Learner Perceptions of Extended Time Accommodations

Offers clear examples of common assessment design decisions that can disable learners.

For example, an online assessment with no means for a learner to mark up their test can slow their progress. Some learners need to be able to highlight or underline important parts of a question to maintain focus. If there is no way to mark up the test, the learner may need to reread the entire question multiple times, requiring more time; or they might miss important cues in the question, resulting in a low-quality response that is not reflective of their subject matter knowledge, only of their difficulty with the assessment design.

…students also commonly reported they use more of their extended time on computerized tests. Many indicated they prefer to be able to mark on their test, such as underlining important terms and circling and crossing out answer choices. Without the option to do so increases test time, according to students.

In this example, the assessment design (an exam distributed exclusively online) is incompatible with the learners’ test-taking strategies (underlining important parts of a question) and it is incompatible with their assistive technology, a pencil.

Circulating a print copy of the online exam questions could aid learners with and without disabilities to better demonstrate their knowledge and improve the efficiency of their test-taking, reducing the risk of submitting an incomplete exam.

Although there is variability across postsecondary institutions in the types of services andaccommodations provided for students with disabilities, testing accommodations are especially common (Lindstrom, 2007). These accommodations serve to alter the administration of a test (e.g., environment, format) and remove barriers (e.g., limited time, small print) that may impede students with disabilities from demonstrating their knowledge (Bolt & Thurlow, Citation2004; Lovett & Leja, Citation2015).

Clearly states the purpose of the extended time accommodation:

Extended-time accommodations provide students with additional time to complete assessments in order to reduce the impact of their disability on their assessment scores.

A variety of factors can limit the degree to which students with disabilities demonstrate their knowledge on a test. Notably, disability conditions often introduce irrelevant factors (e.g., slow processing speed, poor motor skills, anxiety) that are unrelated to what the test is intended to measure (i.e., relevant factors) but can explicably lower students’ scores (Bolt & Thurlow, 2004; Lovett & Leja, 2013). Thus, testing accommodations intend to eliminate these irrelevant factors so that the relevant factors (e.g., knowledge of science) can be accurately measured and portrayed…

…irrelevant factors that result from the student’s disability may introduce a problem with the construct validity of the test (Lovett, 2010). The test, then, is not an accurate and valid measure of the student’s knowledge when these irrelevant factors inhibit him or her from completing the test and therefore result in a lower test score (Sokal & Vermette, 2017).

Learners with disabilities commonly express a desire to be like everyone else, to not stand out because of their disability.

(Note this desire is a form of internalized ableism, and not all learners with disabilities experience the privilege of not standing out because their disability is visible as opposed to invisible.)

Despite the reported benefits of accommodations, students with disabilities also indicated facing obstacles to requesting and utilizing their accommodations. Namely, students reported that factors such as a desire for self–sufficiency, negative experiences with instructors, and a desire to avoid social stigmatization were important considerations in deciding whether or not to use their testing accommodations…

Citing Marshak et al. (2010) study, learners may opt not to use accommodations because of a fear of future ramifications. Specifically, students reported fears that “their disability status may be on their transcript, instructors would not write as strong of letters of recommendations… students reported that they felt like it was ‘asking too much of professors’ (Lyman et al., 2016, p. 128) when they requested accommodations.

Among the factors impacting a learner’s need to use extra time, two clear issues that relate to digital accessibility in assessment design emerged:

• test format e.g., online (example above)
• assessment designs that restrict the use of their test-taking strategies e.g. skip and return, or reading the whole exam to plan out their time before beginning.

This is an important finding relative to digital accessibility research because one strategy educators are often encouraged to use to combat the perceived threat of cheating is to block reverse navigation in an exam. This “feature”  prevents learners from using a skip-and-return strategy and from reading through the exam before starting. Do educators consider the extra time required when they employ these features? Do they consider the impact on the validity of the assessment?

Variable presentations of symptoms will influence their use of extra time accommodations.

three students indicated that their extended time usage is impacted by the presentation or symptoms of their disability (e.g., anxiety, distractibility). One student stated,“My disability isn’t something that it affects me all the time, but it is nice for the times that itdoes affect me negatively,” meaning that she utilizes a greater amount of her extended time insituations where her symptoms are present. Similarly, a student with ADHD attributed her usageto deficits related to her disability, coupled with test format. She indicated, “I have a slowprocessing speed and slow reading speed, so if there’s a lot more reading, I’m gonna take moretime. Or if there’s more complicated steps, I’m gonna take more time.”

This study identified key benefits of extra time accommodation as perceived by learners

• reduced anxiety
• opportunity to demonstrate true abilities

[students] are well–prepared and understand the material, it just takes them longer to read and process questions and formulate and execute responses. As an illustration, a student with ADHD and a psychological disorder stated: “It’s not that I can’t do the work, I consistently do the work, it just takes me longer. It allows me, I feel like, to showcase the abilities I do have, that just take a bit more time
than the average person.”

• improved grades

student described what may have happened had she not used extended time when she began college: “I would probably have failed some of the classes because I wouldn’t have been able to answer the questions in time without it.” Similarly, another student shared her experiences both before and after receiving extended time accommodations: “I’ve seen a huge improvement in my grades. The semester before I took tests at the [DSO], I was at the worst level of anxiety and I failed almost every other test. I haven’t failed a test through taking it at the [DSO] yet.”… Students went as far as saying that extended time has made a profound difference in their academic career.

Perceived obstacles to using extra time include:

• loss of access to the educator: In assessment situations that require a learner with extra time to take the exam separately from the class (e.g., in an centre for accessible learning), learners felt they missed out on the opportunity to ask the instructor clarifying questions and missed the opportunity to hear the instructor’s responses to other learners’ questions. They felt this puts them at a disadvantage as compared to learners taking the exam with the instructor present.
• social ramifications: other learners perceive the extended time as unfair to them, and needing to take the test in another location “outs” them as having a disability.