A review of exam accommodations for dental students with disabilities

The purpose of this investigation was to determine the extent to which testing accommodations are granted for students with disabilities in the dental predoctoral and doctoral settings. The investigator aimed to examine both the types of accommodations granted and estimate the number of students seeking accommodations due to a physical or learning disability. To address the research purpose, surveys were sent to the ADA and to each of the ten independent state and four regional dental licensing boards. During the five-year study period (1998-2003), there were 508 requests for accommodations on the Dental Admission Test (DAT) from 49,211 applicants (1.03 percent), 235 accommodation requests for the National Board Dental Examination, Part I from 54,750 applicants (0.43 percent), and 150 accommodation requests for the National Board Dental Examination, Part II from among 40,412 applicants (0.37 percent). Three of the fourteen U.S. licensing agencies (21.4 percent) kept no records, and eleven (78.6 percent) maintained some records. Unfortunately, a rigorous analysis of the impact that the Americans with Disabilities Act has had on standardized testing in dental education cannot be completed because of a lack of data available from the testing agencies.