6.20 B. Post-Secondary Programs

• Library: Disability Law and Practice, Vol. 3 (NY) 2017

B. Post-Secondary Programs

In Southwestern Community College v. Davis,¹⁶¹ a well-known Supreme Court decision involving a deaf student who sought admission to a nurse’s training program, the Court held that the Rehabilitation Act does not require post-secondary schools to accommodate people with disabilities if doing so would necessitate substantial program modifications or changing essential academic requirements. However, where such major modifications or changes are not required, a deaf student has the right to an interpreter and to such other auxiliary aids as are necessary to make the program accessible.¹⁶²

A number of courts have held that the academic institution must furnish interpreters to a deaf college or graduate student.¹⁶³ The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit ruled that a university’s policy of providing sign language interpreters to deaf students on an “ability to pay” basis violated section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.¹⁶⁴

Courts have also ruled that state vocational rehabilitation agencies must provide interpreters to deaf individuals eligible for services who enroll in educational or training programs.¹⁶⁵ In this line of cases, ironically, courts have held that adults receiving vocational services have greater educational rights under the Rehabilitation Act than the modest right to “educational benefit” that children have under the...