At what point does it stop making sense to make special arrangements for learning disabled students to demonstrate what they know? Where does the prerogative to be fair to the student collide with the obligation to measure competence as objectively as possible? Is there a point where a learning disability really does disable--and therefore disqualify--a student from progressing through a certain course of study? These questions are all at work in the case of Heidi Baer, a dyslexic second-year medical student at Drexel University who is having trouble passing the national examinations that would allow her to advance to her third year of study. Baer has failed the test three times; she is now petitioning for time and a half to take the exam for the fourth time. The National Board of Medical Examiners is not inclined to grant Baer the extra time, stating that to do so would undermine testing standards and could even "put patients at risk." Baer is suing under the Americans with Disabilities Act in the hope that a federal judge will order the board to give her the extra time. Drexel has already granted Baer special consideration in allowing her a fourth chance to take the exam; school policy dictates that students who do not pass the exam on their third try cannot continue in the program.

So what happens when, through a series of such special dispensations, she becomes a doctor and misreads a BP of 191/95 as 119/59 and her patient subsequently suffers a stroke? Ask the patient for a do over?

Just because someone files a suit doesn't mean that the law is a-kilter. I suspect the judge will throw the case out, ruling that it is reasonable discretion to see the exams as a bona fide requirement (which trumps disability claims—as far as I'm aware, not one person with limited vision has used the ADA to get a pilot's license).

Erin - you've touched on something critical here and something that's really relevant at my high school. If you have any add'l articles, books, or thoughts, let me know.

“I suspect the judge will throw the case out, ruling that it is reasonable discretion to see the exams as a bona fide requirement (which trumps disability claims…”

This is too optimistic. There is precedent to the contrary.

Take the case of this law student as reported in the New Republic (DEFINING DISABILITY DOWN ):

Consider the lawsuit filed in 1993 by an aspiring attorney named Marilyn J. Bartlett. Bartlett graduated in 1991 from Vermont Law School, where she received generous accommodations of her reading disability and disability in "phonological processing." Nonetheless, Bartlett did not do well, graduating with a GPA of 2.32 and a class standing of 143 out of 153 students. She then went to work as a professor of education at Dowling College, where, according to court documents, she "receives accommodations at work for her reading problems in the form of a full-time work-study student who assists her in reading and writing tasks."
When it came time to take the bar exam, Bartlett petitioned the New York Board of Law Examiners for special arrangements. She wanted unlimited time for the test, access to food and drink, a private room and the use of an amanuensis to record her answers. Acting on the advice of its own expert, who reported that Bartlett's test data did not support a diagnosis of a reading disorder, the board refused Bartlett's demands. Three times, Bartlett attempted the exam without accommodation. After her third failure, she sued the board.
On July 3, 1997, Judge Sonia Sotomayor ruled in Bartlett's favor. Ordering the board to provide the accommodations Bartlett had requested, she also awarded Bartlett $12,500 in compensatory damages. Judge Sotomayor did not challenge the board's contention that Bartlett was neither impaired nor disabled, at least not in the traditional sense. In an enterprising new twist, however, she declared that Bartlett's skills ought not to be compared to those of an "average person in the general population" but, rather, to an "average person with comparable training, skills and abilities"--i.e., to her fellow cohort of aspiring lawyers. An "essential question" in the case, said the judge, was whether the plaintiff would "have a substantial impairment in performing [the] job" of a practicing lawyer. The answer to this question was "yes," the judge found. And this answer--the fact that Bartlett would have a very hard time meeting the job requirements of a practicing lawyer--was, in the judge's opinion, precisely the reason why Bartlett had a protected right to become a practicing lawyer. Thus, Judge Sotomayor ruled that Bartlett's "inability to be accommodated on the bar exam--and her accompanying impediment to becoming bar-admitted--exclude her from a `class of jobs' under the ADA," and could not be permitted.
To drive home her point, Judge Sotomayor triumphantly cited Bartlett's performance during a courtroom demonstration of her reading skills. "Plaintiff read haltingly and laboriously, whispering and sounding out some words more than once under her breath before she spoke them aloud," the judge recalled. "She made one word identification error, reading the word `indicted' as `indicated.'"
It could, of course, be argued that the ability to read is an essential function of lawyering; that any law school graduate who cannot distinguish "indicated" from "indicted," who cannot perform cognitive tasks under time constraints, is incapable of performing the functions of a practicing lawyer and therefore, perhaps, should not be a practicing lawyer. But one would be arguing those things in the teeth of the law. Thanks to the Americans With Disabilities Act, the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Bartlett and her fellows among the learning-disabled are now eligible for a lifelong buffet of perks, special breaks and procedural protections, a web of entitlement that extends from cradle to grave.

It looks BAD for Drexel. I went to the linked article and noted a picture of Ms. Baer with her parents at the Drexler [sic] Medical Schoo [sic] graduation. She's in a white dress (which is appropriate, she was a first year student then) and they're in cap and gown. Could they be professors? The caption doesn't help.

http://www.drexel.edu/med/ia//alumni/boardofdirectors.asp

They're both on the alumni board, I fear. Maybe it's not the same pair, but maybe it is.

Part of the purpose of these licensing tests is to weed out those not able to practice safely/competently. I can say with some certainty that, as it is, an excessively high number of those who pass the bar exam should not. That is not a good reaon to lower the standards.

P.J. O'Rourke said it best in Parliament of Whores. Yes, I know, he's billed as a humorist--but like Mark Twain, he's quite capable of being both amusing and incisive at the same time. The chapter on the ADA is probably the best argument against it I've ever read, and his chapter on the "War on Drugs" is just sublime. (Spoiler: he blames Us.)

This blog is based on Movable Type, right? Gosh, Erin, how about letting us use at least a few basic html tags, like italics?

I will be guest hosting the Carnival next week. Submissions for The Carnival should be sent to: jdemonte [at] comcast [dot] net and should be received no later then 10:00 PM (Eastern) 7:00 PM (Pacific) Tuesday, May 3, 2005. The Carnival will open over at here Wednesday morning

Can dyslexics succeed in stress-filled situations:

Taylor Beattie:
http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/2005/02/highachieving_d.html

"The Instructors at the Special Forces course did not cut me a break nor did I expect them to. A dyslexic moment while operating behind enemy lines could get me and others killed or captured. I became acutely aware of my occasional lack of attention to detail in reversing numbers and letters. Under these circumstances I always have another soldier check my work. I know my limitations."
==================
http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/2004/06/high_achieving_.html

Toby Cosgrove is a cardiac surgeon of international renown. He has pioneered such procedures as mitral valve repairs. He is an accomplished inventor, with 18 patents, and a relentless workhorse, counting 700 surgeries last year an average of more than 13 a week.

Cosgrove's resolve is typical of his life story, which took him from a student who struggled for C's and D's to the top of the most prestigious rung in medicine. He credits his innovative bent to dyslexia, a reading disorder that he has come to regard as a gift.

"We're not very good at the scholastic stuff, but we see other things that are different," he said. "And that's a big advantage."

======================

Those are a few samples of people with dyslexia performing at a very high rate.

As to the value of this young woman's suit...I don't know.

While a workplace, school or other entity might have to accomodate a physician's disability, a patient ought never to be required to accomodate a physician's disability. My hard work, academic achievements, and solid references never can put my interests above the patient's interests.

Just wanted to trow out a couple of facts about dyslexia because it seems apparent from some of the post that there is some misunderstanding.

first of all there was a post that the dislexic student may read a BP feading by interting it. this is not what it means to be dyslexic - dislexcics only invert things when thay are tought to read in the same way that normal children are tought to read. I am quite sertan that this medical sctudent is able to read a fraction - thay did after all make it all the way to medical school not a trivial task. Dyslexic students read slower then normal students and the bords are formatted so that you have to read a passage and then aswer related questions - it is a reading intensive test. if the student cant even read through the hole test in the alotted time how is she soposed to pass the tests. fiving mroe time is not an advantage on the bords it is not like it is information that you can figure out if you have more time ether you know it or you do not. but you have to be given sufficient time to at least read the passages. If the student is truly dyslexic it is unthinkable that she would not be given extra time. perhaps there is a problem with the way the test is given - I would like to see what would happen if every one got time and a half - on the medical bords I would bet that all the scors only went up margenaly for normal studens.

Why is reading speed esential for adoctoring?