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Subject:

Re: Reader for exams

From:

Claire Wickham <[log in to unmask]>

Reply-To:

Discussion list for disabled students and their support staff.

Date:

Tue, 1 Apr 2008 17:28:57 +0100

Content-Type:

text/plain

Parts/Attachments:

Parts/Attachments

text/plain (185 lines)

Dear all,

I suspect that if those responsible for exams gave consideration to
plain English, then much of this problem would disappear. Accessible
English in exams benefits many (if not all) students, including those
who are dyslexic, are speakers of English as a second language, have
Asperger's Syndrome etc. So in order to maximise equality all exams
should be written in plain/straightforward English...allowing for the
fact that the language must be appropriate for the subject.

Exams should be testing the specified leaning outcomes so unnecessarily
complex or obtuse language should only be used if one of the learning
outcomes is to be able to decipher or decode such language!

ATB

Claire


Claire Wickham
Senior Disability Officer
Disability Resource Centre
University of the West of England
Frenchay Campus
Coldharbour Lane
Bristol BS16 1QY
 
Tel: 0117 328 3737
Textphone: 0117 32 83644
Fax: 0117 32 82935
 
Please note that this e-mail was written using speech input and may
contain some small voice recognition errors.

-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion list for disabled students and their support staff.
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Sheenagh Hull
Sent: 01 April 2008 17:18
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Reader for exams

Hi Sam,

There are two ways I think I have been involved in this kind of
arrangement (after a number of years in FE & HE with D/deaf students).
1.	In FE, for BSL users (or other deaf students with restricted
English access) using CSWs (communication support workers) or ToDs
(teachers of deaf children) to communicate questions in sign language or
'plain English'.  This might include 'rephrasing' where the first
rendition was not understood. There used to be some limited guidance
available through the exam boards - JCQ (for Edexcel, RSA exams, etc.).
For example, the CSW was only able to 'interpret' the carrier language,
keeping all technical terms and those subject to that assessment in
their original form.  It needed very experienced staff (and preparation
time) to recognise what would reflect the intent of the question,
neither advantage nor disadvantage the student, and not impact on any
other question in the same paper.  You tended to need the tutor on hand
too, for queries. 

2. In FE & HE, I have experience where the role is provided by the
module tutor or exam author - they are expert on what they can or cannot
convey in terms of not compromising their own assessment performance
criteria. 

I agree with what Claire's saying that if the student is an English user
(rather than, eg BSL) then modification of the written text would be
more usual arrangement (by the exam author or someone with expertise in
modifying text for D/deaf students).  Maybe you need the DSA
assessor/ToD to draft a protocol first so you can see exactly what they
are saying is needed and not needed and why!

Best wishes,

Sheenagh

Sheenagh Hull
Co-ordinator: Deaf&Hard of Hearing Students The Equality Service Grd
Floor Social Sciences Building University of Leeds Leeds LS2 9JT
0113 343 3927 (telephone)
0113 343 2616 (minicom textphone only)
0113 343 3944 (fax)
www.equality.leeds.ac.uk


-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion list for disabled students and their support staff.
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Claire Wickham
Sent: 01 April 2008 14:45
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Reader for exams


Sam,

Well, personally I think this is very uncontrolled: The reader would
have to be a teacher of the deaf or someone else who would be able to
decide if the questions being asked were for clarification that was
related to language use as opposed to clarification for lack of
understanding. This would be extremely difficult to do and there might
also be issues if the invigilator felt that the reader had reached the
wrong decision.

Readers are there in exams to simply read text. They are not allowed to
make comments or add explanations. Guidelines for readers explicitly
states that all they can do is to read text as requested.

Ideally, exam questions should reflect the level of understanding that
the student is expected to have reached. For students whose first
language is BSL, it may be reasonable to have the exam paper translated
but the concepts and questions would remain unchanged. If the exam
question is so badly worded that the student cannot see where the
question is, then I think there is an argument for rewording and
restructuring the question for all of the students.

I am not quite sure what a reader would be able to add that would be
legitimate practice. They could not, for example, define words or
suggest how long an answer should be, or what the key points in the
question are. If the exam questions are well structured and written in
accessible but appropriate English then I am unclear as to how a reader
would be providing greater access for the deaf student.

I'm sorry that this response is not terribly helpful but perhaps it
illustrates the difficulty of defining this role and hence issuing any
guidelines for the person concerned. As a start, I think you would have
to devise a different job title from that of reader as the constraints
attached to the role of reader would not allow the person any
flexibility on leeway to explain or clarify any text. (I may have got
hold of the wrong end of the stick and misunderstood the role of the
"reader" but perhaps this lack of comprehension of the task also
illustrates how difficult it would be to write any guidelines.)

I await others' responses with interest.

ATB

Claire

Claire Wickham
Senior Disability Officer
Disability Resource Centre
University of the West of England
Frenchay Campus
Coldharbour Lane
Bristol BS16 1QY
 
Tel: 0117 328 3737
Textphone: 0117 32 83644
Fax: 0117 32 82935
 
Please note that this e-mail was written using speech input and may
contain some small voice recognition errors.

-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion list for disabled students and their support staff.
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Samantha King
Sent: 01 April 2008 14:24
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Reader for exams

In answer to Claire's question, the idea is that the student will be
able to ask the reader questions to help with clarification, e.g. when
the exam question is embedded in the text.  I hasten to add that this
idea was suggested by the student's DSA assessor and discussed with a
Teacher of the Deaf.

Thanks in anticipation of some helpful replies!

Sam King
University of Birmingham


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