The Americans with Disabilities Act, first passed by Congress in 1990, defined disability as a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more life activities. The federal government did not list specific disabilities, but according to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, some disabilities are more common than others. Some of the more common disabilities covered by the ADA include back/spinal injury, psychiatric/mental impairments, neurological impairments, heart impairments, diabetes, and hearing or vision impairments.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, passed in 1975, allowed students with disabilities to be educated in general education classrooms rather than separated into different classrooms or, in some cases, different schools. In most cases, students with disabilities are able to be educated alongside their general education classmates with appropriate accommodations and modifications. Accommodations are defined by the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities, or NICHCY, as a change that helps a student overcome or work around a disability. Modifications are defined as a change in material from what is being taught or expected of the student. For the purposes of GED Testing, usually students receive accommodations, but not modifications.
Many students with a disability who take GED classes are still covered under IDEA, which serves adult students up to age 22 who were formerly in special education services. According to the NICHCY, even if the student no longer has a current Individualized Education Plan, or IEP, a GED teacher may be able to look at prior IEPs and determine accommodations the student will need in the classroom. Common accommodations and modifications within the GED classroom include extended time, oral answers rather than written, large print tests, computer aided assignments and reduced number of problems or questions.
According to the GED Testing Service, accommodations are available for the GED test for qualified students. The GED Testing Service has guidelines that must be followed in order to receive accommodations on the test. First, a student's disability must be documented by a qualified evaluator. Second, the documentation of the disability must be fairly recent. The GED Testing service has guidelines for how long documentation of a particular disability is current. Third, documentation from the evaluator must contain specific information about the student's disability. The GED Testing Service has several accommodations available for students, such as individual test administration, extended time, frequent breaks, large print editions, sign language interpretations, and an audio tests to replace written tests.