I Was a Deaf Student on Exam Day. This Is What Happened.

I was 15 years old when this happened, an age when dreams feel fragile and every exam feels like a doorway to our future.

It was my 10th standard public examination, an important milestone. Like all my classmates, I arrived at the exam centre feeling nervous but ready. A teacher came and announced the allotted room numbers. I followed the instruction, searched for my seat, but my register number wasn’t there.

Panic took over. My hands trembled. I rushed outside and called my teacher. After rechecking, they told me I was allotted to a separate room.

I entered the room. It was silent. No students. Just a single supervisor.

For the first time, I wrote a major public exam completely alone.

I was confused. I had prepared, studied, practiced mock tests with my friends. I had written all the previous school exams in regular classrooms with classmates. Why now, on the most important exam of the year, was I sitting in isolation?

After the exam, I told my parents. The next day, my principal told me, “You’re a special student. That’s why you were given a separate room. You also have an extra one hour to write the exam.”
That was the first time I even heard about extra time. No one told me before the exam. I didn’t use the extra time that day.

Later, for the Maths exam, my parents reminded me to use the extra time. I tend to make small calculation mistakes when I rush, and this time I wanted to be careful.

Before the exam started, I informed the supervisor about the extra hour. They agreed.

At 12 PM, the official exam deadline, I again confirmed with the staff. “Yes, you still have time,” they said.
But suddenly, two other staff members came in and asked why I hadn’t left. I explained that my principal had said I could stay longer. They didn’t listen. They pulled my paper away.

I had 15 marks left unanswered.

I cried the whole day. My mom confronted the principal, but instead of taking responsibility, they blamed me, saying I had told them I was a “special student” and needed extra time. Even my relative, who worked in the school, didn’t support me. She stood silently with the principal.

I felt alone. Humiliated. Punished, not for cheating, not for laziness, but for something I couldn’t control.

Still, I gave my best. When the results came, I was top 5 in the class, with 89% overall.
Every subject was above 90%, except Maths, just 73%, only because I wasn’t allowed to finish.

If only that incident hadn’t happened, I might have scored higher. I might have topped.

But the pain didn’t end there.

Years later, during a college semester exam, another staff member took away my cochlear implant device while I was writing. Without asking. She only returned it after confirming with my class advisor. Again, in the middle of the exam. Again, treating me differently.

 

So I’m writing this, not just for myself, but for every disabled student out there.

Please, don’t treat us differently on exam day.
Don’t isolate us unless we request it.
Don’t take our assistive devices without understanding.
Don’t decide our needs during the exam. Talk to us before.
Don’t make assumptions.
Don’t humiliate us.
Don’t turn your mistake into our blame.

We already carry the emotional weight of disability every single day.
Don’t add more during one of the most important days of our lives.

Exams are already stressful.
Don’t add another layer of pain.

We don’t want pity.
We want dignity.

We don’t want to be treated as “special.”

We just want to be treated as equals, with simple fairness, understanding, and humanity.