9 Assignment Accommodations

Please note that when a student wished to use the accommodation for Up to 7-Calendar Day Extension on Assignments (as required and where possible), they are required to notify a member of their teaching team prior to the assignment due date. In some situations, the provision of a full 7-day extension may not be possible. In those situations, the instructor and student should work together to understand what an appropriate assignment extension might look like.

Common Assessment Accommodations

Please note that accommodations that adding an assessment to be administered through the Queen’s University Exam’s Office ensures that the instructor is not required to manage accommodations that may impact scheduling, room allocations, or time of day restrictions. Visit the Ventus Support page of the Centre for Teaching and Learning for more information about Assessment Accommodations and Ventus.

Below, you’ll find more information on common assessment accommodations:

• Exam Frequency
• Exam Room Size Restrictions
• Time-of-Day Restrictions
• Extra Time
• Screen Use Support
• Use of Computer
• Other Assessment Accommodations
• Memory Aids

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Exam Frequency

You may see the following accommodations on Ventus:

How to implement this accommodation:

Create a list of students who require a makeup test/exam. You may also wish to reach out to the instructor of the other classes in cases where there are multiple students with the same exams so that only one of you must defer for those students.

It is important for the teaching team to not be too rigid with the assessment schedule so that students with various accommodations can be supported. Students should make arrangements with their teaching teams across their courses if they have more than one test/exam scheduled in a day. In the case of a teaching team offering only one writing date, another teaching team may be forced to accommodate the student instead, rather than all parties compromising and supporting the student’s schedule together.

Please be as flexible as possible in cases where a student has a conflict due to an accommodation. Not only will your flexibility better support the student, but it will support your colleagues’ schedules as well.

Please note that if a student must have a test/exam rescheduled due to a scheduling conflict of this nature, the student does not get to determine the new date/time.

Why might a student need this accommodation? (Please note, this is not an exhaustive list)

For more information, see QSAS/Academic Accommodations.

Exam Room Size Restrictions

You may see the following accommodations on Ventus:

• small classroom (up to 30 students)
• semi-private (up to 7 students suitably spaced OR up to 35 students seated at individual carrels)
• private (single student)
• seated at carrel desk

How to implement this accommodation:

Exam room size specifications are a good example of how important it is for the teaching team to reach out to establish rapport and demonstrate a willingness to communicate about the students’ accommodation(s).

• Reaching out to the students to inform them how many students will be writing and asking if they can be flexible or if they would like to use their accommodation is very helpful for all when scheduling a large group of students for a makeup test/exam.
• Please be aware that students may still choose to use their accommodation, and that is okay! Students should not be encouraged to not use their accommodation(s) and the conversation can be as simple as a yes or no response from the student.

It is important to note that even if a student chooses not to use their accommodation(s) for one assessment does not mean that they will never use them. Accommodations remain in place even if students make the decision not to use them at any given time. Disability is not a constant, ever-fixed condition.

Why might a student need this accommodation? (Please note, this is not an exhaustive list)

For more information, see QSAS/Academic Accommodations.

Time-of-Day Restrictions

You may see the following accommodations on Ventus:

• no morning exams
• no afternoon exams
• no evening exams
• morning exams only
• afternoon exams only
• evening exams only

How to implement this accommodation:

As is the case with the exam room size accommodations, students with a time-of-day accommodation may be flexible and able to write at a different time of day. As long as you are supportive of whatever the student decides, it does not hurt to reach out and have a conversation with the student to see if they would be willing to write at a time outside of their accommodations.

Why might a student need this accommodation? (Please note, this is not an exhaustive list)

• The student may be taking a medication at a certain time of day that causes symptoms (e.g., drowsiness) so they require a specific test-writing times to ensure they can focus.
• The student may have a physical disability and experiences flare-up symptoms more strongly during certain times of the day.

For more information, see QSAS/Academic Accommodations.

Extra Time

You may see the following accommodations on Ventus:

• “Extra time – 15 min per 1 hour exam” (aka 1.25 x)
• “Extra time – 30 min per 1 hour exam” (aka 1.5 x)
• “Extra time – 45 min per 1 hour exam” (aka 1.75 x)
• “Extra time – 60 min per 1 hour exam” (aka 2 x)
• “Full amount of extra time for assessments less than 1 hour.” In other words, if a student has a “15 minutes per 1 hour” accommodation, a 30-minute quiz for that student means that they would receive 45 minutes (30 + 15) and not 37 minutes (30 + 7). If you have students with this accommodation, and have onQ quizzes with a writing time of less than 1 hour, you will need to place their time accommodation on the onQ quiz itself through the special access function and manually override the time limit for that student instead of relying on the time modifier function applied in the Classlist. Please consult with Queen’s Centre for Teaching and Learning for onQ support.

How to implement this accommodation:

• For online tests and exams, use the “Edit Accommodations” function in the onQ classlist to adjust the extra time that a student receives for each test/exam. Feel free to reach out to the CTL for onQ support.
• For in-person tests and exams, book students with extra time accommodations in a separate room. The proctor should be given a list of accommodations.

How to not implement this accommodation:

A common UDL practice is to accommodate a test or exam up to a certain amount of extra time. For example, providing all students with 1.5 hours to write a 1-hour test. With this practice, it is sometimes argued that students with up to 1.5x extra time accommodation are already accommodated, so they should be able to write with the rest of the class. However, to be equitable, students with an extra time accommodation should be provided their extra time in addition to the extra time given to students that do not have an extra time accommodation.

This is a good example of how UDL is an excellent tool for reducing barriers in assessment design, but it does not erase, eradicate, or solve disability. UDL will not reduce the number of accommodations being requested. Instead, it “aims to change the design of the environment rather than to change the learner” (CAST 2018).

Why might a student need this accommodation? (Please note, this is not an exhaustive list)

• The concept of “Disability Time” (also referred to as “Crip Time” in critical disability studies) refers to the amount of extra time that is built into the experience of a disabled person that may not be a part of a non-disabled person’s experience,  e.g.,  a student with a learning disability impacting written language decoding who implements the academic strategy of reading slowly and purposefully; a student with Generalized Anxiety Disorder who requires additional time on an assessment to support self-regulation strategies during an exam.

For more information, see QSAS/Academic Accommodations.

Screen Use Support

You may see the following assistive technology accommodations on Ventus:

Why might a student need this accommodation? (Please note, this is not an exhaustive list)

• The student may have a learning disability which requires the use of software to support learning and test taking strategies.
• The student may have a vision disability which requires assistive software to support accessing material.
• The student may have a physical disability and requires software to support typing strategies.

For more information, see QSAS/Academic Accommodations. Some students may also use the Adaptive Technology Centre to support them with their accommodations. The Adaptive Technology Centre is also available to assist the teaching team with developing course materials in alternate formats upon request.

Use of Computer

You may see the following accommodations on Ventus:

• Computer for written-response
• Laptop/tablet
• Computer with spell/grammar check
• Computer for all tests/exams

Why might a student need this accommodation? (Please note, this is not an exhaustive list)

• The student may have a learning disability that is supported by learning or test taking strategies involving the use of a computer.
• The student may have a physical disability making the use of pen and paper inaccessible.

For more information, see QSAS/Academic Accommodations.

Other Assessment Accommodations

You may see these additional assessment accommodations that do not fall into one of the categories listed above:

• Clock in exam room
• Font – sans serif
• Large print
• Permission to look away from screen
• Permission to verbalize questions/answers out loud
• Reader
• Stretch/rest breaks
• Scantron exempt
• Scribe
• Split exams over 2 adjacent exam slots

How to implement this accommodation:

• The Central Exams team handles accommodations for those exams administered by the Exams Office only (e.g., mid-year and final exams in December and April). Please see the Office of the Registrar’s page for faculty information regarding Exams for more information.
• For in-person tests and exams not administered by the Central Exams Office, book students with extra time accommodations in a separate room. The proctor should be given a list of accommodations.
• The instructor is responsible for administering exams if their exam includes any of the following, as per the Office of the Registrar:
  • Listening components: Any exam with a listening component must be a privately administered exam.
  • Visual slide components: Any exam with a visual component must be a privately administered exam.
  • Computers: Any exam to be completed online or with the use of a computer (aside from the use of Word or specialized software as part of student accommodations) must be a privately administered exam. This includes using a computer or website as a notes source, or accessing remote proctoring platforms to complete the exam.

Why might a student need this accommodation? (Please note, this is not an exhaustive list)

• The student may have a vision disability that requires a certain size or type of font.
• The student may have a learning disability that affects focus.
• The student may have a physical disability which requires a reader to verbally read the content to them, or a scribe to write or type the student’s answers.
• The student may have an injury or physical disability that causes discomfort and requires movement breaks to manage symptoms.
• The student may have a learning disability that causes hyperfocus and requires movement breaks to break their focus.

For more information, see QSAS/Academic Accommodations.