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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Madison Pinckney, Legal Fellow of the Disability Justice Program at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, on CUNY's Accessibility for Students with Disabilities
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Madison Pinckney, representing New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, testified about discrimination faced by students with disabilities at CUNY campuses and the need for improved accessibility services. She highlighted issues with accommodation denials, hostile attitudes from disability service offices, and the high cost of required evaluations for students with learning disabilities and ADHD.
- NILPI's higher education accessibility campaign has revealed numerous reports of discrimination against students with disabilities at CUNY.
- CUNY has requested $2,100,000 to support disability services, which NILPI supports for improving staffing and training.
- NILPI urges the council to allocate funding for low or no-cost evaluations for students with learning disabilities and ADHD to receive necessary accommodations.
Madison Pinckney
1:59:42
Hi.
1:59:43
My name is Madison Pinkney, and I'm a legal fellow in the disability justice program at New York Lawyers for the Public Interest.
1:59:49
Thank you Chair Dinovitz and the members of the council for the opportunity to testify today.
1:59:54
In 2024, NILPI created a higher education accessibility campaign to help advocate for students with disabilities who face discrimination when they're going through higher education and unfortunately we found that our services are very needed.
2:00:09
We've received numerous reports from students across CUNY campuses who have been denied reasonable accommodations or have professors who refuse to implement those accommodations and also experience hostile attitudes when working with disability service offices.
2:00:24
Because
Eric Dinowitz
2:00:25
of
Madison Pinckney
2:00:25
these issues we asked NILPI, NILPI asked the council to use its resources to investigate this discrimination.
2:00:32
In FY twenty six CUNY requested $2,100,000 to support its students with disability services stating that this funding will support increases in staffing at disability service offices and creating a professional development program to train these staff and NOPE supports this funding request to the extent that the funding goes towards these goals to help improve some of the issues that I've highlighted.
2:00:56
Finally students with learning disabilities and ADHD often report to us that they're unable to receive accommodations because CUNY requests an evaluation that can cost upwards of $10,000 and this leaves these students without accommodations for their disabilities.
2:01:11
Milpi urges the council to allocate funding so that CUNY campuses can offer these evaluations at no or low cost to students.
2:01:19
Thank you so much for the opportunity to testify and I'm happy to expand on any of these.
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Further.