The ACT requires bubbling 215 answers over about a three hour period and it includes breaks. The essay is optional (a few colleges require it, but most don't).
Lori - you have described your son as being able to write in class essays by hand and to type online for hours with friends. Most kids who are capable of those thing would certainly have enough muscle tone to be able to bubble in 215 bubbles over a three hour period. ACT prep books including sample tests are readily available free from the public library. He could take a sample test on a day when he's feeling well and you could see how he does before you refuse to let him take the test.
He does have an ACT prep book. I have always let him circle answers instead of filling in bubbles because I always thought the correct answer to the question was the important thing, not the ability to color in lines of little bubbles. He enjoyed the Nintendo DS SAT prep game a few years ago. He used to enjoy taking tests like this at home before he started getting frequent migraines and back pain.
Even if my son didn't have a migraine the day of the test the three hours it takes to do the test would be a problem for my son, even with short breaks. His brace causes pain when he has to sit for a long period of time. I think chronic pain is his biggest learning disability, but when allowed to work around the pain he does very well. His writing comp class is one hour, once a week, and he is very tired by the end of the class. He makes A+ on most of his assignments but if it were a three hour class it would be very difficult for him. His musical theater class is three hours. He had to miss an entire rehearsal last week and the week before that he could only make it through about a third of the rehearsal because of migraines and back pain. He only had back pain yesterday so he was able to stay the entire time but had to sit out and watch the class as they were learning the new dance. He always learns it in time for the performance. Somehow in the last few years he learned how to remember the dance routines even though he is sitting out and watching some of the time and is actually getting less practice than the other kids, something I didn't think he would be able to do with motor dyspraxia. Since he was able to figure out how to learn quickly in an area of weakness on his own I think this learning disability will not be that much of a problem for him in later life. Pain is the real problem. At home he takes a lot of breaks, often lying down when his back hurts. His iPad and netbook allow him to keep learning even if he has to lie down for a while. There is no testing accommodation for pain. When he is sixteen he might be able to stop wearing the brace and hopefully he will have learned how to manage the migraines. Maybe then he will take the tests, or maybe not.
I refuse to take him out of piano and musical theater so I can afford therapy so he might be able to color in the lines of little bubbles faster. If coloring in bubbles were some very important life skill it might be different. I think he has learned much more important life skills in musical theater, where his friends are much more like him and it is safe to talk about what they are reading without being labeled a geek. One of his friends is studying Shakespeare on his own just for fun and they talked about that yesterday. Focusing on a disability that I don't believe OT or PT can change that much does not make sense to me. Musical theater, friends, music, improvisation, singing, dance, working as part of a team to make a good show, this is what he needs, not the ability to color in lines.
I do believe that OT and PT would have been helpful when he was younger, when it would have made more of a difference.
His handwriting is sloppy, especially if he has to write quickly, but it is legible. He can and does write neatly if there is enough time.
