no excuse for blind students and 
faculty to be denied the same access to 
information and technology as their sighted 
peers.  Sadly, this cavalier attitude toward 
accessibility is found not only at Penn State, 
but at many of our nation’s colleges and 
universities.  That is why we have asked the 
United States Department of Education to act 
swiftly and decisively to ensure that blind 
students and faculty members are given the same 
access and opportunity to succeed as their sighted peers.”



The National Federation of the Blind is 
represented in this matter by Daniel F. 
Goldstein, Sharon Krevor-Weisbaum, and Brooke 
Lierman of the Baltimore firm Brown, Goldstein, and Levy.



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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.