[Perform-Talk] Accommodations for theory placement exams for master of music students

[Katelyn MacIntyre]

Hi Elizabeth,
That is always such a stressful process. Sounds like you’re doing the right thing. I would just keep following up with both the professor and the Disability Services every day or two. If they still do not respond, you could escalate it to the head of the department/Dean/whoever is the professor’s boss.
It sounds like possibly a mixture of accommodations could work for you. You could definitely do a lot of this orally. I’ve done that before for sure. Do you use braille music? You could at least have the score for the analysis put into braille music for you, by Disability Services, so you would have the actual piece in front of you, and then you could speak through your analysis to the person administering the exam. It seems like that would be a reasonable accommodation for Disability Services to provide. Additionally, if you use any electronic software that could be another way for analyzing or writing down dictation etc. But if orally with someone seems less stressful, then just go that route. Definitely keep all your emails so you have a record of how hard you tried to get this to happen. Best wishes for a smooth transition! You’ve got this! 
~Katelyn MacIntyre, M.M.
www.katelynmac.com
www.facebook.com/KatelynMacMusic
@KatelynMacMusic
President, National Federation of the Blind Performing Arts Division

> On Aug 7, 2025, at 1:46 PM, Leslie Hamric via Perform-Talk <perform-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> When I took my placement exams for Eastman, I took them over the summer so then we could talk about what books I would need and all that. I had to do them orally. And for the theory exam, I actually brought my Brailler along with me so I could write things down and then dictate them back to the person who was giving me the exam. Have you tried reaching out to the professor via phone call? I had no idea you transferred universities.
> Leslie Hamric
> Cello and Braille Music Teacher
> 
>> On Aug 7, 2025, at 12:22 PM, Elizabeth Sprecher via Perform-Talk <perform-talk at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> 
>> Hi All,
>> I wanted to look for some suggestions from anyone who has had struggles with trying to accommodate themselves or trying to advocate for accommodations for music theory and history placement exams before starting grad school.
>> I have been in contact with an advisor who is in charge of these theory placement exams, but he doesn’t check his email very often during the summer, and I sent him an email more than a week ago describing what accommodations would be best and what alternative ways of Looking at music would work best for me. The reason I did that was because the Disability service is here does not work very quickly. And everything has a process of requesting accommodations.
>> So I sent this advisor, a very long, detailed email, describing each part of the exam and what alternative options would work best for me with the limited resources that Disability services has and the limited resources that I have. I have not heard back from him, and I forwarded the email that I had sent to him, to Disability services, and I am supposed to have these exams done by next Friday.
>> I transferred to another University, because although my accommodations for the placement exams were very successful in theprevious university I attended, but this is a very different situation with professors who don’t understand how important it is to have things ready ahead of time.
>> Do you have any suggestions on how to navigate this? The exam includes everything from putting in notation to written theory, to oral skills, and an analyzing an entire piece. So I would like to know how to make this process faster for all of us.
>> My thought was possibly just doing the entire exam orally and dictating my answers to someone who would be able to write it down.
>> Thanks!
>> Elizabeth
>> 
>> Sent from my iPhone
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