ralfs

Hi all, my wife is a nursing student at a Western Australian university in her 3rd semester. She has a hearing impairment (~hearing of an 85 year old) which is known to her department. During her 1st clinical prac, the Clinical Facilitator thought that my wife cannot do manual blood pressure and made it a requirement that my wife does 4 manual blood pressure tests, checked by RNs (within 10mm Hg) otherwise she would fail. This was approved by the Unit Coordinator and a "Teaching Contract" was setup. My wife failed the prac as an indirect consequence of this additional stress. In my opinion this requirement is tantamount to a hearing test and constitutes blatant disability discrimination. My wife has an over-average stethoscope (but not a digitally amplified one); she handed in paperwork in the previous semester proving her impairment, but failed to hand in paperwork this semester. I wanted to get some feedbacks here what you think about this case -- is it discrimination? (We've been told by the Coordinator and student advisors, that it is not). If not, why not? (and hence, should hearing impaired people not be nurses?) If yes, why do you think so? My wife and i are just so confused by this whole situation (she is now even on anti-depressants) and we are looking for some clarity, either way. Kind regards Ralf