Passthepotatoes,
I absolutely agree that OT, PT, and teaching compensatory strategies should be a top priority for families with children who have motor issues, dysgraphia, perceptual deficits, and other input, processing, or output challenges. It has taken years of intensive (5 days a week plus home program) OT, PT, and vision therapy to get my son to the point where he is. We continue to work on his visual and motor skills and strategies on an on-going basis.
If you can help your child develop the skills to be able to manage a test like this without needing accommodations, that should absolutely be the goal - not because then you won't have to fight the testing companies (although that is certainly something you want to avoid if you can), but because those skills are going to make the rest of your child's life so much easier. I am thrilled that my son can now manage to write down a phone number if someone calls while we aren't home - even if it takes him 5 minutes to do it, and he is the only one who can read it back to us. I'm not being sarcastic, BTW - it really is a big deal.
We have never accepted the idea that these kinds of disabilities should just be accommodated without attempting remediation if remediation or rehabilitation is at all possible. I think that that is cruel. It could permanently close off a lifetime of options and opportunities that might otherwise be open. But we have also never accepted the idea that disabled children should have their intellectual gifts dismissed or ignored because they can't develop their visual and motor skills to a high enough level to compete with non-disabled peers without accommodation, which is, unfortunately, an attitude we have encountered frequently.
