New accessibility options for testing

Counselling and Accessibility Services at Fanshawe College is tapping into the online world to make life much easier for a group of students.

Fanshawe is home to over 2,000 students with permanent, documented disabilities, and these students will now be helped with a new software that will allow them to book their tests online, rather than doing it manually on campus.

Lois Wey is the manager of the Counselling and Accessibility Services office in F2010, and she said that the new method, using a software called ClockWork, couldn't get any easier. “A student with a disability is able then, from home or their laptop ... to very easily and quickly book their test. They just need to do it at least seven days before the test or exam (by going) on to our testing wizard.”

The new method improves on the previous way to book tests, which was to manually acquire a sheet from the Counselling and Accessibility office, hunt down the professor for the course, and then find a room with available time to take the test. The new way is easy and, most importantly, it saves time.

The service has already been implemented during the summer session, to see what kind of reaction it would garner. “So far, (we've had) positive feedback,” said Dana Parkes, the AccessAbility Test Centre facilitator. “It's quick, it's easy; they get an immediate space booking at the Test Centre.”

If you are a student with a disability, you can book your next test or exam on FanshaweOnline under the Resources tab, on the Counselling and Accessibilities webpage or on each course site's homepage.