Blind Leading the Blind: Blind West Bloomfield Man, Blind Lawyer Sue American Bar Association

Published: Wednesday, May 25, 2011, 1:25 PM
Updated: Wednesday, May 25, 2011, 1:51 PM

By Michael Wayland | MLive.com

If A, B, C, D, E and F go into a restaurant and A sits next to B, and C is next to D, and F is next to A, where is E in relation to B?

That is an example of the type of question that can be found on a Law School Admission Test, known as LSAT.

And while it sounds quite confusing, drawing a diagram with your answer should help.

But what if you were blind and have to not only answer the question, but draw the diagram (go ahead, close your eyes and try it)? Is it more difficult?

According to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court, it is.

Angelo Binno, a legally blind 28-year-old from West Bloomfield, is suing the American Bar Association, claiming he can't get into law school because the admission test requires him to draw something he can't see.

Binno's attorney, Richard Bernstein, also legally blind, is requesting a judge to strike down an ABA rule that tells schools that they must use LSAT scores for admissions, or become discredited.

“What’s happening is that blind people are being forced to draw diagrams on the law school admittance test, which is something they physically can’t do, which puts them at a competitive disadvantage to gaining admittance to law school,” Bernstein told WJR-AM 760 host Paul W. Smith this morning.

Binno, an alumnus of Wayne State University who speaks three languages, said numerous Metro Detroit-area school officials told him they would not accept him because of his LSAT scores.

"They put a lot of emphasis on the LSAT score,” he told Smith.

Bernstein, of Sam Bernstein Law Firm in Farmington Hills, said schools can still accept blind students with low LSAT scores, but it isn’t a level playing field.

“You’re putting blind people at a tremendous competitive disadvantage, which is really unacceptable,” he said, adding one-fourth of the test requires diagramming.

Bernstein said he got a test waiver when he went to law school in the 1990s, but the ABA rule in 1996 makes it so all students must take the test.

The ABA declined comment to the Associated Press.