Reasonable adjustments and special consideration

This policy covers two different things that are easily confused. A reasonable adjustment changes how an examination is delivered to you and is arranged before you sit. Special consideration is a response to something outside your control that affected you on the day, and is considered after the sitting. Which of the two you need decides when you ask, what evidence CBA needs, and what CBA is able to do. This policy applies to every CBA examination.

Which of the two you need

Ask for a reasonable adjustment where you already know that sitting under standard conditions will not give an accurate reading of what you know. A disability, a long-term health condition, a specific learning difficulty, a sensory impairment, a temporary injury, or a recent operation are all reasons to ask. The request is made before you sit, and if it is granted your paper is set up differently.

Ask for special consideration where the sitting had already been arranged and something happened that you could not have planned for: a bereavement, an illness that began on the day, an accident, a technical failure. The request is made after the sitting, and what it can produce is a fresh attempt rather than a different mark.

If you are unsure which applies, describe what happened and ask. CBA will route the request rather than return it.

The principle: the conditions change, the standard does not

An adjustment changes how the assessment is delivered. It does not change what the assessment measures.

Your paper is assembled to the same published blueprint, drawn from the same item bank, to the same domain weightings, with the same number of questions. Every item in it has been reviewed and signed off by a named subject-matter expert, and the bank it came from has been audited for answer cueing domain by domain. The cut score is the pass mark set for that programme by a documented standard-setting panel and published on the programme page before any candidate sits the examination, so no candidate is examined against a figure that has not been settled. It is not moved for an individual candidate.

A candidate sitting with extra time is assessed against that same cut score. If they pass, the credential is the same credential, with the same three-year currency, the same recertification requirement and the same public register entry.

An adjustment is not recorded on your certificate or in the register

Your certificate does not show that an adjustment was made. Neither does your public register entry, which shows the holder’s name, the programme, the level, the scheme version, the issue and expiry dates and the current status, and shows no score and no information about how the paper was sat.

An adjustment is a fact about how you sat. It is not information an employer, a verifier or anyone else has any business seeing, and CBA does not put it anywhere they could see it.

Adjustments CBA can make

CBA examinations are delivered online, at a time and a place you choose. The following adjustments are available.

• Additional time. The examination clock runs on CBA’s server and the limit is fixed when your paper is assembled, so an extended limit is applied at the point your paper is created. Twenty-five per cent is the usual starting point: a ninety minute paper becomes one hundred and twelve minutes, a one hundred and thirty-five minute paper becomes one hundred and sixty-eight. More than twenty-five per cent is granted where the evidence supports it.
• Rest breaks. The clock does not stop when you close the tab, so breaks are given as time added to your limit rather than as a pause you trigger. Say roughly how much break time you need and it is added on top of any extra time granted for another reason.
• A paper with no time limit, within a window. Where the timer itself is the barrier, CBA can open your paper for a window of several hours on a day you choose and remove the limit inside it. You sit in one continuous session, and the examination rules on materials and assistance apply throughout the window exactly as they apply to a timed paper.
• A screen reader, magnification, speech input or a switch device. Each question is text with four options and standard form controls. You do not need permission to use any of this and you do not need to tell CBA in advance.
• A modified colour scheme or larger type. Try your browser’s own settings first. Where they do not achieve what you need, say what you need before you buy a voucher, and CBA will tell you whether it can be applied to your paper for that sitting.
• Permission to use assistive software. An agreed adjustment is a written permission, so using the software named in it is not malpractice under the examination rules. Software that supplies subject content, searches the internet or generates answers is not an adjustment and is not permitted to anyone.

Some arrangements do not need to be requested at all, because they are how every CBA examination already works. You sit at your own machine, in a room of your choosing, at a time you choose, with food, water and medication to hand. You can answer the questions in any order, change an answer before submitting, and if your browser crashes you re-enter the same voucher code and resume the same paper — on the same clock, which has not stopped meanwhile.

Adjustments at Practitioner and Professional level

The Certificate level is examination only, so the arrangements above cover it.

The Practitioner level adds assessed applied workbooks completed in a spreadsheet and checked to a tolerance. Adjustments to a workbook concern the time and the format: a longer period to complete it, or a version of the file that works with your assistive software. The tolerance is not widened, because the tolerance is the standard.

The Professional level adds professional experience confirmed by a named referee and an ethics undertaking. Where a disability affects how you can evidence your experience or reach a referee, say so and CBA will look at the format the evidence takes. The requirement itself stands: a database rule refuses to issue a Professional credential without a verified experience record, and CBA will not work around it.

What CBA does not offer

• CBA does not provide a human reader or a scribe as standard. If you need one, say so when you ask. CBA will tell you what it can arrange for your sitting before you buy a voucher, rather than accepting a booking it cannot deliver.
• Examinations are delivered online only. There is no printed paper, no braille paper and no arrangement to sit at a test centre.
• Examinations are set and delivered in English, and CBA does not offer a translated paper.
• CBA has not published an accessibility conformance statement for the examination platform and does not claim a conformance level it has not tested. If your access depends on a particular product or setting, name it in your request so that it can be checked against a live paper before you sit.

There is no charge for asking for an adjustment, for receiving one, or for asking for special consideration.

When to ask for an adjustment

Ask before you buy a voucher. A voucher is valid for twelve months from issue, so there is no advantage in buying first and asking afterwards.

Ask at least fifteen working days before the date you intend to sit. Requests are decided by the Head of Assessment within ten working days of CBA holding both your request and your evidence, and the remaining days are what it takes to set the arrangement up.

A request made closer to your intended date is still considered. It may not be in place for that date, and you may have to sit later.

Once granted, an adjustment stays on your candidate record for that programme and applies to a re-sit without a fresh request. Confirm it before each sitting, and tell CBA if what you need has changed.

What to put in a request

Send the request through the contact form. Include:

• the programme and level you intend to sit;
• what happens when you sit under standard conditions, described as an effect rather than a diagnosis;
• what you are asking for, in your own words;
• the assistive software or settings you use, named;
• whether the same arrangement has been made for you elsewhere;
• your evidence, or a note saying when it will follow.

You will be told the outcome in writing, with the reason, and with the arrangement described precisely enough that you know what your paper will look like before you open it.

Evidence for an adjustment

CBA asks for evidence proportionate to the request. A medical report is not required for everything, and a diagnosis is rarely the part that matters: what the decision turns on is the effect on you sitting a timed online examination.

No evidence is needed for a modified colour scheme, larger type, a screen reader, speech input, magnification, assistive software you already use, or having food, water and medication with you.

Evidence is needed where the request changes the time available: extra time, rest breaks, or a paper without a limit. Any one of the following is normally enough:

• a letter or report from a doctor, psychologist, occupational therapist or other qualified professional who has assessed or treated you;
• a diagnostic assessment for a specific learning difficulty;
• a Disabled Students’ Allowance letter, or a workplace needs assessment;
• a record of access arrangements granted by a school, college, university or another awarding body.

Evidence does not have to be recent where the condition is permanent: a diagnostic assessment made years ago still describes the same person. For a temporary condition the evidence should describe the current effect and how long it is expected to last, because the arrangement will be granted for a stated period rather than indefinitely.

Evidence should be in English, or accompanied by a translation.

CBA does not require you to obtain a new assessment for this purpose where you already hold something that describes the effect.

How CBA handles evidence about your health

Evidence of this kind is special category data under UK GDPR, and CBA treats it accordingly.

• It is read only by the people deciding the request.
• It is stored apart from your examination record, and is not visible to anyone assembling papers, reviewing items or verifying a credential.
• It is never given to an employer, a referee, or anyone verifying your credential.
• It is deleted twelve months after the last sitting at which the adjustment was applied. What is kept after that is the fact that an adjustment was agreed and what it was, so that you do not have to make the case a second time.

CBA asks for your explicit consent to hold this evidence, and you can withdraw that consent at any time. If you withdraw it, an adjustment that depends on it cannot continue, and you will be told so before anything is deleted. The privacy policy covers the rest, including your other rights over this data.

Special consideration: what it covers

Special consideration applies after a sitting, where something outside your control affected you on the day. It is not a route to an adjustment you did not ask for in time.

It covers circumstances such as:

• a bereavement at or close to the time of the sitting;
• a sudden illness, an injury, or an acute episode of an existing condition on the day;
• an accident or an emergency at home;
• a failure of the examination platform during your sitting;
• a serious and unforeseeable disturbance where you were sitting, such as an evacuation, a power cut, or a network outage at your provider.

It does not cover:

• preparation that did not go well, or a sitting you feel you rushed;
• a known condition that should have been an adjustment request made in time;
• a connection or a machine you already knew was unreliable;
• misreading the examination rules, the question count or the time limit;
• running out of time on a paper sat under standard conditions.

What special consideration can do

Where you were affected before you finished, CBA can void the attempt and issue a fresh voucher. You then sit again on a freshly assembled paper at no further cost.

Starting a paper does not spend your voucher, so a browser crash you come back from while the clock is still running costs you nothing: you resume the same paper. Once your time is up the voucher is spent, whether you submitted late or never submitted at all, because the paper was open to you either way. What special consideration produces is a new voucher rather than the old one restored, because a spent voucher cannot be returned to an unused state — the rule that stops one payment producing two credentials. A replacement runs for twelve months from the day it is issued, so waiting until you are well enough to sit does not eat into it.

Where CBA’s own session logs show a failure of the examination platform during your sitting, CBA voids the attempt and issues a fresh voucher whether or not you ask.

Where you completed the paper and did not pass, CBA can void the attempt and issue a fresh voucher on the same basis, if the evidence supports that the circumstances affected the sitting. A failed attempt appears in no public place: the register records credentials, not attempts.

Where you completed the paper and passed, there is nothing to apply. The credential is issued and it stands.

What special consideration cannot do

CBA cannot change a mark after a sitting. There is no percentage uplift, no allowance added to a score, and no discretion to pass a candidate who came close.

The cut score is set in advance by a standard-setting panel and is the same for every candidate on that programme. A mark moved afterwards to account for what happened to the candidate is no longer a measurement of what that candidate demonstrated, and a credential issued on that basis does not mean what the register says it means.

Special consideration returns the sitting. It does not return a result.

Asking for special consideration

Write through the contact form as soon as you are able, and in any event within thirty days of the sitting. If a bereavement or an illness made it impossible to write sooner, say so, and a later request will still be considered.

Include the voucher code, or the date and time of the sitting; what happened; when it happened in relation to the sitting; and your evidence.

CBA decides within ten working days of holding both your request and your evidence, and tells you the outcome and the reason in writing.

Evidence for special consideration

Proportionate here too.

• Bereavement. A death notice, an order of service, or a letter from a funeral director. A death certificate is not required. State your relationship to the person.
• Sudden illness or injury. A note from a doctor or pharmacist, a hospital discharge summary, an appointment record, or an ambulance or out-of-hours service reference.
• An emergency. A police or insurance reference, or a report made at the time to any body you contacted.
• A power or network failure at your end. An outage notice or a message from your provider, or the time the interruption began, so that it can be matched against the session log.
• A failure of the examination platform. Nothing. CBA checks its own logs.

Where you cannot obtain a document, set out what happened and when. CBA will check that account against its own session log.

If a decision goes against you

A refused adjustment, an adjustment granted in a form you do not accept, or a refused request for special consideration can be taken further under the complaints and appeals policy. It is reviewed by someone who was not involved in the original decision.

Say if you want the review completed before a particular date. A voucher is valid for twelve months, and a sitting can wait for a review.

Law, and where you sit

CBA is established in the United Kingdom and takes its obligations to disabled candidates from UK law.

Candidates sit worldwide. CBA does not state how the law of the country you are sitting in applies to your examination: where that matters to you, take your own advice.

CBA is not a regulated awarding organisation, and there is no statutory regulator above CBA for assessment decisions. A complaint about how CBA has handled your personal data can be made to the Information Commissioner’s Office.