USCIS fails blind man on reading portion of citizenship test

Lucio Delgado, who is completely and legally certified blind completed all the requirements for naturalization and showed up ready for his citizenship test. However, after passing the oral portion he failed the reading portion because USCIS failed to accommodate his request for braille and he could not read what he could not see.

USCIS officers say that they received his request for accomodation and gave him “three attempts to read a sentence” in large print before recommending he reapply with a note from an opthamologist to request a waiver of the reading portion. But because he is completely blind (as certified by an optometrist at the time of his request), large print was inadequate. And because he lacks health insurance he could not see an opthamologist to receive the needed documentation for a waiver. He subsequently received a letter denying his application:

 “Unfortunately, you were unable to read a sentence in the English language,” it said. “Regrettably, you were unable to achieve a passing score on the reading portion of the naturalization test.”

USCIS says that it now administers the test in Braille after years of not offering the citizenship test in Braille to blind immigrants. A 2018 USCIS memo describes the problems disabled immigrants face and acknowledges the agency’s federal obligation to provide accommodations (including braille, also sign language interpreters) in accordance with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the USCIS Policy Manual, the Consolidated Handbook of Adjudication Procedures, and the Affirmative Asylum Procedures Manual. 

MHC