[blindlaw] Stephanie's Case

[Frye, Dan]

Colleagues:
 
I was disappointed to read the following article, indicating that the
Bar Examiners plan to appeal the recent order in favor of Stephanie. The
article follows:
 

Bar exam firm appeals blind student's request


Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer <mailto:begelko at sfchronicle.com> 

Thursday, February 11, 2010

(02-10) 14:04 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- The company that administers the
California bar exam has asked a federal appeals court to stop a blind
law student from using computer-assisted reading devices in the test,
which starts in two weeks.

The company, the nonprofit National Conference of Bar Examiners, filed
an emergency motion Tuesday asking the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals in San Francisco to suspend a federal judge's order requiring
the firm to accommodate Stephanie Enyart.

Urgent action is needed, the company said, because Enyart might
otherwise pass the test with computer assistance that she is not legally
entitled to receive. Enyart works as a law clerk for Disability Rights
Advocates in Berkeley and would suffer no hardship by waiting a few
months for an appeals court to review the case, the company said.

Anna Levine, a Disability Rights Advocates lawyer who represents Enyart,
called the request "flabbergasting ... irrational and mean-spirited."

Enyart, 32, has been legally blind since 15 from macular degeneration
and retinal dystrophy. As a UCLA law student, she took tests on a laptop
with software that magnified the text and read the questions into
earbuds.

But she has not taken the bar exam because the nonprofit company, which
administers the two multiple-choice portions of the California test,
refused to allow the same arrangements. 

The company, which uses some of its questions on successive exams, said
putting the test on a computer disk would expose its content to thieves.
Its lawyers also argue that disabled students are not entitled to their
preferred accommodations, only to those that provide reasonable access.

The examiners offered a pencil-and-paper test with questions displayed
on a large screen, a human reader and twice the usual three-day testing
period. Enyart said she would become nauseous from having to look at the
screen and needed the computer setup to have a fair chance of passing.

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer of San Francisco ordered the
accommodations Jan. 29 and said the bar examiners could provide their
own computer for increased security.

The company said in Tuesday's motion that it still faces security risks
from loading the questions into a laptop and shipping it to California.
And although Breyer specified that his order applies only to Enyart, the
company said other visually impaired students might take advantage of
the ruling to demand their own preferred accommodations.

E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko at sfchronicle.com
<mailto:begelko at sfchronicle.com> .

 
***********************
Daniel B. Frye, J.D.
Editor
The Braille Monitor
National Federation of the Blind
Office of the President
200 East Wells Street at Jernigan Place
Baltimore, Maryland 21230
Telephone: (410) 659-9314 Ext. 2208
Mobile: (410) 241-7006
Fax: (410) 685-5653
Email: DFrye at nfb.org
Web Address: www.nfb.org <http://www.nfb.org/> 
"Voice of the Nation's Blind"