[humanser] LCSW Experience

[Lisa Irving]

Hello all,

My heart goes out to you for having to deal with this very frustrating experience. Congratulations on passing the exam despite all of these hurdles.

There is something that I do not understand. How come the licensing exams and the GRE get away with requiring us, jaws users, to use their accessible format? If their platform is not set up to work with jaws or window eyes shouldn't they be required to change their platform? In the employment environment employers have been challenged when their platforms do not interface with adaptive software. For example a large chain of hotels was taken to court because Oracle did not interface with adaptive software.

From,
Lisa Irving

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jul 27, 2015, at 10:52 AM, Alyssa Munsell via humanser <humanser at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi everyone,
> 
> 
> 
> I know that, in the past, people have been interested in sharing experiences
> relating to getting ASWB licensure, so I thought I'd share mine. I passed
> the LCSW exam last Friday but not without serious issues along the way.
> Please forgive me for the long narrative. I want to ensure I share all
> relevant details and a lot happened.
> 
> 
> 
> At the suggestion of an ASWB representative, I submitted my request for
> accommodations in taking the exam about a month before I actually graduated
> with my MSW and could officially apply to take the test. At first, this
> appeared to pay off because my request was already approved by the time the
> ASWB said I can take the exam. The process for setting up an ASWB exam with
> accommodations, at least in MA, is that the candidate must first talk to
> representatives at the ASWB who handle accommodation requests. Those
> representatives and the candidates discuss what accommodations are going to
> be in place, and then they hand the candidate off to the Pearson View
> Accommodations department. It is the Pearson View Accommodations department
> that takes over the process from there. First, the ASWB representative
> explained that the exam is not accessible with JAWS, which I knew from
> members on this listserve sharing their experiences. She said that the exam
> will need to be put on a laptop that has an accessible version of it, and
> that a person will need to be with me to record my answers. I asked if I
> could have both a zoom feature and JAWS on the laptop with my exam because I
> work most effectively with the use of both, and she said that they cannot
> set up both a zoom feature and JAWS- it has to be one or the other. In that
> case, I had no choice but to go with the JAWS because I could not take the
> exam with just the zoom feature.  Having to take the exam on a separate
> laptop with a person recording my answers was definitely not ideal for me,
> but since the test platform does not work with JAWS, I had no other choice. 
> 
> 
> 
> For candidates who don't need disability accommodations, they can easily
> schedule a time and place to take their exam through Pearson View's online
> scheduling system, and the link to do this is given to them shortly after
> they're approved to take the exam. Candidates needing accommodations cannot
> use this online scheduling system because the Pearson View Accommodations
> department needs to work with the candidate's desired testing site to set up
> the accommodations. Therefore, the ASWB rep gave me the phone number for the
> Pearson View Accommodations department and said I need to set up my exam
> with them. I called them right away to set up my exam. The way this
> department works is that receptionists answer the calls and then gives
> messages to the accommodations team, who are the people who actually set
> everything up. I asked if I could have the direct phone number of who would
> be helping me set up my exam, and I was told that the staff do not have
> direct phone numbers. I called this Accommodations Department numerous times
> over a period of 5 to 7 weeks and would repeatedly be told that someone will
> get back to me. By the end of it, I was calling them every day and getting
> the same answer. A few times, they even gave me specific time periods when
> someone would call me but nobody did. Finally, someone did call me back and
> scheduled my exam for a couple weeks out. This process was extremely
> frustrating for me because many classmates I know whom I graduated with had
> already taken the LCSW exam and passed, and I was still trying to schedule
> mine. This is very important because, in MA, having a LCSW credential gives
> employment candidates a fairly significant advantage. This means that,
> ultimately, I was put at a disadvantage for employment opportunities because
> I have a disability and need testing accommodations.
> 
> 
> 
> As if the situation thus far was not frustrating enough, there were a lot of
> issues when I actually tried taking the exam. The staff knew I was receiving
> accommodations but was not familiar at all with the technology needed. There
> were a few technical glitches in the beginning of the test-taking process,
> and staff had to repeatedly call the technology department to ask what to
> do. It was very stressful in the midst of the already anxiety-provoking
> process of taking a major licensing exam. Thankfully, I passed despite all
> the hurdles. However, I just found out that it is going to take the ASWB
> about 2 weeks to approve me to pay the fee to officially become licensed. I
> am not licensed until I hear from ASWB and then pay that fee. Therefore, I
> cannot put that I have my LCSW in job applications until at least another 2
> to 3 weeks. 
> 
> 
> 
> I applied to ASWB to take the LCSW exam the day after I graduated, which was
> May 15th. I could not take the exam until July 24th. I know from talking
> with classmates without disabilities that the process did not take them more
> than 2 to 3 weeks, and it took me 10 weeks.
> 
> 
> 
> Marion Gwizdala gave me the contact info for the legal representative
> helping us with this issue, and I am going to submit this story. I really
> hope that, in the near future, people with disabilities will not need to go
> through this frustrating and unfair process to take an ASWB exam.
> 
> 
> 
> Alyssa
> 
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