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

[John Gardner]

Nix, as a Physics Professor Emeritus, I am appalled at the idea of exemptions for diagrams. As founder of ViewPlus, a company dedicated to graphics access, I know how to “make graphics accessible” as well as almost anybody on earth. Most people on this list use ViewPlus products, but I suspect that many do not know the full range of possibilities. Let me just list a couple that seem most relevant to your question.

  *   Since your student has useful vision, the very simplest (and, assuming it works for her/him,  therefore probably best) solution is just to make an SVG copy of the diagram, let the student open it in a web browser and use SVG zoom and or screenreader zoom to view it. If needed, tactile copies of the (zoomed or not) SVG can be printed with any ViewPlus embosser. A really good experience would be for someone to add a useful title and description to the SVG, which can be read by the screenreader. As a blind person, the only software apps that can do this and are accessible to me are the ViewPlus IVEO Creator and Transformer applications. These are overkill for just making the accessible SVG, so I am sure others on this list can give alternatives.
  *   The ViewPlus IVEO system seems to be a big secret in this country, but it could work well for this student, particularly if no tactile copy is needed. IVEO authoring software creates/converts an SVG and allows authors to add titles and descriptions to anything on the image. These can be read by someone with useful vision just by clicking on the object. SVG text is also audio-accessible by clicking on it. Of course it all works well for tactile copy as well, but tactile copy is needed only if vision is really inadequate.
Hope these are helpful. Feel free to contact me for more info.

John Gardner
President, ViewPlus (an associate member of ATHEN)



From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of Nix Sang
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2024 8:54 AM
To: athen-list at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Athen] Accommodations for Blind/Low Vision Computing Student - re Diagrams in Exams

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
     *   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.
     *   This will require some parameters set regarding how the scribe neutrally interpret the student’s input description.
     *   Also need a way to let student verify the drawn diagram by the scribe
  3.  Using tactile diagrams
     *   Not very practical on initial analysis but would love to hear if there are any cases using this approach here.
  4.  Continue the exemption
     *   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: LinkedIn<https://www.linkedin.com/in/nixsang/> | Facebook<https://www.facebook.com/nixsang>


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