I read today that the Educational Testing Service (ETS) has reached a settlement with the US Attorney’s office “to resolve allegations of discrimination in violate of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.”
It is frustrating for me to see other testing providers winning plaudits for making education more accessible, while ETS is settling an ADA case… again.
The settlement agreement describes the case thusly:
“While the complaints varied by the particular circumstances, they all involved candidates with disabilities who stated that they were denied testing accommodations on the GRE and Praxis examinations, and/or that ETS delayed providing a final response to a request for a particular testing accommodation, thus preventing the testing candidate from taking the relevant ETS-administered examination with the needed testing accommodation. Furthermore, Complainants alleged unnecessary delays or confusing requirements to obtain and utilize needed testing accommodations.”
You can read the settlement agreement at the link above. If nothing else, read the accounts of the nine complainants. I found some of the quite shocking. The last two involve issues with at-home testing, which is something I have followed over the past few years. The details of the final complainant, in particular, made me see red:
“Approximately one month after ETS made at-home testing available to those in need of certain accommodations, A.C. was able to schedule an examination with the previously granted accommodations. During Complainant A.C.’s at-home examination, ETS’s third-party online proctor service appeared unaware of the previously granted accommodations and closed A.C.’s examination when he attempted to take an approved break. A.C. ultimately spent several hours with technical support seeking permission to return to his examination. When he was able to return, he did not use any of his approved additional breaks for fear of having his examination closed a second time. In light of the disruptions to his examination, A.C. sought to retake the GRE before the normal 21-day waiting period. ETS did not grant him permission to do so.”
As I’ve written here too many times, we should always strive to do better when it comes to at-home testing.
Anyway. The settlement agreement details four pages of actions ETS must take. The complainants will receive monetary relief of up to $10,000 USD. ETS management must attend an Americans with Disabilities training course. Attendance will be taken and provided to the United States.