Jane Jarrow

Lizzie , You have not only defeated the purpose of providing extended time, but you have made it LEGALLY necessary to give the student with a disability even MORE time. The extended time is not time added on to what the instructor thinks is necessary. It is an extension over the time everyone else is given. If you give everyone more time, then the student with a disability gets their extended time on top of that. Go back and review the section on extended time again. You seem to have lost the concept in there somewhere. The purpose IS to… >>>

Again, you have outlined the issue most eloquently, Donna. Studies show that providing extra time to students without disabilities on a test that is designed to be finished in a given amount of time does not significantly improve the performance of the student (as you say -- if you don't know the answer, all the time in the world won't change that). But providing extended time for the student with a learning disability CAN significantly improve their performance. Accommodations always focus on "each according to their need" and these students NEED more time to show the same amount of mastery.… >>>

Donna, You have just hit on an important element of student development that is all too frequently overlooked. While the student is in the postsecondary setting, we provide a kind of "safety net" by having someone assigned to make sure the student is receiving equal access. What too often happens, though, is that we are not as good (or don't take the time) to make sure that students learn how to manage their disability-related needs on their own while we are still around to help. The disability won't go away when they move on to the world of work. Logically,… >>>

Lizzie , I certainly can't argue that a blind pilot is a logical impossibility. But you may find it useful to read the exchange (just below your post to this forum) between Nick Matt and I. It may be more useful to you, in the long run, to focus on functional limitations instead of on categories of disability. When you are talking about things like being a pilot and being blind, there is such an obvious connection between the need to see and not being able to see that the distinction (functional limitations versus categorical exclusion) seems unimportant. And you… >>>