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Dyslexic Beats the Bar.

A determined dyslexic woman has finally won her eight-year fight to take the state bar exam with a computer and other aids to help overcome her disability.

Manhattan federal Judge Sonia Sotomayor ruled yesterday that Marilyn Bartlett's dyslexia qualified her as a disabled person under federal law - and therefore entitled to "accommodations" in taking the bar exam.

"The board's failure to accommodate her reading impairment is a substantial factor in her failure to pass the bar," the judge wrote in a dense 99-page decision.

Bartlett, now a professor at the New York Institute of Technology, had taken the test five times and failed to pass it.

During her bitter legal fight, state lawyers had argued that Bartlett was not disabled and just a poor reader.

For the fifth test in 1999, the state Board of Law Examiners made a number of allowances for Bartlett, but she again failed, largely because her husband had been diagnosed with cancer and was undergoing surgery at the time.

Bartlett, 53, said she plans to take the exam again and become a lawyer as soon as she can.

"It's something I've always wanted," Bartlett told The Post. "I wish that I had been practicing law all these years and I have every intention of taking the bar."

Bartlett's lawyers, Roberta Mueller and Jo Anne Simon, hope the decision opens doors for other people with dyslexia.

"Like the case of Casey Martin, the decision shows you can be very accomplished and still have a disability," said Simon.

Martin is the PGA golfer who won a Supreme Court case allowing him to use a cart because of a leg disability.

The judge said Bartlett could use a large-print version of the exam, write the essay portion on a computer, and take double the normal amount of time.

The state was also ordered to pay her $7,500 in compensation.

Brad Mainoe, a spokesman for state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, said the office was "disappointed by the decision" and would review the judge's findings before deciding whether to appeal.