[Athen] [EXTERNAL] - Visual processing and difficulty completing clinical forms

[Hayman, Douglass]

Justin,

What I notice with this form is that they are trying to cram as much data as they can on a standard size piece of paper.  It would not only be problematic for someone with visual issues but also for someone with dexterity issues as well.  Many of the entry fields are a pencil lead's width wide, some checkboxes are half that size.

The form creator may have been striving to get everything on one page for some dated purpose, perhaps imagining a vet later wanting to quickly scan a document on a clipboard.  If a vet still needs so much data on one small page then perhaps the data entry could be on something else that then prints out to a final form.

Or better yet, an app that allowed entry of all those stats and then had tabs one could access one by one would be more useful.  The do have a grey band up the left hand margin with categories like:

Bid Gas, Local block, Agent and so on.

Bare minimum would be making that document form entry two or three times enlarged if being written in manually, say a trifold sheet.

If done by computer it should be larger for visibility and enter the forms and then some kind of 8.5-inch by 11 could be the output for a 20/20 sighted user.

It reminds me of looking at a circuitboard filled with components.  The tight arrangement of such is fine when it is your smart phone's innards.  Not so good if you're trying to read all of the tiny labels on the components tightly spaced merely because you want a phone that is 3 by 4 inches in size.

Perhaps this student would be one of the world's best vets if provided a reasonable sized chart to fill in by hand or by computer.  It would be a shame to stick to "Everyone else can use this, maybe you're not cut out for this kind of work."



Doug Hayman
IT Accessibility Coordinator
Information Technology
Olympic College
dhayman at olympic.edu<mailto:dhayman at olympic.edu>
(360) 475-7632



From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of Romack, Justin
Sent: Friday, February 3, 2023 11:42 AM
To: athen-list at u.washington.edu
Subject: [EXTERNAL] - [Athen] Visual processing and difficulty completing clinical forms

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Howdy ATHEN friends!

One of our accommodations staff members is working with a student diagnosed with visual processing difficulties who is in a clinical setting for a veterinary medicine program.

The student is struggling with the cluttered nature of the attached forms (noting space and contrast as issues) and is also struggling with tracking and processing as they complete some of the graphing / data plotting on the form.

Relevant context: I'm totally blind and struggling to conceptualize this form based on how it's been described. It overwhelms me to be honest, so I completely empathize with the student.

What suggestions would you have in supporting the student's difficulty with processing / tracking as they add data to the table fields?

Based on my understanding of the barrier and the form's current presentation, possibly adding alternating contrasting colors for the rows in some of the tabular spaces could assist...

The form can be modified, but all of the current fields and datapoints must be captured and all must fit on one page.

We'd tried enlarging to an 11X17 sheet of paper... but this also wasn't helpful.

Eager for ideas from this creative bunch!

Thanks,
J




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Justin Romack  | Assistant Director
Disability Resources | Texas A&M University
1224 TAMU | College Station, TX 77843-1224

ph: 979.845.1637 | justinr at disability.tamu.edu<mailto:justinr at disability.tamu.edu> | disability.tamu.edu
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DIVISION OF STUDENT AFFAIRS | One Division. One Mission.

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