The Documentation-Accommodation Disconnect*
by Christy Lendman, Educational Consultant
*Excerpted from Lendman (2008).The Documentation-Accommodation Connection: Bridging the Gaps. Learning Disabilities: A multidisciplinary journal, 15(3), 85-89.
The number of students with disabilities attending postsecondary education continues to rise. According to Blackorby, more than half of students with learning disabilities have a transition goal of attending postsecondary education, and with that comes increased participation in state tests and entrance exams (2006). The National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES, 2005) reports that 61% of students used accommodations during state assessments. The General Educational Development (GED) Testing Service has experienced a 10-12% increase in accommodation requests (Gibson, 2008). Similarly, the Educational Testing Service (ETS) and the College Board both report increases in requests for testing accommodations (Brinckerhoff & Banerjee, 2007).
As students with disabilities attend postsecondary education and request accommodations on high-stakes exams, documentation of their disability and how it impacts their learning is even more important, and yet, a number of factors lead to a disconnect between the documentation and the requested accommodations. The purpose of this article is to identify those factors and offer possible solutions for bridging the gaps.
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