Testing Center Accommodations

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From the course by University of Pittsburgh

Disability Awareness and Support

112 ratings

University of Pittsburgh

Disability Awareness and Support

112 ratings

The goal of this course is to promote equal opportunity and the full participation of students with disabilities in higher education by helping participants advance their awareness of the meaning of accessibility in education. Participants will gain competence and confidence in working with students by focusing on legislation, universal design, and assistive technologies. Thank you to Abbas (Bobby) Husain Quamar, Graduate Student Researcher in the Department of Rehabilitation Science and Technology at the University of Pittsburgh, for his contributions to the course.

From the lesson

Accommodations and Assistive Technology

This week we describe the process used for deciding on reasonable accommodations for students with disabilities and the role of Disability Services in making this determination. We identify specific accommodations that students with disabilities might need in order to fully participate in life at the university.

Accommodations7:09

Testing Center Accommodations2:17

Assistive Technology2:57

Screen Reader Demonstration8:38

Meet the Instructors

Mary Goldberg
Assistant Professor
Human Engineering Research Laboratories

The mission of the University of Pittsburgh Testing Center is to

assist in the promotion of academic integrity

through the supervision of examinations in a private testing facility.

We have a diverse population of testers,

which includes Pitt students with disabilities.

The testing center works with the Office of Disability Resources and

Services to ensure that the students receive individualized accommodations

needed to adequately demonstrate their knowledge of course material.

We provide an alternative testing option for students with disabilities

that prevent them from taking exams in a standard testing environment and

format such as taking a paper and pencil exam in a large lecture hall.

We work with students with a wide range of disabilities.

So we offer various services to accommodate those needs.

Including extended testing time, and limited visual and auditory distractions.

Some students are allowed to take untimed breaks, and

allow food and drinks during the exam.

We also use assistive technology to record answers,

as an alternative to hand writing.

We administer audio exams and provide JAWS software, a screen reader program that

allows visually impaired students to read the screen with a text to speech output.

The testing center is also equipped with two private rooms which are available for

students who require a strict controlled environment.

These rooms are also open to students who are accompanied by their nurses,

those with readers and scribes and

those students with vocal tics that might disrupt other testers.

In order to use our services students with disabilities must register with

disability resources and services who will determine the appropriate accommodations.

The testing center administers exams for students and

returns the completed exams to the instructors.

The main communication occurs between the Disability Resources and Services and

the faculty, since DRS determines what accommodations each student needs.

There are some instructors who prefer to administer the exams themselves, but

we offer a great service for those who do not have the resources and/or the time

to provide specific accommodations necessary for students with disabilities.

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