Candidate Disability Policy

Disability Discrimination Act

APMG-International make every effort to comply with the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. Within direct employment by APMG-International and accreditation of trainers, consultants and IA professionals, each applicant is taken on merit and no prejudice shown in relation to gender, age, race, religion, physical or mental impairment or any other factor outside of the assessment criteria.

All of our open centre examination venues have excellent access for candidates attending examination sessions and reasonable adjustments can be made upon request for those candidates with access or support requirements to help them gain their qualification.

Candidates with access or support requirements

APMG-International makes every effort to ensure that candidates with access and/or support requirements are able to sit the examination within reasonable limits to ensure they have as equal a chance as any other well prepared candidate to pass the examination.

APMG-International believe that each candidate is different and that individuals will have differing access and/or support needs and as such we will make every effort to provide reasonable adjustments suited to individual access or support requirements. Examples of adjustments made for candidates in the past include:

These examples are indicative of the unique, flexible and adaptable approach that APMG-International take for candidates who reasonable adjustments, but it is by no means an exhaustive list of reasonable adjustments made in the past or those that will be considered for future candidates.

If you are thinking of taking the examination and require additional time or specific support then please contact your training organization who will liase with APMG-International and make the appropriate arrangements for you.

Candidates with Writing Difficulties

For a candidate who is unable to write for a long period of time due to a confirmed medical condition, the Examination or Qualification Boards have accepted the following procedures.

Guidelines

A doctor’s note should be provided, confirming the candidate’s condition.

The candidate is allowed to type their answers rather than write them, with the Invigilator / Proctor / Supervisor following the guidelines below:

Computer / Laptop Use

The computer / laptop to be used should ideally be supplied by the ATO / Invigilator / Proctor / Supervisor, not by the candidate, unless the candidate can confirm to the ATO / APMG-International that they need to supply their own. This may be the case for visually impaired candidates.

If delegates are authorised to use their own computer / laptop they must be advised that it must be cleaned of all relevant material (e.g. templates, copies of core guidance, mock / sample papers or practice answers, etc) and a technically competent member of the ATO will check that the systems have been wiped prior to the examination, from which time the computer / laptop will not be returned to the candidate until the examination starts. This check should be documented with signatures from both the ATO representative and the candidate on the Use of Electronic equipment in Examinations document available via the APMG-Network.

All machines must be cleaned of all programmes other than system files and a copy of Microsoft Word or other word processing programme. The ATO / Invigilator / Proctor / Supervisor must confirm this condition immediately before the examination is run and document this in the Notes to Invigilator booklet.

APMG-International recommend that while invigilating the examination the invigilator / proctor / supervisor sit at the rear of the room so that the screens are visible so they can more easily police any copy and paste activity or possible wireless connections to websites.

Each candidate’s document must be saved onto an electronic storage device (CD, disk, or USB key) clearly showing their candidate number and date of examination, immediately after the examination and given to the Invigilator / Proctor / Supervisor. The file name of the document should be <candidate number and examination date>. The invigilator / proctor / supervisor should check the disk and make a printed copy, and return both the disk and a printed copy of the document to APMG-International with the rest of the examination papers, in the usual manner. The examination will not be marked if a proper copy of the script is not provided.

The Invigilator / Proctor / Supervisor must delete the electronic copy of the answers from the computer / laptop after a copy has been created on storage media and a hard copy printed. This must include final deletion from the ‘recycle bin’.

Candidates may not copy any information into their answer papers, but must type all of their answers. However, despite the above precautions, it is possible that candidates may attempt to "paste" in text from reference documents, e.g. the Reference Manual for the product. Any such text detected during or after the examination by the ATO / Invigilator / Proctor / Supervisor is to be highlighted on the document. Marks will not be awarded for pasted text.

Examinations

The candidate should take the examination in a separate room to other candidates, as a clicking keyboard could be a distraction to them. Ideally, an invigilator should be provided for each room. However, if necessary a single Invigilator / Proctor / Supervisor can be used to monitor examinations in immediately adjacent rooms. If under exceptional circumstances this is not viable and the candidate needs to remain in the same room, all candidates must agree they will not be distracted and enter into an appeal.

Additionally APMG-International may offer extra time to candidates with writing difficulties on a discretionary basis. Requests should be made to APMG-International.

Only in very exceptional circumstances will APMG-International be able to offer oral examinations, in the event of a candidate being unable to write or type. Decisions will be made on a case by case basis.

Assessments

Candidates, who for security reasons, require a face-to-face assessment interview and who have mobility issues may request for the interview to be conducted at premises meeting appropriate accessibility. If you are thinking of applying for IA certified professional status and require both a face-to-face interview and a venue with specific accessibility then please contact APMG-International directly to discuss your requirements further.

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