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Test Accommodations Learning Disabilities

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Required Documentation

SPEX Accommodations Guidelines and Questionnaire

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III. Learning Disabilities

The following additional information is provided to clarify the documentation process for applicants submitting a request for accommodations based on a learning disability or other cognitive impairments.

The evaluation must be conducted by a qualified professional.

The diagnostician must have comprehensive training in the field of learning disabilities and must have comprehensive training and direct experience in working with an adult population.

Testing / assessment must be current.

The determination of whether an individual is "significantly limited" in functioning is based upon assessment of the current impact of the impairment. (See General Guidelines).

Documentation must be comprehensive.

Objective evidence of a substantial limitation in cognition or learning must be provided. At a minimum, the comprehensive evaluation should include the following:

	A diagnostic interview and history taking:
	Because learning disabilities are commonly manifested during childhood, though not always formally diagnosed, relevant historical information regarding the individual's academic history and learning processes in elementary, secondary and postsecondary education should be investigated and documented. The report of assessment should include a summary of a comprehensive diagnostic interview that includes relevant background information to support the diagnosis. In addition to the candidate's self-report of assessment, this should include: A description of the presenting problem(s); A developmental history; Relevant academic history, including results of prior standardized testing, reports of classroom performance and behaviors, including transcripts, study habits and attitudes and notable trends in academic performance; Relevant family history, including primary language of the home and current level of fluency in English; Relevant psychosocial history; Relevant medical history, including the absence of a medical basis for the present symptoms; Relevant employment history; A discussion of dual diagnosis, alternative or coexisting mood, behavioral, neurological and/or personality disorders along with any history of relevant medication and current use which may impact the individual's learning; and Exploration of possible alternatives that may mimic a learning disability when, in fact, one is not present.
	A psychoeducational or neuropsychological evaluation:
	The psychoeducational or neuropsychological evaluation should be submitted on the letterhead of a qualified professional, and it should provide clear and specific evidence that a learning or cognitive disability does or does not exist. Assessment should consist of a comprehensive battery of tests. A diagnosis must be based on the aggregate of test results, history and level of current functioning. It is not acceptable to base a diagnosis on only one or two subtests. Objective evidence of a substantial limitation to learning must be presented. Tests should be appropriately normed for the age of the patient and should be administered in the designated standardized manner. Minimally, the domains to be addressed should include the following: *Cognitive Functioning* A complete aptitude assessment is essential with all subtest and standard scores reported. Acceptable measures include but are not limited to: Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-III (WAIS-III); Woodcock-Johnson Psychoeducational Battery - Revised; Test of Cognitive Ability; Kaufman Adolescent and Adult Intelligence Test. *Achievement* A comprehensive achievement battery with all subtests and standard scores is essential. The battery should include current levels of academic functioning in relevant areas such as reading (decoding and comprehension) and mathematics. Acceptable instruments include, but are not limited to, the Woodcock-Johnson Psychoeducational Battery - Revised; Tests of Achievement; The Scholastic Abilities Test for Adults (SATA); Woodcock Reading Mastery Tests-Revised. Specific achievement tests are useful instruments when administered under standardized conditions and when interpreted within the context of other diagnostic information. The Wide Range Achievement Test-3 (WRAT-3) and the Nelson-Denny Reading Test are not comprehensive diagnostic measures of achievement, and therefore, neither is acceptable if used as the sole measures of achievement. *Information Processing* Specific areas of information processing (e.g., short- and long-term memory, sequential memory, auditory and visual perceptions/processing, auditory and phonological awareness, processing speed, executive functioning, motor ability) should be assessed. Acceptable measures include, but are not limited to, the Detroit Tests of Learning Aptitude (DTLA-A); Wechsler Memory Scale-III (WMS-III; information from the Woodcock-Johnson Psychoeducational Battery - Revised; Tests of Cognitive Ability, as well as other relevant instruments may be used to address these areas. *Other Assessment Measures* Other formal assessment measures or nonstandard measures and informal assessment procedures or observations may be integrated with the above instruments to help support differential diagnosis or to disentangle the learning disability from coexisting neurological and/or psychiatric issues. In addition to standardized test batteries, nonstandardized measures and informal assessment procedures may be helpful in determining performance across a variety of domains.
	Actual test scores must be provided (standard scores where available) as well as identification of norms used to interpret the data. It is helpful to list all test data in a score summary sheet appended to the evaluation.

	Records of academic history should be provided.
	Because learning disabilities are most commonly manifested during childhood, relevant records detailing learning processes and difficulties in elementary, secondary and post-secondary education should be included. Such records as grade reports, transcripts, teachers' comments and the like will serve to substantiate self-reported academic difficulties in the past and currently.
	A differential diagnosis should be reviewed, and various possible alternative causes for the identified problems in academic achievement should be ruled out.
	The evaluation should address key constructs underlying the concept of learning disabilities and provide clear and specific evidence of the information processing deficit(s) and how these deficits currently impair the individual's ability to learn. No single test or subtest is a sufficient basis for a diagnosis. The differential diagnosis must demonstrate that: Significant difficulties persist in the acquisition and use of listening, speaking, reading, writing or reasoning skills. The problems being experienced are not primarily due to lack of exposure to the behaviors needed for academic learning or an inadequate match between the individual's ability and the instructional demands.
	A clinical summary must be provided.
	A well-written diagnostic summary based on a comprehensive evaluative process is a necessary component of the report. Assessment instruments and the data they provide do not diagnose; rather, they provide important data that must be integrated with background information, historical information and current functioning. It is essential, then, that the evaluator integrate all information gathered in a well-developed clinical summary: Demonstration of the evaluator's having ruled out alternative explanations for the identified academic problems as a result of poor education, poor motivation and/or study skills, emotional problems, attentional problems and cultural or language differences; Indication of how patterns in cognitive ability, achievement and information processing are used to determine the presence of a learning disability; Indication of substantial limitation to learning presented by the learning disability and the degree to which it impacts the individual in the context of the SPEX; and Indication as to why specific accommodations are needed and how the effects of the specific disability are mediated by the recommended accommodation(s). Problems such as test anxiety, English as a Second Language, slow reading without an identified underlying cognitive deficit, or failure to achieve a desired academic outcome are not learning disabilities in and of themselves. Therefore, they are not covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act.
	Each accommodation recommended by the evaluator should include a rationale.
	The evaluator should describe the impact the diagnosed learning disability has on a specific major life activity as well as the degree of significance of this impact on the individual. The diagnostic report should include specific recommendations for accommodations. The report should also include a detailed explanation as to why each accommodation is recommended, and recommendations should be tied to specific test results or clinical observations. The documentation should include any record of prior accommodation or auxiliary aids, including any information about specific conditions under which the accommodations were used and whether or not they were effective. However, a prior history of accommodations, without demonstration of a current need, does not in and of itself warrant the provision of a like accommodation. If no prior accommodation has been provided, the qualified professional expert should include a detailed explanation as to why no accommodation was used in the past and why accommodation is needed at this time.