Thanks to the generous support of our donors, Disability Rights Advocates is pleased to make available on our website and in our offices the work of artists from the National Institute of Art & Disabilities (NIAD). NIAD provides an art program that promotes creativity, independence, dignity, and community integration for people with developmental and other disabilities.
Successfully applying for reasonable accommodations on high-stakes standardized tests, like the SAT and LSAT, is often an extremely challenging experience for students with well documented learning and visual disabilities. If you or someone you know is a person with a documented visual or learning disability who has applied for accommodations on the SAT or LSAT, but has been denied the testing accommodations that you requested, we want to hear your story. If you are a person with a visual disability who needs accessible LSAT preparation materials or has attempted to use the LSAC website to submit law school applications, we would also like to hear about your experiences. Please click here to share your experiences with the LSAC or SAT. Your help is absolutely crucial to our efforts to end discrimination against people with disabilities.
DRA is committed to the fight to ensure that persons with disabilities enjoy full access in a variety of contexts, as required by both state and federal law. As part of this commitment, DRA actively investigates barriers facing people with disabilities in the context of standardized testing, and advocates and litigates for the removal of those barriers. Throughout our 15 year history, DRA has championed the rights of people with disabilities in cases against the SAT, the MCAT, and the LSAT. Through the following landmark cases, DRA has helped to successfully improve access for people with disabilities on those tests.
In the 1997 Guckenberger v. Boston University class action lawsuit, students with learning disabilities, represented by DRA and supported by the LD Access Foundation, challenged discriminatory disability documentation requirements at Boston University (BU) that required new testing for students’ learning disabilities every three years. Additionally, the provost of the University, widely known as an outspoken opponent of rights for students with learning disabilities, fired the disability resources staff and put himself in charge of personally reviewing, and routinely denying, all requests for classroom accommodations. DRA successfully litigated this case to trial, winning substantial reforms to the BU accommodations process and increased access to the educational experience.
In the 2001 case Breimhorst v. ETS, DRA teamed up with the International Dyslexia Association to reach a settlement with the Educational Testing Service (ETS), that ended the discriminatory practice of “flagging” students with disabilities who use accommodations on ETS examinations. The ETS exams include the national high-stakes GRE and GMAT. Also, as part of this case, a Blue Ribbon Panel of disability and testing experts similarly concluded “flagging” was inappropriate on the SAT, the “Big Test” for undergraduate admissions owned by the College Board and administered by ETS. Pursuant to this settlement, ETS ended “flagging” on the SAT as well.
