Charleston, WV (March 20, 2025): Today, the National Federation of the Blind (NFB), the National Federation of the Blind of West Virginia (NFBWV), and two blind graduate students filed a federal lawsuit against the West Virginia University (WVU) Board of Governors, alleging that the university systematically denies blind students equal access to its educational programs, services, and activities. 

The lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia, alleges that WVU violates Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 by failing to provide blind students with accessible course materials, educational technology, and field placement opportunities required to complete their degrees. 

The university has also failed to provide required auxiliary aids and services such as qualified human readers. Harold Thomas Rogers and Miranda Lacy, both students in WVU’s online Master of Social Work program and members of the National Federation of the Blind of West Virginia, allege that the university has consistently failed to accommodate their needs. The lawsuit highlights several discriminatory barriers they have faced, including: 

• Inaccessible Course Materials – WVU has provided textbooks in improperly formatted digital files such as PDFs that are improperly tagged for reading order and do not have image descriptions, making them unreadable with screen readers. This delays or denies access to assignments and forces blind students to rely on family members to read course materials aloud, since the university does not provide qualified readers. At one point, Ms. Lacy had to rely on her son, a minor at the time, to help with her assignments. 
• Inaccessible Online Learning Platforms – WVU’s use of inaccessible software, such as Blackboard, VoiceThread, and Tevera, prevents blind students from navigating their coursework and logging required internship hours independently. 
• Barriers to Field Placement Participation – The university has failed to ensure that internship placements, which it vets and which are required for graduation, provide accessible technology and reasonable accommodations. This has resulted in academic penalties for blind students stemming from the university’s failure to follow the law rather than any inability of the students to complete the requirements. As a result, Mr. Rogers in particular, who was an honors undergraduate student and is one of only twenty-three rural integrated behavioral health trainees in the country through a program funded by the United States Health Resources and Services Administration, will graduate a full two years after he originally expected to do so. 
• Deliberate Indifference to Accessibility Concerns – Despite repeated complaints and requests for reasonable accommodations, as well as ample notice of its legal obligations, WVU has intentionally failed to take meaningful action to ensure equal access to its programs, services, and activities. 

“These students enrolled at WVU to pursue careers dedicated to helping others, but instead they have been met with institutional barriers and unlawful discrimination that threaten their futures,” said Mark Riccobono, President of the National Federation of the Blind. “The university’s behavior is inexcusable, as its legal obligations are not new and it could have followed the lead of any number of other academic institutions with whom blind Americans have collaborated to institute systemic accessibility solutions. The National Federation of the Blind simply cannot and will not tolerate this deplorable conduct at WVU or anywhere else.”   

“Upon completing my undergraduate program at West Virginia State University, a historically black college that provided me with the necessary accommodations to graduate with honors, I sought to pursue my master’s degree in social work,” said Miranda Lacy. “I chose West Virginia University because it is the largest in the state and I thought it offered the best accommodations. Unfortunately, I have continued to experience ongoing barriers and discrimination and have been unable to receive the same educational opportunities as my sighted peers.” 

“As the oldest land-grant institution in West Virginia and home to the state’s oldest Master of Social Work program, established in 1941, I would have expected West Virginia University to set the gold standard in providing accommodations for students in field placements,” said Harold Thomas Rogers.  “Unfortunately, that has not been the case. I am grateful for the National Federation of the Blind’s unwavering commitment to advocating not only for blind students in West Virginia but for students nationwide.”   

The plaintiffs seek a court order requiring WVU to implement accessibility reforms, provide blind students with equal educational opportunities, and compensate them for the harm they have suffered. 

The plaintiffs are represented by Brown Goldstein & Levy, LLP, https://browngold.com/, and Disability Rights West Virginia, https://www.drofwv.org/.