Special Accommodations – ADA
ADA Accommodations
The ILBOE recognizes its responsibilities under Title II of the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) to provide reasonable, appropriate, and effective accommodations, including auxiliary aids to qualified examination candidates with disabilities.
Please click here for information and technical assistance on the ADA.
If a candidate seeks an accommodation, the candidate has the responsibility to make the request and provide all documentation to support the need for accommodation. The request is made using the Request for Accommodations form available on our website. The information supplied to substantiate a candidate’s request for an accommodation will be kept confidential to the extent provided by law.
The ILBOE will evaluate each request individually in accordance with the guidelines set forth under the definitions in order to provide appropriate and effective accommodation.
Once you are approved and are ready to submit exam applications, please select “Y” in response to the ADA question on every exam application. This ensures that your accommodations appear on your NTS in a timely manner. Do not make an exam appointment through Prometric until the accommodations are on your NTS. If your accommodations do not appear on your NTS, please contact the Help Desk at help@ilboe.org. You can also contact NASBA at ada_team@nasba.org
Disability Definitions
A disability is defined as a physical or mental impairment, limitation and/or restriction that substantially hinders one or more of the major life activities of an individual.
An impairment is a problem in body function or structure, an activity limitation is a difficulty encountered by an individual in executing a task or action and a participation restriction is a problem experienced by an individual in involvement in life situations: Physical impairment is a disability that limits a person’s physical capacity to move, coordinate actions or perform physical activities. It is also accompanied by difficulties in one or more of the following areas: physical and motor tasks, independent movement; performing daily living functions.
- Physical impairment is a disability that limits a person’s physical capacity to move, coordinate actions or perform physical activities. It is also accompanied by difficulties in one or more of the following areas: physical and motor tasks, independent movement; performing daily living functions.
- Mental impairment includes any mental or psychological disorder such as organic brain syndrome, emotional or mental illness and specific learning disabilities.
- A learning disability is further defined as individual evidence of significant learning problems, which substantially affect or limit one or more major life activities and that are not primarily due to cultural, conditional, or motivational factors.
The individual must demonstrate a) at least average overall intellectual functioning and b) show evidence of a significant impairment in one or more of the following areas of intellectual functioning:
- Cognition (Thinking)
- Difficulty to attend and concentrate
- Expression
- Memory (Ability for new learning)
- Reception (Perception and Verbal Comprehension)
Significant impairment is generally determined by a discrepancy of 1.5 standard deviations between the individual’s expected level of achievement and actual performance on reliable standardized measures of attention and concentration, memory, language reception and experience, cognition, reading, spelling, writing, and mathematics.
Further, determination of the learning disability shall be based on reliable standardized psychometric tests and a clinical history including medical, family education and occupational information.
