The U.S. Supreme Court declined on March 3 to hear appeals from two California school districts of lower-court rulings that held that the Americans With Disabilities Act requires Computer-Assisted Realtime Transcription (CART) interpreting services for students who are deaf and hard of hearing. In August of last year, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (which governs the Western states) ruled in favor of the plaintiff (No. 11-56259) in K.M. v. Tustin Unified School District, along with a similar case, D.H. v. Poway Unified School District, providing a victory for students who are deaf and hard of hearing to gain access to CART interpreting as accommodation in mainstream K-12 classrooms. The Supreme Court's refusal to hear the rulings means that the Ninth Circuit's decisions that the ADA requires CART interpreting in schools will stand.
AG Bell filed an amicus brief in the case in support of K.M., a high school student who is deaf and uses cochlear implants and speechreading to communicate. Click here to read about AG Bell’s reporting on the cases. The cases have been remanded for trials, and AG Bell will continue to monitor developments in the cases. Click here to read about the latest developments on these cases.
