A Penn State professor who is deaf has filed a disability discrimination lawsuit against the university alleging it violated federal civil rights laws when it revoked his American Sign Language interpreters and provided him with inadequate alternatives.

Joseph Valente, an associate professor of education at Penn State since 2010 and co-director of the Center for Disability Studies, says the university violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and Rehabilitation Act as a cost-cutting measure and retaliated against him when he sought to have his disability accommodation restored.

According to the 26-page lawsuit filed in the U.S. Middle District Court of Pennsylvania, a plan to provide Valente with two full-time designated American Sign Language and qualified backups familiar with his academic subject matter was formalized in 2013-14.

The arrangement, his attorneys wrote, “enabled Dr. Valente to perform all essential aspects of his position, including teaching, research, and service,” despite him having to navigate billing and bureaucratic obstacles.

In 2021, however, the university “unilaterally decided to reduce ASL interpreting services to one full-time interpreter,” and implemented the reduction in 2023 through a “Reasonable Accommodation Framework” developed without Valente’s knowledge, according to the lawsuit

The framework “imposes arbitrary restrictions on interpreter access based primarily on meeting size, disregarding crucial factors such as meeting duration, subject matter complexity, specialized academic vocabulary, and interpreter fatigue,” Valente’s attorneys wrote. Interpreter services for faculty meetings were replaced with AI-generated captions that often fail to provide accurate and contextually appropriate translations for academic discussions.

The change, according to the complaint, immediately caused “significant barriers to performing his professional responsibilities, including difficulty scheduling meetings with students and collaborators, maintaining regular office hours, and participating in academic and faculty meetings.”

Valente alleges Penn State was “primarily motivated by financial considerations” and that the university demonstrated a” fundamental misunderstanding of its legal obligations.”

When Valente began advocating to have his original accommodation terms restored he says the university retaliated against him. The lawsuit claims starting in 2023 faculty began soliciting complaints against him, refusing to provide Valente with information about any allegations. In 2024, the university abruptly canceled his graduate-level classes, and he alleges the three doctoral students and one masters student he advised were encouraged to seek alternate advisors.

After Valente filed claims of discrimination and retaliation with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Department of Justice Office of Civil Rights issued a Notice of Right to Sue in November.

The lawsuit alleges the university escalated retaliation by opening an administrative investigation against Valente in January, placing him on leave and prohibiting him from teaching or accessing campus.

Valente says the move effectively cut off his grant funding and prohibited from completing research.

He alleges that Penn State’s conduct has damaged Valente’s professional reputation, opportunities for career advancement, prospects for grant funding, and ability to participate in academic life, as well as causing emotional distress, anxiety, and professional isolation.

“Penn State’s actions have marginalized Dr. Valente within the academic community, caused significant project delays, and inflicted financial harm,” his attorneys wrote.

The lawsuit claims two counts of violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act and two counts of violations of the Rehabilitation Act.

Valente is seeking, among other relief, unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, restoration of his two full-time ASL interpreters, a centralized funding system for the accommodation, an oversight mechanism for accommodation decisions, and implementation of comprehensive disability training programs.

“Through this action, Dr. Valente seeks to vindicate not only his own rights under federal disability law, but also to ensure that Penn State fulfills its legal obligations to provide reasonable accommodations to faculty members with disabilities and maintain an academic environment free from discrimination and retaliation,” the attorneys wrote.