Paralyzed Law School Applicant Alleges Disability Discrimination Against LSAT

Bay Area resident asserts that LSAT refuses to provide adequate reasonable accommodations

(SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., November 16) - A recent Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, served legal papers today against the Law School Admission Council (LSAC) seeking emergency assistance from the court to obtain reasonable accommodations on the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT). The LSAT - an intense, multi-hour, multiple-choice test - is a critical hurdle for all law school applicants. Scores received on the exam determine in large part the schools to which the applicant will gain admission.

The plaintiff, Joshua Davidson, has C2/C3 quadriplegia and is mostly paralyzed below the neck. Davidson cannot walk or support his weight independently, and has little to no use of his shoulders, arms or hands. Because of his limitations, Davidson uses his voice and minimal control over his right thumb to communicate during exams. With a computer track ball, voice recognition software, and additional computer technology, Davidson achieved a 4.0 grade point average at Berkeley.

Despite Davidson's severe disability and physical limitations, the LSAC has refused to provide him with the accommodations he needs to fairly compete. These include assistive technologies such as an electronic version of the test booklet. Without explanation, the LSAC has insisted that Davidson rely upon a human attendant to mark up the test booklet and cross out incorrect answers. Such an "accommodation" is slower, less effective, and less independent than the technology Davidson has requested. The LSAC has also denied Davidson the basic time accommodations he needs to complete the examination, disregarding the physically arduous and time-consuming process faced by a test taker with high-level quadriplegia.

Davidson must secure these and other accommodations prior to the December 2004 LSAT, the last exam he can take and still be considered for the Class of 2008.

Said Staff Attorney Lewis Bossing of the Legal Aid Society - Employment Law Center, which is representing Mr. Davidson in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) lawsuit, "Instead of giving an outstanding student like Joshua Davidson the support he needs for an equal chance on the LSAT, the LSAC has offered him outdated, inappropriate, and insufficient accommodations. They've basically doomed him to failure on a test with a huge impact on his future."

A former competitive cyclist, Mr. Davidson sustained his spinal cord injury in 1998. Since then, he has achieved great success in college and as a producer of the 1999 Race for Mobility, a nationally broadcast downhill wheelchair racing event. He is applying to law school to become a disability civil rights lawyer.

With only minimal control over his right thumb, he uses a laptop with trackball to manipulate documents in electronic format (PDF files) with Adobe Acrobat software. He demands that the LSAC permit him to use this technology with an electronic version of the LSAT test booklet, so that he may have the same opportunity all test takers have to make notations in the test book, independently, to help determine the answers to LSAT questions.

According to Dmitri Belzer, Executive Director of the Center for Assistive Technology in Berkeley, California and former director of disability student services at San Francisco State University, an expert in the case, "In the early 1980s, students with disabilities were forced to use human assistants for examinations. But computer assistive technology has replaced accommodations using human assistants in most cases. Unfortunately, the LSAC has consigned Joshua to take the LSAT in 2004 with the same accommodations we had no choice but to offer test takers twenty years ago."

Mr. Davidson is represented by Claudia Center and Lewis Bossing of the Legal Aid Society - Employment Law Center (LAS-ELC), as part of the LAS-ELC Educational Access Project, which focuses on increasing educational access for marginalized students, particularly students with disabilities, as a systemic way to increase their employment opportunities and economic self-sufficiency later in life.

For more on this case, contact Lewis Bossing, Esq., LAS-ELC 415-864-8848, ext. 268 or email lbossing@las-elc.org.

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