One of our students came to me the other day with a situation regarding his accommodation.

Background: the student has a condition that affects his fine motor skills leaving his handwriting illegible. One of the approved accommodations is a scribe during tests and quizzes. The instructor was concerned that the answers on the exams would be those of the scribe rather than the student.

Like the instructor mentioned above, you might be wondering how the scribe accommodation works. If you aren’t curious, then now is the time to skip to the next paragraph because here we go… The scribe (either a trained student worker or yours truly) meets the student in the testing center where the instructor has sent the test along with the meticulously completed Proctor Form. Did I mention that the scribe is trained? There are strict guidelines as to the role of the scribe. They are not to add or delete any information given by the student. Their responsibility is to record the answer, as dictated by the student; no adding, no deleting, no hinting, no fake sneezing while muttering an answer, and definitely no staring at the right answer while winking. The private testing room is monitored through a webcam for security and so I can observe the scribe at work.

If you can, trust the system. The accommodations that I approve are in place to mitigate the symptoms of the qualifying disability without altering the nature of the course.  As always, I am here if you have any questions.