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

[Stager, Catherine]

What I am hearing in this question is a question that seems to boil down to:

  1.  Are there course aspects that can only be conveyed by diagrams?
  2.  Could these aspects create a barrier to the student in demonstrating mastery of the course?


Could 3-d tactile representations be a possibility? Manipulatives can be used in some situations where a student might capture the relationships between data, information or outcomes.



Could the professor, as the subject matter expert, create alternate text descriptions that convey the information appropriately? If this is true, than I would suspect that the student could demonstrate mastery via oral or text description.



Is mastery of the software an essential aspect of the course? Equitable exams do not always occur in the same manner as other exams.

I've been involved with higher ed for over thirty years and have helped create accessibility for academic materials for a large variety of courses at all levels. I do not recall any instances where we failed to find a solution that could work - so I suggest you keep your chin up and keep asking questions.

I hope my input is helpful.
Best regards,
Cath

From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of Nix Sang
Sent: Monday, January 29, 2024 9:54 AM
To: athen-list at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Athen] Accommodations for Blind/Low Vision Computing Student - re Diagrams in Exams


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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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