Volume I, Number 3 

NURSING LAW & ETHICS 

March 1980 

Should Handicapped People Be Allowed To 
Attend Nursing School? 
by Kent Hull, Esq. 

The recent Supreme Court decision 
in the Davis case,1 which allowed a 
federally-assisted college to exclude a 
severely hearing impaired woman from 
its registered nurse training program, 
has caused great concern among hand-
icapped people and their advocates. In-
stitutions of higher education also have 
reason for dissatisfaction with the deci-
sion since it fails to provide sufficient 
guidance for those recipients of federal 
funding to measure their compliance 
with section 504 of the Rehabilitation 
Act of 1973. A letter dated October 5, 
1979, from Patricia Harris, Secretary of 
Health, Education and Welfare (HEW), 
to college presidents is the latest offi-
cial statement concerning the decision. 

The letter indicates a middle-of-the-
road approach to Davis. While recog-
nizing that colleges can establish 
legitimate academic requirements, it 
states that they must demonstrate the 
necessity and legitimacy of policies 
which result in the exclusion of hand-
icapped people, and affirms the De-
partment's determination to continue 
enforcing the section 504 regulations 
much as they are presently written. 
However, the letter may invest a legiti-
macy in the Davis decision which it 
doesnot merit. 

The plaintiff in Davis was a severely 
hearing impaired woman who, after 
working for several years as a licensed 
practical nurse, sought admission to 

Kent Hull is Director of Legal Services at 
the National Center for Law and Handi-
capped, Inc., in South Bend, Indiana and 
the author ofTHE RIGHTS OF PHYSICALLY 
HANDICAPPED PEOPLE(AnACLU Hand-
book) (Avon, 1979). 

the registered nursing program of a col-
lege which received federal financial 
assistance. The college rejected her ap-
plication, apparently on the grounds 
that her hearing impairment would pre-
sent such a safety hazard to patients 
that she would not be able either to 
complete the clinical portion of her 
training or become licensed. She 
brought suit against the college par-
tially on the grounds that the college 
had violated section 504 in rejecting 
her. That law prohibits discrimination 
against "otherwise qualified handi-
capped individuals" on the basis of 
handicap by recipients of federal finan-
cial assistance. 

The federal district court rejected her 
claim stating that her handicap pre-
vented her from being "otherwise qual-
ified."2 The court's decision uncriti-
cally accepted the assertions of the col-
lege without considering evidence of 
her actual abilities (the extent of her 
hearing loss is still in debate) or of the 
achievements of other hearing impaired 
nurses in their professional work. 

. . . the college decided that the 
applicant was physically unqualified 
without conducting a thorough ex-
amination of her abilities or of the 
capacities of other hearing impaired 

After the case was appealed to the 
Fourth Circuit,3 HEW promulgated 
regulations which defined the obliga-
tions of post-secondary recipients of 
HEW assistance.4 For purposes of 
these programs, the term "otherwise 
qualified handicapped person" was de-

Contents 
Should Handicapped People Be 

Allowed to Attend Nursing 
School? 

by Kent Hull 1 

Health Law Notes: When Insti-
tutionalized Mental Patients 
Can Refuse Psychotropic 
Medication 

by George J. Annas 3 

Ethical Dilemmas: Hospital 
Policies: Enforcement Equals 
Endorsement 

by Jane Greenlaw 5 

Dear Mary 6 
Reviews 7 
Medicolegal Reference S h e l f . . . 8 

fined as an individual who met "the ac-
ademic and technical standards requi-
site to admission or participation in the 
recipient's education program or activ-
ity."5 Additionally, the HEW regu-
lations mandated accommodations for 
handicapped individuals to insure that 
academic requirements did not dis-
criminate against the handicapped. 

However, the regulations provided: 
"Academic requirements that the 
recipient can demonstrate are essential 
to the program of instruction being pur-
sued by such student or to any directly 
related licensing requirement will not 
be regarded as discriminatory... . " 6 

Commentary published with the reg-
ulations noted that the requirement did 
"not obligate an institution to waive 
course or other academic requirements 
to the needs of individual handicapped 
students." As an example, the com-
ment said an institution "might permit 

i Continued on page 4)