Exams are difficult for all learners.  For a disabled learner, they can become a barrier to progress.

What is the aim of the exam?  Is it to measure progress or eliminate students below a minimum level? Does it help the student become a better learner?  Does it test skills and vocabulary that the learner needs?

For instance looking at multiple choice exams, the tester assumes students has learnt specific words and expressions or grammar structures.  Many tests focus on what can be tested, not what is useful.  Students lose points because of grammar, even if they can express complex ideas. Multiple choice exams are good for students who can memorise, who understand the logic of the tester's mind.  Short multiple choice exam questions are good for students whose test is read to them; long paragraphs are harder to keep in mind.

Some points that will be considered:

• Exam conditions.  Accommodations (adjustments) that allow learners to demonstrate their knowledge. How to implement accommodations, who should carry out the exam,.. 
• Candidate strategies
• Pre-exam practice: do disabled candidates have equal opportunities to practice the skills that will be tested in the exam?  Are they given the same amount of information about how the exam will happen? Any uncertainty/ insecurity causes stress. 
• Disabled students should not be exempt unless unavoidable.  Too often a disabled student is 'exempt' because testers do not know how to/ want to bother to organise alternative exam conditions, and the student missed the opportunity: to answer the questions in a limited time period, to understand the type of questions asked and the standard that must be reached