I agree with Bryan - make a fuss. As an assessor, if I'd made such a
recommendation without liaising with you I'd appreciate you getting
directly in touch to tell me off!

The assessor should have been in touch with you to discuss the
practicalities before writing the report - unless the student refused to
allow the assessor to contact you - maybe the assessor was led to
believe, somehow, that such a service existed at the uni...

Also the comment that 'he used this system at school' should ring alarm
bells - uni lectures are nothing like school classes. This should have
been explored.

The student needs a strategy that allows him to participate in the
lecture while providing notes he can use in his studies. Yes ideally
typed notes would be great, but in the real world handwritten notes
should be sufficient - he can lipread and use these notes during and
after the session.

Handwritten notes should be fine unless he also has a visual impairment
so he can't read them, or physical disability that makes it difficult to
extract notes later. the student should have explored the benefits of
working through these notes himself to extract summary notes he might
find useful in later studies (rather than collecting a load of
transcripts) with the assessor.

My cynical side tells me this was an argument for a laptop. There are
other more valid reasons. Hope it wasn't one of my students!

Ian Francis


On 25 Jul 2003 at 15:58, BRYAN JONES wrote:

> I would say that the person who undertook the assessment and
> made the recommendation you describe should have talked the
> issue through with yourself before producing the report.  Disability
> Officers should be involved establishing strategies, especially if it is
> they who are expected to put them into place.  It is not the
> Assessors role to dictate to a Disability Officer and I write as an
> Access Centre Manager.
>
> Contact the assessor and ask them why you were not consulted
> and suggest that perhaps they ought to revisit the issue.  Go on,
> cause a fuss.
>
>
> On 25 Jul 03, at 15:23, Susan Butler wrote:
>
> > We have a HI student due to start a Multi-Media course in September.
> > He wears hearing aids in both ears and relies on these and lip reading
> > for communication. He has already had an Access Centre assesment,
> > which recommends a note taker who is able to audio type, whom he could
> > sit next to and read notes they are taking directly onto his lap top.
> > Apparently he used to use this sytem at school. Our usual method of
> > providing note taking support involves a Learning Support Assistant
> > taking notes by hand and later typing these up for the student, making
> > a separate note in class of any other information given out. The
> > Access Centre assessor feels that this is less likely to enable his
> > full participation across the range of teaching sessions, as there is
> > no guarantee that lecturers will be strict about organising group
> > work/discussions effectively (although we would arrange deaf awareness
> > training for staff involved).
> >
> > We are certainly prepared to investigate the possibility of proviing
> > an audio typist, although we have some concerns about likely
> > familiarity with the subject area. One of our LSAs has already worked
> > with students with other disabilities on the same course, becoming
> > familiar with the course content/vocabulary. Whilst she is not a speed
> > typist, she is an experienced note taker and is working towards the
> > CADCP note taking qualification. We wonder how likely it is that we
> > will find someone who can type quickly enough who also has relevant
> > subject knowledge.
> >
> > We would value your views. In particular, does anyone provide "audio
> > typist" note taking? If so, where do you recruit people from, what
> > typing speed is required and what is the going rate (£15 per hour is
> > suggested in the report, but the assessor is happy to support a higher
> > rate if need be - up to the NMH limit).
> >
> >
> >
> > ----------------------
> > Susan Butler
> > [log in to unmask]
>
>
> Bryan Jones
> Disability Support Services Manager
> Tel: 020 8411 5367