[blindlaw] Timing of Exams

Thu Dec 8 16:11:12 UTC 2016

Can they give the exam at a different time? Yes they could, but if you
are asking whether or not they are obligated to do so, well that is
different.  They would not be obligated to do so unless it were
determined that taking the exam at a different time is a reasonable
accomidation related to your disability.  My college offered students
the opportunity to take exams at different times with a written
request which needed approval, and in that case a disabled student
would be held to the same standards as any other student seaking such
approval.  However, if you are asking to take the exam at a different
time as an accomidation for your disability then the school needs to
determine whether or not the request is a reasonable accomidation.  My
law school never allowed me to take exams on different days, but for
night classes where the exam started at 6 PM they allowed me to start
early, and my allotted time would end at the same time as everybody
else.  They did not not want to ask either me or a proctor to stay
that late into the night so starting early was the preferred solution.
The concern they are generally weighing against your request is that,
if you take the exam early you now know the questions and could let
others know what they are intentionally or not, or if you take the
exam late then there are a number of other students who know the
questions and chances are even higher that someone might,
intentionally or not, let you know what the questions are.  Think
about it, the school has to not only trust that all of the other
people in the class will keep the questions from you, but they also
have to trust that you will not happen to overhear a conversation
about the exam between other students which may give you some or all
information about 1 or more questions.  Even if you have absolutely no
bad intentions, it is hard to be able to guarantee you will not
accidentally overhear others talking about an exam which you have not
taken yet.  This is not to say a school should never allow a student
to take an exam later, but there is a very legitimate concern which
they need to weigh against the reasonableness of the request.  They
could have problems if you are given an advantage just as much as they
could have problems if they put you at a disadvantage.  It looks like
it may be to late for this exam, but next time I would talk to them
about how exactly taking the exam at the scheduled time would put you
at a disadvantage, for example you would be testing until an
unreasonable hour of the night, and do your best to work out a
solution while making it clear that you understand their concerns
about you now being given an advantage over other students.
Some schools will always be more and less strict about their exam
policies, and they all have the right to be as strict or lax as they
choose as long as they treat all students the same way with regard to
exam policy.  If you are at a school which is more strict about
enforcing exam policy with no acception then you are going to need to
make it much clearer to them why the accomidation is a reasonable
request related to your disability.  A more relaxed school may not
care as much about other concerns, but neither school would be
violating the law so long as they provide enough accomidation to
create an equal playing field, and treat disabled students the same as
other students when being more or less strict about enforcement of the
exam policy.

On 12/8/16, Aimee Harwood via BlindLaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Hello Sai,
>
> That does not suffice in their opinion.
>
> Aimee
>
> Sent from my iPhone
>
>> On Dec 7, 2016, at 3:44 PM, Sai via BlindLaw <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>
>> Isn't "I want to have as much time to study as everyone else" a good
>> enough reason?
>>
>> - Sai
>>
>> On Wed, Dec 7, 2016 at 2:56 PM, Jim McCarthy via BlindLaw
>> <blindlaw at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>>> I think the issue becomes what is the disability-related reason that you
>>> request the earlier exam? It seems possible to me that law students may
>>> check in electronically and check out the same way when finished. If you
>>> need to pick up the exam from a staff person and return it to a staffer,
>>> One
>>> argument seems to be that if you get double time on an exam that starts
>>> at
>>> 6:00 pm and normal is 3 hours, you get 6, which means that you turn the
>>> exam
>>> in at midnight. Otherwise, it probably has to be some kind of fatigue
>>> argument connecting to blindness and or other documented disabilities.
>>> Jim McCarthy
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: BlindLaw [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On Behalf Of Aimee
>>> Harwood via BlindLaw
>>> Sent: Wednesday, December 07, 2016 2:07 PM
>>> To: BlindLaw
>>> Cc: Aimee Harwood
>>> Subject: [blindlaw] Timing of Exams
>>>
>>> Hello everyone,
>>>
>>> I have a question regarding exams. Are universities allowed to schedule
>>> an
>>> accommodated exam earlier than the rest of the class? One of my exams is
>>> a
>>> night class. The rest of the class will take their exam at 6:00 PM. Over
>>> the
>>> summer, I also took an evening class and the exam started at 6:00 PM as
>>> well. I was given the option to take the exam early or the following
>>> business day. I chose the following business day. I requested the same
>>> for
>>> this exam and was denied. The reason given was that they do not remember
>>> why
>>> they gave those options for that particular exam and that it did not
>>> apply
>>> to any other exam.
>>>
>>> Aimee
>>>
>>> Sent from my iPhone
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>>
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-- 
Thank You
Shelley Palmadessa
shelleyrichards9 at gmail.com