Employment Testing of Persons with Diasabling Conditions - IPAC

In the early 1970s the Commission opened field officea in Pittsburgh and
Philadelphia, at opposite endB of the state. Testing in each office was
conducted under local control. Because there was no standard policy on
accommodated testing, instances arose in which candidates with essentiallysimilar
disabling conditions were aceamnodated inconsistently, and sometimes
inappropriately. Worse yet, there was at least one instance in which the same
candidate was offered entirely different accommodations on successive
administrations of the same test. Moreover, the accommodation procedures the
Commission traditionally employed were oriented exclusively toward dealing
with commonly encountered physical disabilities. Although sensory-impaired
candidates were readily acconmodated, very little was known about ways to
provide assistance to those having disabilities other than physical. As a
consequence, little was done for such candidates.
Technological advances also proved to be a problem. By the late 1970s,
increasing numbers of visually impaired persons were requesting to be allowed
to use talking calculators or other types of electronic equipment to
compensate for the loss of visual cues used to solve problems. Yet the use of
such equipment during examinations was generally prohibited. The preferred
alternatives were to delete from examinations those items which required
calculations, or to provide extra tijne for testing but require the candidate
to perform calculations mentally. In retrospect, the latter solution was
particularly unfair because it introduced a dimension to the assessment
process beyond that required of other candidates.
As increasing numbers of the Commission's examinations shifted from
traditional written tests to instruments which incorporated writing exercises
or other work sample components, the adequacy of the accommodations
historically offered declined substantially. Clearly, a better approach was
needed.
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