Button
Button v. Board of Regents of University & Community College System of Nevada
Opinion
Dissenting Opinion
Clifton, J.
dissenting:
I respectfully dissent. Plaintiff Lezlie Button seeks only an award of damages, not injunctive relief. To recover money damages she must show that the Board acted with “deliberate indifference.” Duvall v. County of Kitsap, 260 F.3d 1124, 1139 (9th Cir.2001). Even viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to her, she has not identified sufficient evidence to support such a finding. Indeed, her brief does not even argue that she has.
The Board responded repeatedly to try to satisfy Button’s concerns. The majority cites Duvall in support of the proposition that the denial of a request without investigation is sufficient to survive summary judgment on the question of deliberate indifference, but there is no evidence that the Board ever denied any of Button’s requests without investigation. I infer from the majority’s discussion that the denial allegedly without investigation was the Board’s so-called summary denial of Button’s request that she be provided at the same time with multiple accommodations: Real Time Captioning (RTC), note-taking, and an interpreter. But it did not require a special investigation for university administrators to know that it was not…
Lead Opinion
MEMORANDUM *
Plaintiff-Appellant Lezlie Button (“Button”) appeals the adverse summary judgment grant on her Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”) and Rehabilitation Act claims, arguing genuine issues of material fact exist about whether the Community College of Southern Nevada (“CCSN”) and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (“UNLV”) (collectively “The Board”) 1 provided reasonable accommodations to ensure equal access in the classroom or acted with deliberate indifference.
Whether reasonable accommodations have been provided is ordinarily a question of fact. Fuller v. Frank, 916 F.2d 558 , 562 n. 6 (9th Cir.1990). Whether a particular accommodation is reasonable depends on the individual circumstances of each case and requires a fact-specific, individualized analysis of the disabled individual’s circumstances and the accommodations necessary to meet the program’s standards. Vinson v. Thomas, 288 F.3d 1145, 1154 (9th Cir.2002).
Reasonable Accommodation
1. Spelling 095
A triable issue of fact exists with respect to whether the institution provided Button with a “qualified interpreter” for this class. Button complained about the quality of interpreters on a number of…