[nabs-l] Extended Time

Wed Feb 6 17:34:53 UTC 2013

Hi Arielle,
Well I see your points. Extended time while we use braille could send a bad 
message I suppose that we're inherently slow.
I cannot remember whether I used  extended time all the time in high school 
or not. I had a study hall period with my vision teacher, or TVI as they're 
called. Here I finished any tests or in class assignments I needed to for 
the day or worked on homework. This was very valuable time for me since I 
struggled with some spatial concepts too and my TVI sort of acted as a tutor 
for math as well and explained diagrams.

I think ideally that  extended time and accomodations should be given on a 
case by case basis. You may need some accomodations in one class and not 
others.
But that isn't how college works; they have to make accomodations across the 
board so you have one accomodation sheet for all professors.

I feel that yes extended time is needed in college because of
the medium its taken in. I consider equal access to be braille since sighted 
students read it; they do not have to hear it.
As you know, braille is not given to us in college except for maybe math if 
you beg for it.

So, I think using jaws is slower than reading it in print. If its multiple 
choice, I find I need to hear it twice because as with any test taker, I 
read it once and eliminate two answers and read it again to pic the  best 
answer.
A sighted user clicks the correct button where as we have to go line by line 
and listen to the line and arrow up til finding the right answer.
If using a reader, I need them to repeat my answers sometimes to ensure they 
circled the right one.

I am trying to get extended time for practice online quizzes because I need 
to scroll back up to check my answers.
I'm confused as to what radio button goes
with what answer. I wish the Letter options of A, b, c, d were on the same 
line but jaws isn't reading like that.
Not to mention that I use a minute or two to find where the darn quiz
begins! Yes, I do use the quick navigation keys such as H for heading to 
help but when there are lots of headings this doesn't help too much.

I find that other forms of tests such as short answer and essay formats
take me less time. I don't always use extended time. But its there in the 
many cases I do need it.

Now, I  just hope I can get
extended time for the blackboard quiz. It has to be manually changed for me 
to get extended time.

Ashley

-----Original Message----- 
From: Arielle Silverman
Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2013 9:57 PM
To: nabs-l at nfbnet.org
Subject: [nabs-l] Extended Time

Hi all,
The last post about using extra time on quizzes got me thinking about
why we automatically get extra time to take tests and whether or not
this is a good idea. I think the extra time is intended to correct for
any issues with our accommodations or technology that make test-taking
slower; for example, it might make sense to use extra time if we have
to have a scribe write an essay for us or if we are using a reader and
asking them to repeat things or read answer choices a few times. Extra
time also seems appropriate if we have a problem with technology
breaking, files not downloading correctly, etc. But I question whether
extra time is really appropriate for online quizzes, for example, or
for Braille or large print tests.
As a Braille reader I used extended time only on a few occasions and I
found that I only "needed" it when, deep down, I didn't fully
understand the material I was being tested on. This happened a lot
when I had tactile diagrams to interpret since I have always been bad
with spatial mapping and understanding tactile images. So I would use
the extra time to agonize over test questions I didn't understand and
then eventually guess an answer. I really don't think the extra time
was helpful for either my test performance or my learning and I feel
it only acted as a Band-Aid covering up the real issue which was that
I didn't know how to interpret tactile images. Had I not been granted
extended time this might have become a more pressing issue for me to
deal with back in high school. Similarly, I worry that when Braille
readers are automatically granted double time across the board, it
allows teachers to grow complacent with slower Braille-reading speeds
than is desirable and almost sets up the expectation that Braille
reading is inherently slow. It might be appropriate to *temporarily*
grant an individual student extended time while they are still in the
process of building Braille fluency, but granting it to everybody who
reads Braille is something that bothers me. I also question the
implication that blind students just do things slower and that nothing
can or should be done about it so just let them take extra time. I
don't need to tell you that extended time is not granted in the job
world and this is becoming more real for me as I approach graduation
and employment myself.
I'm not trying to belittle anybody who uses extended time. I am just
proposing that we reflect a little on what the extra time is
specifically meant to accomplish, why we use it and whether or not it
is actually helpful. I would propose that we make mindful decisions
about when to accept extended time and that we aim to use it only when
it is truly necessary and beneficial. In order to grow as students
progressing toward employment, I think we should also be aware of why
we are finding ourselves needing extra time and see if there are skill
issues we might be able to address so that we need it less in the
future. In my own case my weakness with tactile diagrams probably
won't impact me much on the job, but a weakness in Braille reading
speed or Web navigation is something that can be addressed with
training and practice and addressing it can make a person much more
competitive on the job, and able to get the job done as efficiently as
sightedd colleagues.
Best,
Arielle

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