Judith Brand, a 20-year-old student at the San Francisco Bay area's College of Marin, is wheelchair-bound and suffers from speech, visual, and motor impairment as a result of cerebral palsy. She sued the college because she was denied "full participation" in a theater dance class. The teacher in the class, who paired students and asked them to work together as partners, routinely paired Brand with her aide, whose job was to help Brand get to and from class and to assist in communication and some manual tasks. As the San Francisco Chronicle reported, this led Oakland attorney Jean Hyams to file suit. "This was an opportunity for the College of Marin to expand the understanding of dance," Hyams said.

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