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Blind Vermont Law School Student Sues Bar Examiners Over Test Accommodation
(Washington Post)
July 11, 2011
MONTPELIER, VERMONT– [Excerpt] Deanna Jones says she might like to devote her legal career to representing people with disabilities. But it appears she'll have to win her own fight first.
The 44-year-old Vermont Law School student, who is blind, is suing the National Conference of Bar Examiners and the Act Inc. testing company, saying they aren't providing the accommodations she needs in order to take the legal ethics exam all lawyers must take before they practice in Vermont and most other states.
Those accommodations — two pieces of computer software that help the visually impaired read — enable Jones to work at her best and have been key to the high B average she's maintained as a law student, she said.
Trouble is, the Multistate Professional Responsibility Examination is still administered as a pencil-and-paper exam: no computers, so no computer software allowed.
Her lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Burlington, put it this way: "Unless Ms. Jones takes the MPRE in an electronic format with Kurzweil 3000 and ZoomText screen access software, her results will not accurately reflect what the examination purports to measure, but will instead reflect her impaired sensory and processing skills."
Entire article:
Blind Vermont Law School student sues bar examiners over test accommodation
http://www.InclusionDaily.com/news/2011/red/0711c.htm
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