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How Testing Companies Deal With Accommodations

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July 7, 2022

A new report from the Government Accountability Office found that in 2019–20, the most common accommodation granted by testing companies to students with disabilities was extra time on the exam. More than half (55 percent) of the accommodations were extra time. That was followed (in 22 percent of cases) by adjustments to the testing environment, such as preferential seating or a different room.

“Individuals with disabilities and testing companies faced several challenges related to testing accommodations,” the report found. “For example, some individuals had difficulty providing adequate documentation to justify their accommodations, according to representatives from six disability advocacy organizations. Officials from five of the six testing companies described challenges in reviewing and granting accommodation requests. For example, officials from three testing companies said requests that do not sufficiently describe an individual’s disability and its impact are difficult to evaluate. In addition, officials from two companies said it can be challenging to provide appropriate accommodation access while also protecting test integrity.”

Scott Jaschik

Scott Jaschik, Editor, is one of the three founders of Inside Higher Ed. With Doug Lederman, he leads the editorial operations of Inside Higher Ed, overseeing news content, opinion pieces, career advice, blogs and other features. Scott is a leading voice on higher education issues, quoted regularly in publications nationwide, and publishing articles on colleges in publications such as The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, Salon, and elsewhere. He has been a judge or screener for the National Magazine Awards, the Online Journalism Awards, the Folio Editorial Excellence Awards, and the Education Writers Association Awards. Scott served as a mentor in the community college fellowship program of the Hechinger Institute on Education and the Media, of Teachers College, Columbia University. He is a member of the board of the Education Writers Association. From 1999-2003, Scott was editor of The Chronicle of Higher Education. Scott grew up in Rochester, N.Y., and graduated from Cornell University in 1985. He lives in Washington.