Interview questions as reasonable adjustment

AskAsk

jobbingmusician said:

So the consensus on here seems to be that getting the questions in advance won't work.  However, I would ask - how far in advance?  There seem to be two options that haven't been directly discussed (one has been discussed indirectly.

Option 1 -  getting the questions at the beginning of the interview, printed out in a nice clear font, so that you can consider each question, with maybe a minute or so in between each question so you can make notes to help your memory.

Option 2 - getting the questions while you are waiting for the interview, maybe 15 minutes before, so that you can go through the note-taking process and prepare without putting your memory at strain.

There is no guarantee, of course, that the employer will go for either option.  And whether either option is suitable will also depend on the nature of the job (there is no use in a fireman having 15 minutes to prepare, for example.)  These both seem like reasonable adjustments to me, however, and you can but ask.

well, i would be useless as a fireman, as i can't remember my way around buildings and i would get lost, lol.

there are certain jobs i can not do because of my memory issue.

spectrum21

KiKi said:

Hi OP
Yes, this is a reasonable adjustment that you can request - but, of course, they may not agree, and may propose a different reasonable adjustment.  Sending out interview questions in advance is something I would do for neurodivergent candidates or those who needed to see the questions in advance, and being deaf, or partially deaf, or with memory problems, I would consider reasonable.  Not all employers will think the same (as you can see on this thread).
Some of the comments on this thread suggest that this would be a significant advantage for the candidate.  Two responses on that from me: firstly, if you're genuinely concerned about that, you can send the questions to all candidates.  Secondly, if you are neurodivergent, or have a disability you are *already* at a disadvantage.  Stats on disability from recruitment to pay gap shows this.  Providing questions in advance doesn't suddenly give a candidate a huge advantage, it simply levels the playing field.  
In my experience, sending out questions in advance rarely advantages anyone.  Most people plan responses for competency based questions, and it's the job of the interviewer to get the right information from someone.  So if, in an interview, someone gives me a less than complete answer, I ask for more detail, and ask additional questions to get what I need.  An interviewee knows themselves better than anyone.  So if I ask for an example of x, they are going to have one, or I will rephrase the question or guide them to something that will fulfil that criteria (I wouldn't have shortlisted them otherwise).  Almost every candidate comes with something ready to share.  Some people are more prepared than others.  Giving an already-disadvantaged candidate the questions in advance means they can simply show themselves at their best, which is what all other candidates can do anyway.  This is especially true when CBAs are not a great predictor of performance anyway, and I would always use a CBA in conjunction with work examples, for eg, to ultimately to make my decision.
Not everyone will agree with this view, but I've taken this approach enough times to be confident that it's an appropriate reasonable adjustment, and doesn't significantly impact the recruitment process.  It is certainly not something that 'goes too far'.  If you've not experienced disability at work, you don't realise just how much more some people have to struggle.
Good luck, OP - but be aware that not many organisations out there may be as willing as mine to work in this way.
KiKi

If the OP was to ask for the questions several days before, day before, hours etc what do you think the limit would be? I appreciate that could be disability dependent but as I general idea what do you think the OP could ask for? What might be considered unreasonable? The suggestion of a couple of posters is a few minutes but anything more would be going into unreasonable/unfair on non-disabled candidates. If the OP need say a couple of hours before interview what that in your opinion be refused at your company? Of course another business may take a different view but it might give the OP an idea of what they can ask for.

Comms69

spectrum21 said:

KiKi said:

Hi OP
Yes, this is a reasonable adjustment that you can request - but, of course, they may not agree, and may propose a different reasonable adjustment.  Sending out interview questions in advance is something I would do for neurodivergent candidates or those who needed to see the questions in advance, and being deaf, or partially deaf, or with memory problems, I would consider reasonable.  Not all employers will think the same (as you can see on this thread).
Some of the comments on this thread suggest that this would be a significant advantage for the candidate.  Two responses on that from me: firstly, if you're genuinely concerned about that, you can send the questions to all candidates.  Secondly, if you are neurodivergent, or have a disability you are *already* at a disadvantage.  Stats on disability from recruitment to pay gap shows this.  Providing questions in advance doesn't suddenly give a candidate a huge advantage, it simply levels the playing field.  
In my experience, sending out questions in advance rarely advantages anyone.  Most people plan responses for competency based questions, and it's the job of the interviewer to get the right information from someone.  So if, in an interview, someone gives me a less than complete answer, I ask for more detail, and ask additional questions to get what I need.  An interviewee knows themselves better than anyone.  So if I ask for an example of x, they are going to have one, or I will rephrase the question or guide them to something that will fulfil that criteria (I wouldn't have shortlisted them otherwise).  Almost every candidate comes with something ready to share.  Some people are more prepared than others.  Giving an already-disadvantaged candidate the questions in advance means they can simply show themselves at their best, which is what all other candidates can do anyway.  This is especially true when CBAs are not a great predictor of performance anyway, and I would always use a CBA in conjunction with work examples, for eg, to ultimately to make my decision.
Not everyone will agree with this view, but I've taken this approach enough times to be confident that it's an appropriate reasonable adjustment, and doesn't significantly impact the recruitment process.  It is certainly not something that 'goes too far'.  If you've not experienced disability at work, you don't realise just how much more some people have to struggle.
Good luck, OP - but be aware that not many organisations out there may be as willing as mine to work in this way.
KiKi

If the OP was to ask for the questions several days before, day before, hours etc what do you think the limit would be? I appreciate that could be disability dependent but as I general idea what do you think the OP could ask for? What might be considered unreasonable? The suggestion of a couple of posters is a few minutes but anything more would be going into unreasonable/unfair on non-disabled candidates. If the OP need say a couple of hours before interview what that in your opinion be refused at your company? Of course another business may take a different view but it might give the OP an idea of what they can ask for.

More likely role dependant. 

AskAsk

spectrum21 said:

KiKi said:

Hi OP
Yes, this is a reasonable adjustment that you can request - but, of course, they may not agree, and may propose a different reasonable adjustment.  Sending out interview questions in advance is something I would do for neurodivergent candidates or those who needed to see the questions in advance, and being deaf, or partially deaf, or with memory problems, I would consider reasonable.  Not all employers will think the same (as you can see on this thread).
Some of the comments on this thread suggest that this would be a significant advantage for the candidate.  Two responses on that from me: firstly, if you're genuinely concerned about that, you can send the questions to all candidates.  Secondly, if you are neurodivergent, or have a disability you are *already* at a disadvantage.  Stats on disability from recruitment to pay gap shows this.  Providing questions in advance doesn't suddenly give a candidate a huge advantage, it simply levels the playing field.  
In my experience, sending out questions in advance rarely advantages anyone.  Most people plan responses for competency based questions, and it's the job of the interviewer to get the right information from someone.  So if, in an interview, someone gives me a less than complete answer, I ask for more detail, and ask additional questions to get what I need.  An interviewee knows themselves better than anyone.  So if I ask for an example of x, they are going to have one, or I will rephrase the question or guide them to something that will fulfil that criteria (I wouldn't have shortlisted them otherwise).  Almost every candidate comes with something ready to share.  Some people are more prepared than others.  Giving an already-disadvantaged candidate the questions in advance means they can simply show themselves at their best, which is what all other candidates can do anyway.  This is especially true when CBAs are not a great predictor of performance anyway, and I would always use a CBA in conjunction with work examples, for eg, to ultimately to make my decision.
Not everyone will agree with this view, but I've taken this approach enough times to be confident that it's an appropriate reasonable adjustment, and doesn't significantly impact the recruitment process.  It is certainly not something that 'goes too far'.  If you've not experienced disability at work, you don't realise just how much more some people have to struggle.
Good luck, OP - but be aware that not many organisations out there may be as willing as mine to work in this way.
KiKi

If the OP was to ask for the questions several days before, day before, hours etc what do you think the limit would be? I appreciate that could be disability dependent but as I general idea what do you think the OP could ask for? What might be considered unreasonable? The suggestion of a couple of posters is a few minutes but anything more would be going into unreasonable/unfair on non-disabled candidates. If the OP need say a couple of hours before interview what that in your opinion be refused at your company? Of course another business may take a different view but it might give the OP an idea of what they can ask for.

if i were the employer and i wanted to be fair and give the OP a fighting chance, then i would find the questions that require memory recall, as not all questions will be, and give them to the OP when he arrives for the interview.  so let him in to the interview room with the questions and his note book, so he can write down the answers.  i would give him 5 minutes to write down the answers to each question.

i have been to interviews, where you are given a written test before the face to face interview, so this would be no different to that.

giving the OP all the questions would be unfair as non recall questions do not require any special treatment.  and giving them to him the day before the interview would mean no pressure at all for the interview, which can test you on how you react and behave when under pressure.

the OP states he is hard of hearing, in which case the questions at the interview can be spoken and also given to the OP to read on a piece of paper.

i think that if the employer wants to make allowances, it should be specific to the individual and the questions, and not just a broad brush approach.

yksi

Ex-recruiter here. Disclosing your hearing loss is absolutely fine. Examples of reasonable adjustments we have made include bringing an interpreter, asking the interviewer to speak slowly and clearly, having good light in the room to enable lipreading, a quiet room away from distractions and noise and open windows, making sure the interviewer does not cover their face (might well be an issue with a mask now!) and printing the interview questions for the candidate to read on the day.

Candidates have requested the interview questions in advance for various disabilities but this has never been granted as it is not considered reasonable, for the reasons other people have noted above. This is not about memory but about "preparing stories" to answer the questions. As an example, we might have asked something like, "Tell me about a time that you had to deliver bad news to a superior which resulted in a conflict, and how you resolved it." You can argue all you like that your memory loss problems make it difficult for you to remember, but this doesn't negate the fact that knowing the exact question would give you an advantage over people who were given no adjustments. Every candidate should prepare half a dozen "stories". The likely questions are freely available on the internet. In my industry, not being able to recall and retell a story like the "bad news" conflict would clearly indicate that you're also not able to retain and recall knowledge that would be required in the position - making you unsuitable for the job. Thus giving you that question in advance to enable you to get that job is a disservice to me, to you and to the department hiring. There is no point putting you in a job if you don't remember a procedure and can't remember where to look for that information. People will surely shout discrimination, but how about suitability - it's far better for you to be in a position you can do well at.

Adjustments granted to people on the autistic spectrum include the interviewer being willing to re-word the questions if asked; to simplify what they are asking; to grant extra thinking time to the candidate for answering, and even in one case to have an interpreter present to simplify the questions for the candidate. In one case we also asked an interviewer to ignore any "flat" responses where the candidate sounded robotic and did not do well with normal "cadence" in his speech. We have also allowed candidates to bring bullet-pointed notes with names, companies and dates on them to allow them to answer questions about their work history and I think you would be fine with this, but you are best to disclose why you have notes so that it doesn't look odd. To be honest I rarely asked about those kinds of details (it's all in their CV) and the things I was more likely to ask were whether they did any mentoring, what specific things they achieved in that particular role, did they have responsibilty for X, etc. None of which will be things you can write down in advance without knowing the questions.

I can't emphasise the "stories" enough. Far and away this is where candidates fell down as they couldn't answer at all and just stumbled over the question, even a simple one like "tell me about a time where you went the extra mile". Employers do not expect specifics like the names and dates and who the employer or customer was, it's fine to just tell the story. Practice the story with a friend - make up the story if you have to! - and because you have told the story last week, you might well be fine at interview repeating the story as it's not six months old. These are not a memory test, as you're assuming. They are a test on whether you prepared for the interview, and thus, they tell me that you're genuinely interested in the job.