Despite her success in Southeastern’s year-long preparatory program for the associate degree, Davis was denied admission to Southeastern's nursing program because the school believed her hearing impairment would not allow her to participate in clinical aspects of the coursework without “fundamental alteration[s]” to the program. The Court was also unsure if she could guarantee patient safety without the use of auxiliary aids. While Davis argued that Southeastern should be looking at her qualifications for the program separately from her disability, Southeastern argued that admission decisions should be based on whether she could perform in spite of her disability.


Legal Arguments in Southeastern Community College v. Davis


Southeastern Community College v. Davis was a 1979 Supreme Court case in which a deaf individual, Frances Davis, contested her denial of admission to a nursing school. It was the first major case to be brought to the Supreme Court under the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. 

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

- United States v. NCAA
- Southeastern Community College v. Davis

Disability Legislation Relating to Higher Education in America

Leslie Francis, Debilitating Southeastern Community College v. Davis: Achieving The Promise Of Disability Civil Rights, 23 U.D.C. L. Rev. 183 (2020).
Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.udc.edu/udclr/vol23/iss1/7


Debilitating Southeastern Community College v. Davis: Achieving The Promise of Disability Civil Rights


Rothstein, Laura, Higher Education and Disability Discrimination: A Fifty Year Retrospective (August 4, 2010). Journal of College and University Law, Vol. 36, pp. 843-874, 2010 , University of Louisville School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper Series No. 2010-05, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1653466


Higher Education and Disability Discrimination: A Fifty Year Retrospective

In 1998, the United States filed a civil action against the NCAA by citing title III (prohibiting disability discrimination in a public accommodation/facility owned by a private entity) of the ADA. At the time, the NCAA required students to graduate with a 2.0 GPA, a certain minimum score on the SAT/ACT, and complete 13 “core courses” designated by the NCAA. However, up to that point, the NCAA had not been refusing to certify special education courses as “core courses.” 

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