Exam Accommodations

Disability Support Services (DSS) authorizes reasonable accommodations to students with disabilities to ensure that they are afforded the opportunity to fully express their knowledge of course material. In some instances, this requires modification of in-class exams and quizzes. DSS only authorizes this form of accommodation when a student has provided sufficient documentation detailing the appropriateness of this modification. It is the University's obligation to recognize and comply with students' authorized accommodations, which are protected by Federal and State access laws (Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, the ADA Amendments of 2008 and the New Jersey Law against Discrimination).

In the case of exam accommodations (i.e. extended time or providing a reduced-distraction testing environment),faculty OR DSS can provide the testing accommodations. DSS encourages faculty members or teaching assistants to proctor students' exams if they can provide the same accommodations that DSS can. If they cannot provide those due to time constraints or no staff for accommodations such as readers or scribes. When students take exams with faculty or TA’s directly it does allow for students to address any problems or questions that they may have to someone with knowledge of course content and departmental procedures.

If faculty are unable to provide these accommodations and would prefer DSS to proctor exams, the student must initiate the exam proctoring request by completing the Exam Proctoring Request Form by completing an Alternative Testing form in our AIM website. Each semester we will email you a faculty notification letter of accommodations that will include a link to our alternative testing agreement for your course where faculty can give us the proctoring information for the semester. You can edit that form as the semester goes on. You will continue to receive emails when students schedule exams and if the agreement has not been completed yet, you will receive an email with the link to complete it. We cannot schedule the student or make changes to their request such as exam time until you have provided the proctoring information in the agreement.

You can use our AIM system to login to see the letters for students in your courses to access the link for proctoring later on if you are unable to do it upon first receipt.

Please use your PirateNet credentials to access the AIM system here.

Faculty should discuss potential scheduling conflicts with students when arranging for exams that include an extended time accommodation. Extended time accommodations may not interfere with a student's regularly scheduled classes. If a professor plans to lecture after a quiz, be aware that students receiving extended time should not be required to miss portions of the lecture as a result of utilizing the time accommodation to which they are legally entitled.

Additionally, DSS is only able to offer its test proctoring services during the hours of 9:00 am – 4:30 pm Monday through Friday. If your course falls outside the scope of these hours, please call DSS to discuss if an alternative arrangement is possible.