Lamar Institute of Technology (LIT) reasonably accommodated a former student with memory problems caused by an anoxic brain injury, a federal appeals court has ruled.
A unanimous three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals refused to reinstate Russell Campbell’s Americans with Disabilities Act and Rehabilitation Act suit against the Beaumont, Texas, college.
The school accommodated his learning disability by giving him extra time on exams and a laptop and recorder to help with note-taking. It also provided what the court called a “unique accommodation” by letting him take two exams, the first with the rest of the class and the second two weeks later, but covering the same material.
When Campbell’s academic performance declined, he requested the two-test accommodation in all his classes or two weeks of extra study time for each exam.
LIT turned down that request as unreasonable on the grounds that Campbell would gain an advantage over other students and that professors would be burdened by requiring them to alter their teaching or testing schedules and to create two versions of each exam.
However, the college told Campbell he could request such an additional accommodation individually from each instructor but they declined to agree.
