National Federation of the Blind, et al v. Arizona Board of Regents, et al

Filing 3

MOTION to Expedite Discovery by National Federation of the Blind, American Council of the Blind, Darrell Shandrow. (Attachments: # 1 Exhibit Exhibit A., # 2 Exhibit Exhibit B.)(Friedman, Andrew)

JERRY C. BONNETT
FRANCIS J. BALINT, JR.
C. KEVIN DYKSTRA
ANDREW Q. EVERROAD
KATHRYN A. JANN
GUY A. HANSON
1
MANFRED P. MUECKE
DANA L. HOOPER
2
TONNA K. FARRAR
SAMANTHA M. DILLON

WILLIAM G. FAIRBOURN
VAN BUNCH
ELAINE A. RYAN
EDWARD O. COMITZ
PATRICIA N. SYVERSON
KIMBERLY C. PAGE
MEREDITH L. VIVONA
TODD D. CARPENTER1
3
T. BRENT JORDAN

ANDREW S. FRIEDMAN
ROBERT J. SPURLOCK
WENDY J. HARRISON
MICHAEL F. BEETHE
JONATHAN S. WALLACK
CHRISTINA L. BANNON
PATRICK T. STANLEY
WILLIAM F. KING
ANDREW M. EVANS

1

Admitted Only in California
Admitted Only in California, Missouri
and Kansas
3
Admitted Only in Pennsylvania

MICHAEL N. WIDENER, Of Counsel

2

June 25, 2009
VIA HAND-DELIVERY

Attorney General Terry Goddard
Office of the Attorney General
1275 West Washington Street
Phoenix, Arizona 85007
Re:

National Federation of the Blind v. Arizona State University
2:09-cv-01359-MHM

Dear Mr. Goddard:
On behalf of the National Federation of the Blind, the American Council of the Blind and
Darrell Shandrow, we have filed today in Arizona District Court a Complaint, a Motion for
Preliminary Injunction, a Motion for Expedited Discovery and a Request for Pretrial Conference.
Copies of the documents filed with the court are enclosed.
The factual and legal bases for Plaintiffs’ claims are outlined in the Complaint and
Motion for Preliminary Injunction. The injunction seeks to preclude Arizona State University
from implementing an electronic textbook program beginning with the 2009 Fall Semester
through which ASU would provide students taking certain courses with Kindle DX electronic
book readers. Plaintiffs challenge the program because the Kindle electronic readers are
inaccessible to blind students.
Time is of the essence, as the program Plaintiffs challenge is scheduled to begin with
ASU’s Fall 2009 Semester. Accordingly, Plaintiffs are requesting a hearing on the Motion for
Preliminary Injunction before the 2009 Fall Semester begins. Plaintiffs also seek expedited
discovery relating to the electronic textbook program. Enclosed is a copy of Plaintiffs First
Request for Production of Documents. The request is limited in scope; we believe it
encompasses a discrete set of documents that can be quickly produced at minimal burden.
The purpose of this letter is to discuss the possibility of stipulating to an expedited
preliminary injunction hearing date and an accelerated discovery schedule. This would include a
shortened time for responding to the document request.

2901 N. Central Ave., Suite 1000

Phoenix, Arizona 85012

Tel [phone]

Fax [phone]

www.bffb.com

June 25, 2009
Page 2
We recognize that Defendants will want to conduct some investigation into Plaintiffs’
claims. At a preliminary injunction hearing in this matter, our witnesses would include
following:
1.

Representatives of the Plaintiff organizations as to the injury done to their
organizations and their membership by the Defendants’ actions;

2.

Darrell Shandrow as to the injury done to him by the Defendants’ actions and his
experience with Disability Resource Center (“DRC”) in receiving textual material;

3.

Recent blind alumni Arielle Silverman and Ben Bloomgren about their experiences
with DRC in receiving textual material;

4.

James Marks, President-Elect of AHEAD and Director, Disability Services for
Students, as an expert on the lack of equivalent access afforded by DRC to the access
that would be afforded by an accessible Kindle DX;

5.

James Barbour, as an expert on the feasibility of making the Kindle DX user interface
accessible;

6.

Custodians of records for the Defendants to establish as business records certain
documents produced by the Defendants in response to the Request for Production of
Documents submitted herewith.

To help expedite an early preliminary injunction hearing, we are happy to respond to informal
discovery requests and to make witnesses available for telephone interviews.
We hope the parties can work together on these issues. Please call me on this at your
earliest convenience.
Very truly yours,
/s/Andrew S. Friedman
Andrew S. Friedman
ASF/nv
Enclosures: as stated
cc:
Guy A. Hansen
Daniel F. Goldstein
Mehgan Sidhu

Amy Robertson
Eve Hill