[NABS-L] A serious problem with required tests for university applications

[Guillem León]

Hello list members,
My name is Guillem Leon, and I am a 17 year old blind student from Spain.
Around the end of last year, after attending a piano academy at Indiana university, I decided to do my best to apply for a Bachelor of Music degree there, and start my studies in the fall 2018 term. The application process for the university went quite smoothly, and I also decided to apply to University of Michigan. The problems started when I applied for accomodations for both the SAT (administered by College Board) and the TOEFL (administered by ETS).
My accomodations were approved in the first week of January for both tests. From that moment on, it should not have been much of a problem to get the test materials shipped to a test center, take the test and send it back for review. But because of the fact that usually things are handled by a school's SSD coordinator, and there is no such thing in Spain, none of the representatives knew what to do and gave me conflicting information, making the process quite literally impossible.
My university gave me a deadline for scores of April 1st. Through the Office of International Services, I managed to move that deadline to April 25th. It is March 26th. After many problems and a formal complaint letter (attached below), I managed to take the TOEFL last week. Unfortunately, that is not the case with the SAT, and even though I did also write a complaint letter to them (also attached below) they are now only giving me the option to possibly take it in Braille, even though neither I or the test center have easy access to a Braille writer, and I am not familiar with grade 2 Braille or UEB. According to them, they do not offer digital computer-based tests, although all of the practice tests on their site are in Word format and nicely marked up for accessibility.
Even if I were to take that test next week, the scores will most likely not be ready by the university deadline. I have spoken to the Indiana University Office of Students with Disabilities, and they are trying to contact the College Board to confirm this information. I even had to fax the College Board a letter stating I was OK with them releasing my information to the university, and now that they seem to have responded to my complaint letter and may let me take the test, I'm scared that they will tell them that there are no problems with my case. For clarification, a representative of the College Board SSD told me my case notes were not only the longest he had seen in his life, but had also been edited by no less than 13 different representatives. It seems that if you are both international and require accomodations for disabilities, nobody knows what to do with you.
University of Michigan already cancelled my application for this exact reason a couple months ago, without refunding my application and audition fees, of course. Indiana University has been understanding enough to give me extra time, but they can only do so much. Because of my extended deadlines, I am technically no longer applicable to receive a scholarship, and my family cannot possibly hope to cover the costs associated with the degree (IU estimates over $50,000). Financial aid is not available to non-US citizens. I expressly travelled to Indiana for four days in March to perform at a live audition, with all the associated costs. I mentioned to both the College Board and ETS that, if my application to IU were to be cancelled because of these issues, I would do my best to take legal action, but I do not know where to start with that as an international student. Because of incompetence on the College Board and ETS's part, this whole process may all have been in vain.
Is there anything else that can be done? Failing that, what would be the most effective way to take legal action towards this matter?

Quoted below are my messages to the College Board and ETS, which explain in more detail the whole process I went through. After these complaint letters, ETS rectified and allowed me to take the test at an SAT test center which had been agreeing to test me all along, and the College Board has partly started to do the same.

Thank you so much for reading.

Complaint letter to the College board:
> I WOULD LIKE THIS E-MAIL TO BE FORWARDED TO A MANAGER/SUPERVISOR.
> 
> Hello,
> My name is Guillem león Vivas. I am a blind 17 year old student from Spain. I am applying to an American University for the fall term, and thus, I am required to take the March SAT. Unfortunately, so far, it looks like this will be not be possible, for some unacceptable reasons. Not only were there huge delays in processing (which were past your official estimations) and ignorance on the College Board side which caused issues in my SSD accomodations request, but I am now getting completely contradictory information from within the SSD department.
> 
> My accomodations request was approved on january 4, 2018, about a month after my forms were sent. Three days after I received confirmation of this fact, on 1/11/2018, I attempted to start the registration process and found my first problem: The system did not accept my SSD number for seemingly no reason. I immediately E-Mailed the SSD department about this fact and received a reply soon after, instructing me to sign up with a random test center and no accomodations so that my SSD number could be put in later (Ref: 180108-000210). I did this and E-Mailed the SSD department again. For some unknown reason, my case was handled by another representative, and I was told to contact the standard SAT department, even though the issue was clearly with the SSD numbers.
> I contacted the standard SAT department through E-Mail. The exchange did not make any sense. At first, I told them about a problem regarding the accent on the O in my last name, just to make sure I did not need it as long as it matched my college application. They responded accordingly and asked for some information regarding my SAT application. In my next E-Mail, I provided this information, and explained the main issue with the SSD, as I had been insturcted to by them in the "original inquiry" part of the form, which I assumed was the most important. Their next E-Mail completely ignored that original inquiry and kept insisting on the name problem, which I had specified had been fixed. There was no mention to my original inquiry. i responded to the E-Mail and explained the issue all over again. This E-Mail received no response.
> At this point I switched to phone calls, as I thought this would make things easier. I called the Standard SAT department on 01/23/2018 and, of course, was transferred straight back to SSD. After explaining the problem again, they found the cause of my issue: the person tasked with entering the information I had provided in the paper-based form I was sent had somehow decided to ignore my second last name, and my name on file with SSD and the one I had typed into the registration form did not match. This issue, even though clearly a problem on the College Board side, had to be taken care of by sending in a name change request form. We did not have an easy way to send a Fax, so it took a bit less than a week to send the request form. This was within the deadline the representative had specified, which was actually march 8th.
> I received no confirmation of the fact that the form had been received for almost two weeks, so I called in again. As it turned out, my form had been received, but had not been acted to, again for some unknown reason. A few days later my accomodations were added to my registration and that seemed to be the end of my problems, until I called in to confirm my test center.
> 
> The College Board SSD department seems to have very little information on how to react to an international blind applicant. Since the College Board tests are not standardizd here, most of our schools are not affiliated with you and do not have an SSD coordinator. This is something your representatives did not seem to understand. I was being told by different people to find a different test center in my area, and to tell the College Board about my school because taht was the only place where I could actually take the test. I asked a representative to give me more direct information in writing and I was told I would receive an E-Mail. This E-mail never arrived.
> A week later, on 01/27/2018, I got my school involved with the process. They called in and asked about testing me, and were told to send a fax saying they were willing to test me to +1 606 336 1489. This number did not work.
> The next day they called again and asked for an explanation. They were given a second number, (+1) 609 771 7944, to which they sent the fax. Aftre that, they called back and asked for confirmation that everything was correct. The person they spoke to, however, said that they could not administer my test because they weren't registered. According to Code Control, the school registration process would take about two to three weeks, which was too long for the required dates, so they asked for an alternative location. We were given the information for the ES International School (ESIS), and we have been in contac with them ever since.
> After explaining my situation and accomodation requirements, Adela Gavozdea of ESIS instantly gave us confirmation that they would be willing to administer my test. I called the College Board and informed them of this fact, and they told me that ESIS would have to send a "willingness to test letter" by fax, which they did that same day.
> The next day, on 03/01/2018, I had to leave for the United States to perform the auditions at the Univresity I applied to. When I got there, I was told by my school that ESIS had told them that the College Board had said that it was OK for my school to test me. They called the College Board to confirm this, and were told by an agent (quite rudely accoding to them) that everything was correct and there was nothing else to be checked, and that the materials were to arrive on Wednesday. At this point, everything seemed OK, so we relaxed and waited.
> 
> This did not last long. On Tuesday, March 6th, I received an E-Mail from Nicole Stoop, informing me that there was no test center assigned to me. I replied, explaining the situation and telling her that there had been negotiations with both ESIS and my school, and that they could test me. To my surprise and absolute disbelief, her next reply informed me that not only it was impossible for my school to test me, but that no materials had been shipped at all. I immediately called ESIS and the College Board to verify this. The former told me what I already knew: THEY were told that my school could test me and had no idea where this new information came from. The latter, after a 28 minute call, told me they literally did not know anything about this case, and that as Ms. Stoop said, it was not possible for my school to administer the test. At this point I could do nothing but wait until the next day to see if the materials arrived. They did not.
> As the person who talked to my school earlier had insisted hat everything was correct and did not say where the materials had been sent, we were worried they may have been submitted to ESIS. We called them, but they could not verify this, since they cannot open up the test materials until test day. To this day we have no idea where the materials were sent, if they were sent at all.
> I called the College Board again and, predictably, received the same response. I managed to obtain the reference number for the case from my school (Ref: 180228-003279), but by the time I called again, I did not manage to speak to anybody. At this point, fearing I would never get my SAT on time, I E-Mailed the university's Office of International Services asking for a waiver. I have yet to receive a response from them.
> Yesterday, I called again, but only one person was there because of the snowstorm. This happened to be a supervisor, André, so I thought this would finally get cleared up. I gave him the reference number which supposedly contained the information about the shipping of the test materials (Ref: 180228003279), and he found nothing. He indicated I should call again the next day so that he could talk to the shipping department. I will be doing that later today.
> 
> As it stands, it looks as if I will not get my SAT on time. I have no idea how it is even possible for one department to have so much disorganization
>  regarding one case, and how it is possible that nobody seems to be able to handle the case the same way, even though I have been providing my reference number in every call. I have practiced for months for my auditions, gone through the application process and payd application and audition fees, and even traveled to America to perform, with all the associated huge costs, after the College Board told me that everything was settled, which turned out to be untrue. I am having similar issues with ETS with the TOEFL test. These are all problems outside of my control and understanding, and if I do not manage to take my test before April 1st, which is the deadline that the university has given me, I will lose my application and will have wasted a huge amount of time and money, simply because of a lack of organization on your part.
> If I lose my application, I will do what I can to take stronger legal measures.
> 
> I hope this issue can be sorted out soon. The university's disability services will also be contacting the College Board today. I am hoping you will at least be able to give them some actual information.
> 
> Thank you.
> 
> 
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Guillem León Vivas
> SSD number: xxxxxxxxxx
> SAT registration number: xxxxxxxxxx

Complaint letter to ETS:
> I WOULD LIKE THIS E-MAIL TO BE FORWARDED TO A MANAGER.
> 
> Hello,
> 
> My name is Guillem Leon Vivas, and I am a 17 year old student from Spain. I am also completely blind, and as such, I am in need of accomodations for the TOEFL. This is why I had to work with the Services for Students with Disabilities department of ETS.
> I initially applied for accomodations with a "CoE: accomodations history" on 11/20/2017. On 11/28/2017, I received my initial turnaround letter. It seemed as if the CoE was not enough documentation, so I resubmitted my registration forms on 12/06/2017 with more documentation.
> Almost a full month later, on 01/05/2018, I received a reply from Ms. Nora Hallenbeck, indicating that my accomodations request had been approved, and asking me for more clarification as to which ones I needed and how they could be delivered. I replied to that E-Mail on that same day providing the information you requested.
> I waited for eleven days, which is way past the 3-5 business days estimate your system gives any customer. After those eleven days, on 01/16/2018, I wrote to ETS again asking for confirmation that my E-Mail had been received. Once again, I received no reply.
> On 01/23/2018 I wrote to ETS again with a similar message. No longer having faith in getting a reply, I figured out a way to call ETS directly from Spain and spoke with your representatives. There was seemingly no valid reason for my E-mails not being answered other than "lots of work". I can understand that the SSD may have to deal with many cases, but I was not only asked on EVERY E-Mail to reply as soon as possible, I was also given an estimate for replies which you did not come even close to respecting.
> I received an E-Mail not even 24 hours later offering me the test formats I could take. My choice had already been expressed in a previous E-Mail, but on that same day, I replied to the message and chose a full computer-based test. For the rest of the day, communication went smoothly and the test center was supposedly contacted. As soon as I indicated that I was fine with testing on a weekend, Ms. Hallenbeck stopped responding for another few days. On 01/29/2018, I was told that the test center only had Mac computers and I would have to use VoiceOver. I indicated, on that same day, that this was perfectly fine for me, as my main system is Mac OS.
> I received absolutely nothing for two weeks after that. On 02/14/2018, I E-Mailed ETS again asking for an update. This E-Mail was never replied to. I called in the next day and spoke to Ms. Hallenbeck, who claimed she had not received my E-mail. She said there were some issues contacting the test center. I was quite skeptical about this, as it had already been two weeks and I found it slightly strange that you couldn't have simply called them. I was not told which test center was being contacted, and I was also told there was nothing I could do on my side. At this point I was getting seriously worried. The university which I applied to has their TOEFL and SAT deadline on February 1st, which I had not been able to comply with because of these huge delays in communication. I was already on an extended period until April 1st.
> on 02/19/2018, i called again asking for an explanation. This was the first call in a series of four in the space of three days. On all instances I was told that Ms. Hallenbeck was not at her desk and nobody else seemed to have a clue about my situation. At that point I was getting ready to leave for a few days to do my piano auditions at Indiana University Bloomington.
> At the same time as I was trying to fix my issues with the TOEFL, I was also having similar (if not worse) problems with the SAT. For that reason I had to contact the ES International School in Barcelona. This school, as far as I now understand, is also an ETS-approved testing center, which I did not know before. The school seemed to have no problem agreeing to test me, and my calls to them were answered promptly and were given relevant responses. I am unable to understand how it is possible that I, as a student, was able to contact the testing center about a similar issue and get it sorted out in mere days, while the ETS SSD department was unable to do it in MORE THAN THREE WEEKS.
> I have made 3 calls to ETS in the last two days. Almost predictably, Ms. Hallenbeck was not at her desk for the first two. I spoke to agent #61547, who tried to handle my case and forward me to Ms. Hallenbeck. When I finally managed to contact her yesterday, there was no reason given for the delay. I was told there had been issues contacting the test center yet again, that ETS would be closed today because of a snowstorm, and that she would try to contactt the test center on Thursday. My offer to contact them myself had no effect and she said that would not help.
> This, in my view, is not acceptable. I have been following all of ETS's supposed deadlines and even waiting extra for all the problems I was told we were having. I am now being told that it has been impossible to contact test centers in my city for over three weeks, when I was able to get a hold of them by dealing a phone number. I am being given no explanation as to the unavailability of my processor and I am at the risk of having wasted countless hours and a huge sum of money for application and travel to the university because of problems not only beyond my control, but also beyond my ability to understand. The score review process takes three to six weeks. Having had to deal with your response times, I assume this means at least six weeks. Even if my test could be graded in exactly three weeks, and even if somehow the test was shipped and taken this weekend on 3/10 and 3/11, my scores would still not be in by the university deadline. I cannot believe it is so hard for an international and disabled student to apply for such a standardized test as the TOEFL.
> 
> Indiana University has E-Mailed me very recently informing me of my April 1st deadline. I have payd for my application, my audition fees, and have spent months preparing and practicing for my audition. I have spent a large sum on travel expenses for audition weekend and my contacts within the School of Music had no trouble finding ways for me to get around the campus in those two days, even though it was not their obligation in any way. I have followed all of ETS's instructions, and even though, as far as I understand, it is ETS's job to provide the test and maintain contact with the student, it is March 7th and I have yet to have my test scheduled, let alone scored. The loss of my application means the waste of a huge amount of time and money. If I do, it will be because of circumstances beyond my control and due to the SSD's response time and organization. If I lose my application to the Indiana University, I will be forced to take stronger legal measures.
> 
> I expect there to be some way to sort out this problem and to have my scores by the April 1st deadline. I will be sending a similar complaint letter to the College Board, as their process has been equally problematic and their SSD department is giving me contradictory information. I do hope this issue will be fixed soon.
> 
> Thank you.
> 
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Guillem león Vivas
> ETS ID: xxxxxxxx


Sincerely,

Guillem León Vivas