Part 1: My Experience Trying To Take the Apex Program's CompTIA Network+ Exam at a Pearson Vue Testing Center As A Blind Woman in Canada

On November 25, 2024 I was humbled by the news that the Apex Program had chosen me to receive a full, $7,500 USD scholarship to the Apex Program, a 12-week cybersecurity training initiative intended to empower underrepresented communities, including blind people.

This scholarship was made possible, in part, by one Dr. Kirk Adams, with whom I will always be eternally grateful for helping to make this a reality for me.

Shortly after that announcement, I got to work beginning to study. I knew I had a long road ahead, but I was hopeful that the services provided by the Apex Program would make my journey smoother than I knew it would otherwise be.

I am incredibly sorry to report that nothing could be further from the truth. Please understand, it is not my intention to attack anyone in this article, but I do intend to get answers. I am incredibly frustrated, and by the end of this article, you will understand why.

And so, we begin.

What is the Apex Program?

“The Apex Program curriculum prepares blind and visually-impaired people — along with people with other disabilities and military veterans for two exams, the CompTIA Network+ exam and the CompTIA Security+ exam.”

These two separate exams, taken together, give you two globally recognized, vendor-neutral CompTIA certifications that establish an employer-recognized baseline in networking and cybersecurity.

I Start Studying

After a few congratulatory exchanges with Apex I received my first “login” to access the curriculum required to study for the first exam, which is the CompTIA Network+ exam.

I entered the provided credentials, took a deep breath and pressed Enter. And guess what? Nothing.

My screen reader couldn’t see or read anything on the page. I sighed. Not a good sign.

And so, I did what I must always do. I called in a trusted set of eyes to see what was going on. And that confidante was none other than my long time friend and business partner, Aaron Di Blasi.

Aaron was absolutely integral in helping me to prepare for this test. I truly could not have done it without him. With Aaron’s help, we were able to fix and/or workaround every single obstacle that we encountered. I know. I thought there weren’t supposed to be any obstacles either. I thought that’s what Apex was for.

Here instead, is what I experienced.

Aaron was unable to make sense of the login page either, and he is a fully sighted, 30 year digital marketing professional. Back and forth we go with Apex again. Them assuring me all the while that everything is “fine” and it must just be a “glitch.” Aaron assured me it was not at all a “glitch,” but a complete lack of any underlying LMS.

LMS stands for ‘Learning Management System’, and we were expecting Apex to have one in place that catered specifically to assistive technologies. Is that what we got? No it is not. What did they provide instead? Word Documents. Yes. That’s right. Word Documents. At my request. After much back and forth, simply because it was the most accessible way that I knew of to receive that material and I didn’t want to want to go back and forth on their glitchy (inaccessible) login anymore.

And so, Word documents it was. Which was fine by me simply because I could access them. Now, they made not have had an LMS in place, but surely they had top notch documentation ready to provide their students. Right? Right? Wrong again. The Word documents as provided were riddled with typos and according to Aaron, who could see, appeared to be quite aged. We had no idea when they had been last updated.

Nonetheless, they are what I had to work with, so I reached out to Apex to ask them how I should study for this exam as a blind person. I naively thought that since this program “prepares blind and visually-impaired people—along with people with other disabilities and military veterans for two exams, the CompTIA Network+ exam and the CompTIA Security+ exam,” that they might be able to offer me some advice, perhaps as to how other blind students had approached the material in the absence of flash cards?

They had no idea what I was talking about. And no ideas to share that would help me to absorb this mountain of information as a blind person. Precisely what I thought they were here to do.

And so, I turned once again to my trusted friend and sighted colleague Aaron Di Blasi to help me come up with a way that I could study for this exam as a blind person, in the absence of flash cards, which are the most recognized way for sighted students to absorb a lot of different terms quickly.

Everything that Aaron does revolves around AI in some way, so I asked him if he could “ask the genie” to come up with a way to help me study that would mimic the results of flash cards. What he came up with we ultimately called “Flash Tests.” He used one chapter of the provided curriculum at a time to generate multiple tests (using AI) based on that chapter.

I took these “Flash Tests” over and over, chapter by chapter, until the information started to make sense. Some chapters required more “Flash Tests” than others but it was proving itself as way to retain large volumes of information as a blind person.

And that progress made me happy. Even though I inherited the additional cost necessary to have Aaron prepare these tests. Again, I naively thought that helping blind people to learn was specifically what Apex was here to do. Instead they were responsive but cold. “So sorry to hear you’re having trouble.” Not what you want to hear when you’re expecting solutions.

Once I was able to pass 2-3 “Flash Tests” for a chapter at 100%, I moved on to the next Chapter. And so, I was able to commit to memory (and connect the concepts for) all 21 chapters in this fashion.

Nervous, because I knew that the exam would likely still be the greatest barrier to overcome, I was very happy with the progress that I had made. And truly grateful to Aaron for helping me to devise a method of study when no one else would.

What did Apex have to say about the exam? “Great. Glad you’re ready. Just schedule your exam with Pearson.” Did they offer me any kind of advice as to what accomodations to request? Or how to prepare for the exam as a blind person? Remote? In-Person? No they did not. And I think you’re beginning to see a trend here. A trend that I think begs the question, “what, exactly, does the Apex Program provide? That is actually useful to a blind person trying to pass this exam?”

And so, we move on to Pearson. Oh Pearson. For anyone that doesn’t know what Pearson is, Pearson Vue is the global exam-delivery provider behind the testing centers and online proctoring for certs like CompTIA, Microsoft, and AWS.

I contact Pearson. I inform them that I am blind and that I wish to schedule the CompTIA Network+ exam. They send me options for taking the test remotely or online. I have Aaron read through all of the many requirements for remote testing and we determine that since I will require visits to the bathroom on an interval shorter than the 2 hours alloted for the test, I will not be able to test remotely, because I cannot be off camera.

Okay. Great. No problem. We shall overcome. I explain my need for time and bathroom accomodation to Pearson and await their response. They send me an approval letter shortly thereafter granting all of my requested accomodations. I have a location and a date. I’m all set.

Except, I wasn’t.

I got a call from Pearson about 2-3 days after receiving my accomodation letter telling me that the location I had selected for my test would need to be changed in order to satisfy the accomodations that they had already approved.

Okay I said. No problem. A different testing center it is. “Are you sure this is final?” I asked. They assured me it was and that they now had everything in place. I was far from convinced, but what can you do? Except show up.

So that is what I did. I showed up on my scheduled testing date of October 1, 2025 with my friend and was immediately assailed by scanners, which I understand, but it is quite process. Very similar to airport security. They even took my kleenex and gave me generic tissue. But again, all in the name of forward advancement. Right?

I get into the “special room” that they had prepared for me and I meet the “proctor” who will be reading me the exam. I never had the opportunity to speak with this person prior to this moment. I was never given the opportunity to take the test using a screen reader. Hell, I couldn’t even get my own Kleenex in. Let alone a screen reader.

And so … the timer starts … and we begin the exam. My friend leaves the room and I sit quietly with the proctor as she begins to read me the first question.

She begins, “From the diagrams below, please select the configuration that shows a proper network connection.”

Complete silence .. and then? The proctor fumbles … “um … uh … I’m not quite sure how to describe these …” There were not, apparently, ALT text descriptions of each diagram made available to the proctor. A Pearson issue? Or a CompTIA issue?

In short, the proctor would have needed to understand the context of the exam information itself in order to properly describe the diagrams on the spot, and even if they did so, making them up on the spot could tip off an exam tester to the correct answer. ALT text for diagrams MUST be provided by the TEST PROVIDER, not made up, in real time, by an arbitrarily chosen proctor.

The proctor became more and more nervous so I asked her to do me a favor. I asked her to please review the next 10 questions and tell me how many of them have diagrams. She reviewed the next 10 questions and indicated that several of them also used diagrams. It was at this point that she understood what we were dealing with and said that she would need to speak to her boss. But what, exactly, was her boss going to do? Come in and read me the diagrams themselves?

Pearson failed.

I gathered my things, and we left.

Am I angry? Yes. Am I hearbroken? Yes. Do I feel defeated? Yes. But I will get answers, even if all everyone wants to do is point fingers. Who do you think is at fault here? Pearson? Or CompTIA?

Have other students of the Apex Program been given the opportunity to take the test using a screen reader? And if so, did that test provide approved ALT descriptions for the diagrams used in the test?

I have no idea. And Apex, again, is silent.

So I ask you, what would you do in this situation?

Do you think Apex should have done more?

Do you think Pearson understood the accomodations they approved?

Does CompTIA know that Pearson is proctoring exams in this manner?

Please let me know your thoughts, and if you have any information whatsoever that might help me to attain proper accomodation to take this test, please don’t hestiate to reach out.

Onward and upward!

Donna J. Jodhan, LLB, ACSP, MBA
Global Leader In Disability Rights, Digital Accessibility, And Inclusive Policy Reform
Turning policy into progress for people with disabilities.