[Athen] Accommodations for Blind/Low Vision Computing Student - re Diagrams in Exams

[Nix Sang]

Dear ATHEN community,

 

Would like to seek recommendations and advice on this case.

Student uses primarily screen reader (mainly JAWs, sometimes NVDA) for their
learning environment.

When contents are not accessible, last resort is to use residual vision.

 

During the  course, student utilises visual interpretation service which is
a myriad of tasks carried out by a human service provider depending on the
student's request based on the module's nature.

Pertaining to visuals and diagrams, several approaches have been used for
the service depending on type of diagram. These includes

*	Verbally describing
*	Typed out Image description as part of the notetaking output
*	Redrawing the diagram in scalable format to allow student to zoom in
without losing clarity (in this case student will be using residual vision
and magnifier to access)

 

Now a discussion has been brought up by the lecturer on handling diagrams in
quizzes and exams.

So far the approach has been to exempt the student from any questions
needing to draw diagrams.

However, as the course goes on at higher levels at some point, such
exemption might be regarded as a compromise in the assessment objective.

 

Some of the preliminary ideas include

1.	Using an accessible diagram drawing and reading software compatible
with screen reader that cater for computing / engineering / math type of
components

a.	Are there any recommendations for this that are currently tested and
used by students in your institute?

2.	Using a human scribe during exams to draw the required diagram based
on the student's verbal description.

a.	This will require some parameters set regarding how the scribe
neutrally interpret the student's input description.
b.	Also need a way to let student verify the drawn diagram by the
scribe

3.	Using tactile diagrams

a.	Not very practical on initial analysis but would love to hear if
there are any cases using this approach here.

4.	Continue the exemption 

a.	What are the scenarios where full exemption will be justified as
reasonable and not a fundamental alteration?

 

Noting that any new approaches require student to go through training
especially if student has not using said software in the course, and
suddenly needing to use in a time sensitive environment like exam might not
be feasible.

But then if this is the best approach for equitable experience without
compromising learning objective, we could suggest the student start using it
early so it can be used for the rest of the modules in the degree.

 

Other recommendations will be very much appreciated.

Thank you!

Best regards,
Nix Sang
Pronouns: She, Her, Hers
Connect:  <https://www.linkedin.com/in/nixsang/> LinkedIn |
<https://www.facebook.com/nixsang> Facebook



 

 

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