I think this is a tough issue. I always think of accommodations in the workplace as in- you are paralyzed and in a wheelchair, so we need to make the bathroom accessible for you, etc.
What if you didn't have any hands or you have cerebral palsy, so you can't physically write or type? So an accommodation for that.
It's trickier if you can't write physically fast; should you get to take untimed tests? How about in the workplace, where there may be serious time deadlines? Should you not have that deadline and your co-workers do? That is tough. I guess it would depend what other talents you have that you bring to your job.
We have worked with my 9 year old on math facts and doing things faster daily for 3 years now, at home. He has a documented CAPD and global processing disorder and has extended time written into his IEP, which he has never used. All of this hard work has paid off. He is probably "fast enough." He took the CTY tests, OLSAT, and STAR tests without extended time and did really well.
I don't think he should go into a field where speed is the determining factor for his success, but he can probably limp along if it's a job where that isn't the main focus.
I'm a hopelessly unspatial person. I never could draw, I get lost very easily, I bombed the spatial part of whatever IQ test I took in the mid-1970's that I otherwise aced. Yet I've done very well as an interventional cardiologist (which is an extremely spatial field) b/c I've found other ways to compensate. I have a phenomenal memory and was ultimately able to memorize the spatial things I needed, which took a huge effort and time commitment, but it was what I really wanted to do.
You may need to work alot harder but some people may be able to scrape by without accommodations.
Last edited by jack'smom; 07/15/12 07:24 PM.
