Blind student wins fight for equal rights
A blind law student successfully sued the National Conference of Bar Examiners for the right to use specific accommodations in next week’s bar exam.
By Tania CervantesThe Guardsman
A blind law student successfully sued the National Conference of Bar Examiners for the right to use specific accommodations in next week’s bar exam.
While the NCBA offered an alternative, Stephanie Enyart, 32, required a laptop with software that can read words into earbuds. Without this, she argued, her chance of passing was not equal to that of other students.
Larry Paradis, the executive director at non-profit law firm Disability Rights Advocates, said the case will serve as a precedent that other disabled students taking entrance exams can point to so they are provided with the necessary accommodations.
“In today’s world, having a disability no longer means that you can’t compete. There are ways,” Paradis said. “People with disabilities should be able to succeed in any field or profession.”
DRA, where Enyart interns as a law clerk, has had past success in obtaining court orders to stop the discrimination of disabled people. The 1999 verdict of Breimhorst v. Educational Testing Service ordered College Board, the private company that administers major standardized tests, to stop its practice of “flagging” test scores on the SAT, PSAT and Advanced Placement tests when test takers use extended time as an accommodation.
At City College, where people with disabilities account for 2.5 percent of the student population, Disabled Students Programs and Services is the resource disabled students turn to for needed accommodations.
“Our whole purpose is to try to make things equal for disabled students so that they are not at a disadvantage,” department Chairman Paul Johnson said.
Some of the services include: extended times for test taking, providing special furniture, sign language, special technologies and personnel to assist students during class time.
However, the program is facing a 43 percent budget cut and as a result, updating equipment is now more challenging. It is also harder to serve students in the smaller City College campuses, Johnson said.
City College student, Ethel Ennon, who is visually impaired, recently began receiving disability services at the college.
“It is important that students get the services needed to complete their goals,” she said. “It would not be fair otherwise.”
Enyart, who will now be able to use the needed accommodation, was busy studying for the exam and therefore unable to comment.
