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Accommodations
BGSU'S policy of providing reasonable accommodation to the testing process is intentionally flexible, in order to afford equal
access and consistency to students with disabilities. It's understood that the policy is designed to level the playing field,
while maintaining academic integrity and standards.
To be eligible for test accommodations, students are required to provide documentation of their disability which provides
a clear indication/recommendation of the need for the requested accommodation, to the Office of Disability Services. Every
effort should be made to provide documentation that is not more than three years old. Staff from the office will work with
the student to reach agreement/consensus on the type of accommodation, and will communicate the request to the respective
faculty member. The goal is to again reach agreement/consensus in terms of the accommodation and the implementation thereof.
It's understood that the student's documentation will be the primary determiner of the accommodations that are ultimately
implemented.
Test-taking Accommodations may include:
- Extended time on exams
- Oral exams
- Reader services
- Scribe Services
- Use of a computer with spell check and/or grammar check programs for essay exams
- Use of calculators, scratch paper with lines, additional "blue books" and/or speller's dictionaries on exams
- Question clarification (by faculty or proctor)
- Modification of test response format
- Taking the test in a separate location
- Student elaboration on multiple choice exams (hand scored)
The Office of Disability Services maintains testing areas in which students can work in a quiet and well lit environment.
Test pick up/ drop off procedures can be arranged to suit individual faculty and student preferences, although the office
does not have sufficient staff to commit to assuming responsibility for this process.
Policy on Accommodations for Evening Classes / Exams
The Office of Disability Services is open from 8 AM to 5 PM. Given that not all classes and exams fall into that time frame,
we offer the following policy.
If a letter or form is given to a faculty member, those accommodations have been approved as necessary for that student. Providing
accommodations to students with disabilities is a campus wide responsibility. Many universities place that responsibility
squarely on the faculty members’ shoulders with no assistance from an office of disability services. We feel services are
optimized when the responsibility is shared. Proctoring exams is a large component of our service to faculty due to the extended
time on many exams and other accommodations. During the evening classes we still need to provide accommodations to our students.
There are two options for accommodating these students on exams in evening classes.
- Offering the exam at an alternate time in our testing area.
This option eliminates the faculty member’s burden of finding a quiet room, reader, scribe or computer that the student may
need. It also relieves the faculty member of staying extra late into the evening.
- Offering the exam at the same time with the professor arranging for all the approved accommodations.
This option requires that all the approved accommodations be arranged by the professor. This includes finding a quiet room,
reader, scribe or computer that the student may need.
If you need help determining which option is best for you, please do not hesitate to call. It is important to remember that
accommodations for students with disabilities is mandated by law and is not optional. If you have a specific concern with
an accommodation that has been approved, please contact us for advisement. There are essential functions of each class that
must not be compromised; however, the law is quite clear in its interpretation of testing accommodations.
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