Requesting & Processing Accommodation Requests

• The applicant should go to the nearest GED Testing Center for the correct form and some assistance. If you are an advocate for the applicant, you may need to go along depending upon the student’s capacity for independent action and self-advocacy.
  
  Alternatively, forms are available in this web site under the obvious title, "forms."
  

• Be sure that assessments by licensed diagnosticians have occurred recently since some "older" assessments of disabilities or conditions may be viewed as being too old to be currently valid. Each form will tell you how "old" the diagnosis may be to be allowable.
  
  A diagnosis by a qualified professional such as a psychologist, psychiatrist, medical doctor, learning disability specialist, or other professional must be done and proprerly recorded on the correct form for the request to be considered. In most cases, accompanying the form must be a letter from the licensed diagnostician / doctor.
  

• Be sure that licensed diagnosticians "talk to us" as they fill out the forms. Such "talk" should explain how the disability interferes with learning and testing AND what reasonable accommodations should be requested for the examinee.

• Make no assumptions. We won't.
  

• Return the completed forms to the local GED testing center or if you plucked the forms off of this web site, mail them directly to Murray Meszaros (me) -- mailing address is on the home page, right below the blue graphics and words. Don't forget the box number or your forms go to Latvia, New Zealand or Kenya.  Testing center staff should examine the forms for 100% completion, etc.and then forward the forms to the state office for “adjudication."

”What is the turn-around time?
From the time the documentation leaves the local test center and the forms are reviewed at the state level, two weeks will pass. Without your submitting fully completed forms with necessary supporting documentation, approval by the state office could linger into decades (that's a joke, but it does illustrate a point).

Do accommodations make the test easier?
No. Accommodations simply level the playing field much like self accommodations such as eye glasses help you do your best, but do not "make you smarter.".  Accommodations allow persons with disabilities to demonstrate what they know in a different, fair-to-all method.

What GED test accommodations need to be approved by the state office?

Extended time Frequent, supervised breaks Private room Large print with extended time Audiocassette version

Calculator, talking calculator (for Part Two of the Math test) Braille version -- Use of a brailler Deaf Interpreter for test instructions Printed instructions

What accommodations can be provided automatically (i.e. that do not require prior state office or local test site approval)?

Wearing hats with brims to minimize the effects of fluorescent lighting Priority seating to avoid distractions Large print test forms with normal time limit Earplugs -- hearing protectors Glasses with tinted lens, goggles, a magnifying glass Allergy/dust masks or other chemical sensitivity masks Gloves Straight-edge without any markings

One test per day Colored transparency overlays Clear overlays with colored highlighter Post-it notes to mark spatial direction Adaptive devices, such as pencil holders, muscle, skeletal aids such as wrist braces, etc. that the candidate provides Organizers/learning strategies written on scratch paper from memory Other similar aids that are compensatory, and which do not give an advantage to the test taker

NOTE: The chief examiner WILL EXAMINE he aids for security purposes.

What test accommodations are NOT permitted?

Test reader Computer testing / spell-checker (except in certain situations for particular disabilities) Rulers, weigh scales

Some GED page require the
free Adobe Acrobat Reader

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This site brought to you through the partnership of Utah State Office of Education (USOE), Utah Education Network (UEN) and Utah System of Higher Education (USHE). Send questions or comments regarding this site to murray [dot] meszaros [at] schools [dot] utah [dot] gov (Murray Meszaros) . This page last updated December 19, 2007 .