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Dear Gill, I hope you don't mind me writing to you again but I saw your message on dis-forum and it reminded me that we had been in touch earlier in the year (you kindly answered several questions that I posed about exam provision for disabled students). I don't have much specific information about alternative arrangements for Deaf Students, but recently I attended a one-day conference in London arranged by the National Deaf Childrens Society. I thought you may be interested in one or two points re. exam arrangments that I learned about on the day. (Nearly all the presentations were given by Deaf people.) (Some) D/deaf people have difficulty with spellings and grammatical structure in assignments/examinations because they are so used to 'thinking/speaking (if they are signers)' in pictures, not using words. Thus, perhaps in a similar way that dyslexic students might receive allowances, consideration might be given to D/deaf students when marking exams (in terms of, say, making allowances for poor structure/grammar/spelling). It emerged from the conference that some D/deaf students did not feel that they were in the best position to decide what their needs were/ additional support that might be provided (in academic terms). They felt that professionals dealing with Deaf people often knew far more about the impairment than the students themselves. This was an interesting finding from some research, and something which some people at the conference had not thought about (e.g. one disability coordinator said that she had been working with students for years and that the practice had always been to assume that the students best knew what their needs were). Whereas as a general principle this may be the case, I feel it is useful to take on board that some students do not feel that they are in the best position to make such judgements. (Raising issues of empowerment, greater information, etc.) I hope these thoughts might be useful to you. Let me know if I can be of further help. When I finish my research I will send you a copy of my findings. Last time you wrote to me you kindly said that you would send me a copy of a draft report you were working on, including information from a literature review. I would still be most interested to see this when you are able to send it. Thank you. If I don't speak to you beforehand, I hope you have a good Christmas. Best wishes, Stefan P.S. I did not get any other replies to my questions so I am unable to forward them to you, as you requested! Dear Chris, I received your message via dis-forum. I was particularly interested in the CHESS meeting agenda item on alternative examination arrangement specifically for Deaf Students as I am in the process of collating information on such arrangements for tertiary ed. institutions in Australia as soon as possible. Can you tell me please how I can learn more about these? Regards, Gill Bruce Gillian Bruce, Regional Disability Liaison Officer for Victoria A post secondary Disability Integration Network Project funded by the Commonwealth Department of Education, Training and Youth Affairs (DETYA) C/- Deakin University, 336 Glenferrie Rd Malvern Vic 3144 AUSTRALIA email: [log in to unmask] Tel: 61 3 9244 5011 Mobile: 0411 885 910 Fax: 61 3 9244 5104 URL: http://www.deakin.edu.au/extern/rdlu/ CHECK OUT DIRECT http://direct.deakin.edu.au Disability Information and Resources for the Education Community - Tertiary. Stefan Klidzia, c/o A.S.D.U. Education House, Woodlands Road, University of Teesside. 01642 - 342541. %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%