Learning differences, medical students, and the law.

To update her article in the June 1999 issue of Academic Medicine, the author addresses the impact of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the 2001 Bartlett case on medical students with learning differences. In Bartlett v. the New York State Board of Bar Examiners, the Court ruled that Bartlett was substantially limited in the major life activity of working because of the board's failure to accommodate her reading impairment. The author postulates that the Supreme Court decision in the Bartlett case offers hope to medical students applying for accommodation on medical licensing examinations. If such accommodations are not forthcoming, she suggests that medical schools might ask the question, "Are board examinations a valid measurement of the preparation for the job of a physician?"