When Areeb Khan tried to prepare for the bar with a mock exam, the virtual proctoring program administering the test couldn’t identify his face. The software, from the company ExamSoft, alerted him that he was sitting in “poor lighting,” even though he was in a well-lit room.
“Starting to think it has nothing to do with lighting,” Khan tweeted. “Pretty sure we all predicted their facial recognition software wouldn’t work for people of color.”
Khan isn’t alone. As COVID-19 popularized virtual proctoring, students have increasingly reported incidents where the technology failed to register their faces, locked them out of their tests or overzealously flagged them for cheating – particularly students of color and students with disabilities.
Two weeks ago, a group of six Democratic senators, led by U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, showed they shared students’ concerns. They sent letters to three exam proctoring companies – ExamSoft, ProctorU and Proctorio – calling on them to answer a series of questions about their practices and share next steps for preserving students’ privacy and removing potential biases. The letters urge the companies to respond by Dec. 17.
“As we have seen far too often, students have run head on into the shortcomings of these technologies—shortcomings that fall heavily on vulnerable communities and perpetuate discriminatory biases,” the letter to ExamSoft reads. “It is critical that bias, including racial and gender disparities, be addressed expeditiously to ensure that our students of color are not facing additional barriers in their fields.”
The letters were signed by U.S. Senators Elizabeth Warren, Cory Booker, Chris Van Hollen, Tina Smith and Ron Wyden. They point to accounts by people of color, like Khan, who struggled to access their testing materials because of the facial recognition technology – noting that some Muslim students wearing hijab faced similar trouble. They also highlight stories from students with disabilities who were asked to show documentation for their accommodations during test time or flagged as potential cheaters by the software for facial tic disorders or involuntary muscle movements.
“It is our policy to not only make approved accommodations but investigate and make changes any time a test-taker or testing institution feels those accommodations have not been met completely,” ProctorU CEO Scott McFarland said in a statement in The New York Times. “There is no excuse for doing otherwise. When an error does occur, we apologize and pledge to not only fix it but do better in making remote testing and assessment the best possible experience for everyone.”
