[PUBLISH] In the United States Court of Appeals For the Eleventh Circuit

____________________

No. 23-10678 ____________________

BRIAN JAMES ALBERT, Plaintiff-Appellant, versus ASSOCIATION OF CERTIFIED ANTI-MONEY LAUNDERING SPECIALISTS, LLC,

Defendant-Appellee.

____________________

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia D.C. Docket No. 1:18-cv-05464-SCJ ____________________ USCA11 Case: 23-10678 Document: 64-1 Date Filed: 03/14/2025 Page: 2 of 12

2 Opinion of the Court 23-10678

Before NEWSOM, GRANT, and ABUDU, Circuit Judges. NEWSOM, Circuit Judge: Brian Albert signed up for a certification exam administered by the Association of Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialists. He asked the Association to accommodate his learning and anxiety disorders by allowing him to take the closed-book exam in an open- book format. The Association offered him several other accommo- dations but denied his request for open-book testing. Albert sued the Association under § 309 of the Americans with Disabilities Act—a provision we interpret for the first time here. The district court granted summary judgment for the Association, holding that § 309 didn’t require it to accede to Albert’s open-book request be- cause the accommodation would have fundamentally altered its exam. After careful consideration of the parties’ positions, and with the benefit of oral argument, we affirm the district court’s de- cision. I A Brian Albert was working as a bank compliance officer when he decided he wanted to become a money-laundering examiner. Doing so requires passing a certification exam. As Albert describes it, the Association’s certification exam is “the most prestigious and highly recognized [anti-money-laundering exam] by employers and law enforcement.” Compl. ¶ 14, Doc. 1. The exam comprises 120 multiple-choice questions and aims to test a candidate’s “proven knowledge in the detection and prevention of money laundering.” USCA11 Case: 23-10678 Document: 64-1 Date Filed: 03/14/2025 Page: 3 of 12

23-10678 Opinion of the Court 3

Oxman Decl. ¶ 7, Doc. 67. Most importantly for present purposes, the exam is designed to be administered in a closed-book format. Id. ¶ 11. Albert has anxiety and learning disorders, so he hoped to take the exam with accommodations, and, to that end, he com- pleted and submitted the Association’s two-part accommodation- request form. In part one, Albert listed his disabilities and checked the boxes for various standard accommodations, including “Special seating or other physical accommodation,” “Large Text/Magnified Screen,” “Extended exam time,” and “Separate testing area.” In a section allowing him to request other “special accommodations,” Albert wrote that it “could be helpful” for him to have “the use of a computer to a) access the pronunciation of words” and to “b) ac- cess digital books in order to take tests in an ‘open book’ test style.” Part two of Albert’s accommodation-request form inc