NEW ORLEANS, July 23 (UPI) -- Louisiana Tech University has agreed to make sure a blind student gets all materials in accessible form, the U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday.
In the settlement, the university, in Ruston, La., also agreed to pay the student more than $23,000 in damages, federal prosecutors said. The government filed the lawsuit under the Americans With Disabilities Act after the student complained accessible materials for an online course were not available or came late.
The materials finally arrived a month into the semester, prosecutors said. By that time, the student was so far behind he withdrew from the course.
"Emerging technologies, including Internet-based learning platforms, are changing the way we learn, and we need to ensure that people with disabilities are not excluded or left behind," said Eve L. Hill, deputy assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division.
