[Blindmath] When accommodation is meaningless

[Amanda Lacy]

There were times when I couldn't understand what I was being tested for. One 
incident from more than ten years ago sticks in my mind. The question simply 
read, "where is the water?" Underneath were choices A through D, each one 
being a small set of irregular lines. In cases like that my Braille teacher 
told me just to guess an answer. Someone later suggested to me that the 
choices might have been small sections of maps, but every tactile map I'd 
ever been exposed to had a key and/or Braille labels so I could identify 
things like water. These shapes were not labeled. So, what are testers 
looking for in situations like that? I thought the basics were things like 
math and reading comprehension.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Susan Jolly" <easjolly at ix.netcom.com>
To: <blindmath at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Sunday, November 24, 2013 1:44 PM
Subject: [Blindmath] When accommodation is meaningless


> Thanks so much to the commenter who pointed out the unfairness of testing 
> blind students on perspective drawings.  This is a very serious 
> unfairness.
>
> I've been trying to read the latest research on test accommodations.  The 
> fancy language is that the goal is to minimize construct-irrelevant 
> demands.  The construct is what you are actually trying to test for.  An 
> example of a construct is knowing the capital of Texas.  A 
> construct-irrelevant demand would be having to read the question in print. 
> That is, using speech or braille or some other means to ask the question 
> of students who can't read print is an example of avoiding the irrelevant 
> demand.
>
> http://padi-se.sri.com/publications.html
>
> I am now beginning to appreciate that there are constructs that are being 
> tested for where the problem is that there is NO possible accommodation 
> for persons with certain disabilities.  This is because the nature of the 
> disability is such that it is intrinsically impossible (or unreasonably 
> difficult) for the person to deal with the construct.  It is sad that this 
> problem hasn't already been addressed and can lead to unnecessarily 
> discouraging competent persons.  I plan to try to explain this in more 
> detail and then write to the reseachers in hopes of getting them to 
> address it.
>
> Sincerely,
> SusanJ
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