The Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) provides reasonable and appropriate accommodations in accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for individuals with documented disabilities who demonstrate a need for accommodation. Examinees are informed of the availability of test accommodations in the SPEX Bulletin of Information, SPEX General Application Instructions, and the FSMB Website (www.fsmb.org).

The following information is provided for examinees, evaluators, medical school student affairs staff, faculty and others involved in the process of documenting a request for test accommodations. We strongly encourage applicants requesting test accommodations to share these guidelines with their evaluator and with therapists / treating physicians, etc., so that appropriate documentation can be assembled to support the request for test accommodations.

Definition

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and accompanying regulations define a person with a disability as someone with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities. The purpose of documentation is to validate that the individual is covered under the Americans with Disabilities Act as a disabled individual, i.e., the disability currently and substantially limits one or more major life activities.

The Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) provides qualified SPEX examinees who have documented disabilities in accordance with the ADA with appropriate auxiliary aids and adjustments that do not fundamentally alter the measurement of the skills or knowledge the examination is intended to test and that would not result in an undue burden to the FSMB.

Purpose

The purpose of accommodations is to provide equal access to the SPEX testing program. Accommodations "match up" with the identified functional limitation so that the area of impairment is lessened by an auxiliary aid or adjustment to the testing procedure. Functional limitation refers to behavioral manifestations of the disability that impede the individual's ability to function, i.e., what someone cannot do on a regular and continuing basis as a result of the disability. For example, a functional limitation might be described as the inability to control fine motor movement so that the individual is unable to a traditional computer mouse to record answers. An appropriate accommodation might be a large trackball mouse. Therefore, it is essential that the documentation provide a clear explanation for the identified functional impairment and a rationale for the requested accommodation.

While presumably the use of accommodations in the test activity will enable the individual to better demonstrate his/her knowledge mastery, accommodations are not a guarantee of improved performance, test completion or a passing score.