United States v. Board of Trustees for the University of Alabama

The United States Department of Health, Education and Welfare (government) (plaintiff) created regulations for recipients of federal funding, such as colleges, to comply with the Rehabilitation Act. As a response to the regulations, the University of Alabama (university) (defendant) implemented a policy for providing auxiliary aids to students with hearing disabilities. The policy stated that the university would provide note-takers and class transcriptions but not generally provide sign-language interpreters. Students requiring interpreters had to notify the university months in advance of the academic quarter, and the university provided resources for the students to seek free services through the state or apply for grants to pay for private services. Only if a student could demonstrate a financial inability to pay for services and an ineligibility for state resources would the university provide an interpreter. In addition, auxiliary aids were available only to degree-seeking students, not those enrolled in community-education and continuing-education courses. After receiving complaints from disabled students regarding the university’s policy, the government launched an investigation into the university and filed suit in federal district court for violations of the Rehabilitation Act on several grounds, including conditioning auxiliary aids on financial-need tests and on students’ degree-seeking status. Among other violations, the district court found that the university’s policy as applied to providing interpreters violated the Rehabilitation Act. The university appealed to the Eleventh Circuit. The appellate court reversed the district court’s judgment on some claims, remanding the case back for further proceedings on those issues, and then addressed the interpreter claims.