Just saw this on the news. Not sure if I believe her, or think she is doing it to get her grades raised and a refund.
The attorney representing her is a family member. Dartmouth says the suit is without merit
What do you think?
A friend’s child goes there and requires some accommodation for a physical disability. What I heard from the friend is that the disability office is a bit “clueless” when it comes to providing and maintaining a realtively minor accommmodation, and the child has to do a lot of explaining, so actually, this doesn’t surprise me!
I’m inclined to believe the student, but I don’t think raising her grades is a reasonable response. Tuition refund, yes. Better accommodations, yes.
From the article:
“In one instance, Mannella says she failed a biology exam because she wasn’t given a test reader. The exam, according to the lawsuit, required Manella to visually identify microscope images.”
How would that work with a test reader? If the knowledge being tested involves identifying a visual image, how would it work for the reader to do the seeing of the image and the blind student to do the identifying? How would it be done in such a way that the reader is not the one actually identifying the image? I’m genuinely curious. I don’t know that much about how academic accommodations for the blind are normally done.
If she successfully sued Dartmouth, then that would just lead to the school not accepting any impaired students in the future out of fear of being sued and/or having to spend a lot of money accommodating them. "Holistic admission " will then ensure that the school cannot be sued for discriminating against impaired students in the admission process.
I know who the attorney is. She’s the girl’s aunt and is a professional plaintiff’s attorney. Need i say more?
P.S. My H is a professional plaintiff’s attorney as well so I actually don’t have an inherent bias against them.
Dartmouth could just claim undue hardship and stop admitting blind students. But it seems that it would be very difficult to convey image information to a blind person through sensory or auditory means. How could they accomplish that?
@Scipio, the test reader would have to give a verbal description of what they were seeing through the microscope (without using jargon that would give away the identification).
I once had a blind student sign up for one of my classes (I am a college professor), and my field is very visually oriented. The student had other issues and ended up dropping my class (and I think dropping out of our college, iirc). But in the interim, I worked with our disability services office and sought advice from colleagues in my field. One comment that I remember is that anything I do to help my blind student, such as verbally explaining the axes of the graph I was showing for example, will help all of my students.
The news story I saw, which featured an interview with the aunt, said she was asking for copies of notes, which is something I am seeking for my dyslexic son, a lab assistant for experiments in bio class, a review of her grades, etc. I am not sure what copies of notes will do unless she has a program that converts them to audio. Why not just let her tape the lectures? I am also going to get my son a new talk to text program, which have been useful for him before, though I don’t know that this girl could proofread so I am not sure how it would work for her.
In the three state flagship universities that I have served, these universities do not provide readers. A reader is mostly a friend or relative of the student, or a volunteer. I bet a useful reader needs some training and will be even more helpful if the student and the reader have a long-term working relationship.
The note taking service is also not guaranteed, I suppose. Administrators usually contact all students in the same class and the instructor about this need a few days before the term begins. Some financial incentive, say $100-200 gift card at the University’s bookstore, is also provided. The instructor will be required to announce the need in the class a few times. But if no student is willing to help for note taking after all these efforts, based on my few observations, it appears that not much can really be done about it.
My D made some money, $10 - 20 a class, depending on whether it was 50 minutes or 1 hr, 15 mins, when she worked as a note taker. She would approach her professors at the beginning of the semester and volunteer her services. She wasn’t always needed but she made a bit of spending money each semester doing something that really wasn’t taxing.
I suggest to every student with good handwriting that they approach their teachers and ask if such a position is available. I told my son, who will need a note taker, that if he winds up in any classes with his friend since K who is going to the same school, that he ask him to take notes since his writing is beautiful. I suggested to the kid’s mom that he look for note taking jobs as well.
I am just not certain how a blind girl is going to read the notes, unless she has some translation software.
@techmom99 A visual-impaired student of mine voice-recorded my lectures; he did not ask for note taking service. I bet there are softwares for a variety of digital translations, right? If so, disability office should be able to provide this kind of translation services easily.
I knew a blind student at another Ivy League school who had almost the same issues with delayed accommodations.
Accommodations cannot place an undue administrative or financial burden on the school, or substantially change the academic program. Cases like this help to define and formalize the sometimes murky interpretation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Often others in administration or on staff help with accommodations, not just the Disabilities Office. Deans and the professors themselves. In my view, failure to accommodate is certainly not the result of malice or neglect: often the schools just don’t know how to do it properly.
I don’t think a lawsuit like this will result in any change in admissions policies.
Chances are parts of this suit are legitimate and parts not and the court will determine. I am sure it has been very hard for this student coping with late accommodations and think the lawsuit will benefit others in the future.
@prof2dad - In NYS, where this girl is apparently from based on where her aunt practices law and where the suit has been filed (which is why Dartmouth is moving to dismiss/transfer to New Hampshire), blind, visually impaired and dyslexic students can receive books on tape or through digital media. My two youngest sons were eligible for this based on dyslexia. I am not sure if it applies to colleges but there should be some mechanism. If the school doesn’t have it, perhaps her family can use their 529 or start a gofundme campaign. I am not sure how this student got beyond freshman year without these issues being resolved. Reminds me that I have to email the services offices at my son’s school tomorrow to get his services and accommodations going.
Different Us have different policies about making accommodations. We learned this when I called each U that S was accepted at and specifically asked them about this. In particular, I was curious about how they handled frequent and/or extended absences due to medical issues that are documented. Most of the schools said they’d work with us but at least one school said they’d likely ask the student to withdraw, no matter if he was able to keep up and/or stay ahead of the class if he missed a certain number of classes in a term (I believe it was like 2 weeks). They suggested a semester term would be better than quarter terms that they were on. S said we would not consider that U and he happily matriculated at one of the Us who were very happy to work with our kids and family. We met with the director of the disabilities office in the week before move in week, to introduce S and make sure they had all the paperwork they needed and could work well together. We repeated the process when D transferred there. Both felt the disabilities office was fine. (It was NOT Dartmouth.)
@HImom
What happens when students who are used to accommodations enter the workforce? Do workplaces provide the same kinds of accommodations that students get in K-12 and in college? I imagine it would depend upon the size of the company, but what kinds of accommodations can students expect to receive in the workforce? (Sincere question - I have always wondered what happens for those kids who have had supports throughout schooling.)
Here is an interesting perspective on being blind in the workplace. I came across it on LinkedIn, I think:
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/29/business/the-pitfalls-of-trying-to-read-a-co-workers-mind.html
Well, fortunately, for us and my kids, they didn’t generally need to use the supports in collehe, but it eased our mind knowing they COULD use them as needed.
Our S has been able to hold down a full time plus part time job with no accommodations since he graduated from college and basically never needed any accommodations in college.
Our D has had a much rougher time and had to work much more closely with her doctors to stay healthy enough to graduate (requiring an extra year as well) and now to help with her fluctuating stamina. She has had to stick with infrequent short “gigs,” because she still can’t know how long her stamina will last from day to day or week to week.
I also wonder how folks who need a lot of accommodatuons in school would fare in the workforce. Probably a job with the state or federal government would work harder to try to accommodate, but it could be tough on the other workers.
My friend heads a department with the state government. One of her two clerks is often out with one of her increasing health issues and it creates a great hardship for the entire department. They accommodate her as best they can but she is really too ill too often for anyone to count on.
My understanding is that colleges follow the same guidelines as workplaces–both based the Americans with Disabilities Act. It is focused on ensuring access, which is different from some of the types of accommodations that can be made in K-12.
At my D’s college, note takers were provided and they were paid. Now the college provides smart pens instead. They also provided an FM system to her, but that wasn’t helpful since she had few lecture style classes. (This is for kids who have hearing-related difficulties and D has an auditory processing disorder.)
D has had no problems in the jobs and internships she’s held. She would naturally avoid jobs in environments where her difficulty would not allow her to do what she had to do.