Part 2: My Experience Trying To Take the Apex Program's CompTIA Network+ Exam at a Pearson Vue Testing Center As A Blind Woman in Canada

✏️ Sign The Petition on Change.org at: https://c.org/MZnTBDjCBK (Share this link).

If you haven’t read Part 1 of this article, I do encourage you to read it first, as it sets the stage for this, second, follow-up article.

Quick recap. 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.

I was both excited and grateful for this incredible opportunity. That is, until I learned that my “scholarship” amounted to approximately 21 Word Documents, no LMS, and not a shred of assistance from a single human being. Which was fine. I was able to overcome that. But the challenges didn’t stop there. After registering for and receiving my accomodation letter from Pearson Vue here in Canada I travelled to the testing center on October 1, 2025 to take the CompTIA Network+ Exam.

To make a long story just a wee bit shorter, I was unable to take the exam that day due to “diagrams” used on the test that did not (apparently) include verified ALT descriptions that the sighted proctor could read to me. Her response was, “I don’t know what to do here.” And so we left. This is when I wrote my first article outlining my experience. And well, much has transpired since then, so this second article is intended to pick up where my first article left off.

And where was that exactly? With still no test for me after a solid year of studying, everyone pointing fingers at each other, and no one really caring to help me get my degree one way or the other.

So what, exactly, did I expect to happen after I wrote that first article? Well, first and foremost, I thought that Apex would reach out to to me to address the concerns that I put forth in the first article, hopefully to remedy them for future students, and possibly to team up with me to help me find a way to take this test. Why did I expect that? Because that is what a company who cares about the people that they serve would do.

Yes, I was critical of Apex in my first article, because that feedback was my honest experience. If I had paid $7,500 USD for 21 Word Documents I would have been absolutely livid. I mistakenly thought that when Apex said they would help you get your degree, that they would actually help you get your degree. But I am very sorry to report, that is not at all the case. If their marketing were truthful, it would read, “Selling curriculum in legacy format. No human assistance included. $7,500.00 USD.”

Apex did indeed reach out after the first article was published. To say what you ask? To invite me to a meeting. Which I thought was fruitful. Until I read their request that I “pause” distribution of my first article until we could have this meeting to “discuss” my experience. What, exactly, could they possibly say to me that would make me alter the real and true account of my experience? An experience which had already been published and was already circulating on social media? An experience that was shared and mirrored by my sighted colleague and business partner Aaron Di Blasi? I could think of nothing. And neither could Aaron. So my legal counsel recommended that we request ownership of the meeting recording, so that we could avoid being bullied or coerced into changing our account and hopefully focus instead on real and actual solutions to the problems I described.

So I went ahead and made the request. And to my surprise, they accepted, which we thought was wonderful. Now we might actually get to have a productive conversation about how we might actually make this program valuable to blind students. And then? And then Apex asked us to provide them with an “Agenda” for the meeting. For a meeting that we did not request. An act which we took as validation that they never had anything meaningful to discuss with us in the first place. So we declined to take the meeting.

Some comments on their response to my first article:

✏️ Apex: “Good morning, Donna. I am just back in the office and seeing your article. We were surprised at your detailed disappointment in the Apex Program as we did not discuss this on our call on October 3rd. I left that call with the understanding that you would write about your unacceptable exam taking experience, and although you did need it to proceed, we gave our consent for you to go ahead. That said, I do not wish to engage in a conversation about that here.”

💬 Comment: They were surprised that I waited until the end of the exam preparation experience to provide my honest feedback? Perhaps they thought I should have provided them with this kind of feedback as I went. When every time I asked for assistance I was either redirected or told that what I needed was not included. So I ask, what, exactly, was included? About 21 Word Documents total.

And finally, why, exactly, would I need their “consent” to publish anything? This is what I mean by bullying. Obfuscation, gaslighting and fear feeding are all forms of psychological bullying.

✏️ Apex: “I do have a request. Would you be willing to pause any further media roll out until we have all met on October 28th? As you can image, the damage this article has done to our brand is significant. We would like an opportunity to discuss your experience with yourself and Aaron.”

💬 Comment: Needless to say, I never “paused” anything. My first article is still live and unedited, and it will remain that way. If Apex truly wanted to make this right, they would have focused on the real problem. Which is the fact that one of their blind students could not take their test. But that was never even mentioned. They were supposed to come to my rescue. Instead, they tried to bully me too.

No one from Pearson or CompTia reached out to me as a result of my first article, though many other blind test takers did. None from Apex or the Network+ exam specifically, which is too bad, as I would love to have heard about your test taking experience and how you overcame these obstacles.

On or around November 15, 2025, a representative from Pearson Vue reached out to me as a result of Apex contacting them on my behalf. Thank you Apex. If only we could have worked together like this from the beginning. On November 18, 2025 I spoke with a Pearson Vue representative about my “concerns” and asked some questions to try to understand why I was unable to test on October 1, 2025. Their response to my questions?

❓ 1DJ: Does CompTIA provide Pearson with validated ALT descriptions (for blind test takers) to accompany diagrams used on the test?

✅ 1PV: Readers for exams are trained to read the exam content exactly as it appears on the screen to the tester. Pearson VUE does not work with any specific exam content or receive any exam specific content prior to an exam
appointment.

💬 Comment: Was that a dodge? Or what? Do they know what an ALT description is? And why it might be a bad idea to let a sighted proctor “describe” a series of diagrams to a blind test taker on the spot? Why is the sighted proctor not reading from validated ALT descriptions provided by the creator of the test?

❓ 2DJ: If CompTIA does provide validated ALT descriptions to accompany diagrams used on the test, why weren’t these descriptions made available to the proctor who was provided to me?

✅ 2PV: As mentioned above, Readers are not provided with exam content prior to exams.

💬 Comment: Another dodge. With an added, “This is Pearson. You cannot cheat here.” Clearly, no one is trying to cheat here. A blind person is simply trying to gain access to validated ALT descriptions for the diagrams required to take the test.

❓ 3DJ: How can something as important as diagram description be left to the whims of an assigned proctor who may or may not possess the knowledge required to describe said diagrams to a blind person on the fly?

✅ 3PV: The ability to read the exam content exactly as it appears on the screen is expected from our readers when they are provided to candidates as an accommodation.

💬 Comment: Getting used to the dodges yet? “Exactly as it appears on the screen.” How does one describe a diagram “Exactly as it appears on the screen?” When no two people would ever describe the same diagram the same way twice? Why do test diagrams not include validated ALT descriptions provided by the test creator?

❓ 4DJ: Why was I unable to test on October 1, 2025?

✅ 4PV: As you shared with me, based on the interactions with your reader you wish to stop the exam.

💬 Comment: Maddening, isn’t it? Perhaps I should have chosen to continue the exam and simply guessed my way through the questions that contained diagrams? This is what they do. This is the game of misdirection and wordplay that blind people know all too well.

❓ 5DJ: How can I re-test?

✅ 5PV: Please find your decision letter attached to this message. I am happy to share that you are still able to use the scheduling instructions mentioned in this letter to schedule your next exam. If you would like assistance in getting scheduled for an exam, please let us know and I would be happy to contact the correct team in assisting with getting you scheduled.

Please feel free to reach out with any additional questions or if you require any assistance with the scheduling instructions mentioned in your letter.

💬 Comment: And there you have it. There never really was a problem. It was all in my head. So I can simply go and take the test again. Where I will encounter the very same issue, once again, because no one wishes to admit that it exists.

When and if I am ultimately able to achieve a resolution to this issue I honestly don’t know if I have it in me to re-visit all of that information all over again. In short, I honestly don’t know if I even want to test again at this point. Sometimes you reach a level of frustration with something that simply makes you want to move on. But I don’t want to move on knowing that another blind person will encounter this issue when they test.

So I’m asking for your help. What if this happened to your blind son or daughter? Or your blind mother or father? Sister or brother? Would you be angry? All that time invested. All those obstacles overcome. Just to be defeated by the very indifference that defines accessibility today.

So I’m thinking that if I can get enough people in the community to recognize this as an issue that needs to be resolved, I might be able to get someone from Pearson (or CompTIA) to really pay attention to me, rather than just feeding me boilerplate platitudes.

I’ve done everything I know how to do. All I can do now is invite others to put their name in front of this issue, in the hopes that no other blind test taker ever has to have this experience again.

You will find my Change.org petition for this issue here: https://c.org/MZnTBDjCBK. Please sign if you feel so inclined, or simply share the link with others whom you know might be willing to get behind this as well.

Perhaps we can do together what I have been unable to do by myself. Achieve equal access. For all students.

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.