[nabs-l] Fair/appropriate accomodations for assignments andtests involving videos

Wed Mar 27 19:31:46 UTC 2013

I think the most important accommodation you need is to have the
subtitles either read aloud or available to you in Braille or some
electronic format. If you think about it, the main point of having
students watch a movie in a foreign language is to give you exposure
to both the language and the English translation. If you don't get the
subtitles at all, you not only miss out on understplot but you also
miss the language learning opportunities. So from your teacher's point
of view, making the subtitles accessible should be absolutely
essential. Having the non-talking parts of the movie described is nice
too, but less important in my opinion.
Arielle

On 3/27/13, Kaiti Shelton <crazy4clarinet104 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Usually, yes, but in some cases like Miso's she was tested over things
> that weren't included in the dialogue and that her friend and teacher
> forgot to mention to her when she asked.  It really wasn't fair for
> her to have to be tested on the parts of the information she had no
> way of knowing about.
>
> I think the language barrier makes videos even harder than usual for
> us.  I had a similar experience when I watched those videos in
> Chinese; we had a test over the material and some of the questions
> were about events that happened which weren't discussed in the
> dialogue, like, "What did the boy see when he was separated from his
> father in the city?"  In the movie the boy broke away from his father
> to look at a violin, but all the diealogue that was there was the
> father ylooking for his son and yelling his name, and the scenes were
> flipping back and forth between the worried dad and his son looking at
> the instrument.  When they found each other the dad just said, "There
> you are, let's go we're going to be late," so had my reader not
> described what was going on to me I wouldn't have understood what the
> boy was looking at.
>
> On 3/27/13, Sophie Trist <sweetpeareader at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Miso and everyone, while the suggestions given to you are good,
>> I've had these video assignments too. Lots of times, the
>> following questions have to do with the major parts of the video,
>> not the minor subtleties. I've never had videos in foreign
>> languages, so I can't speak for those, but for those in other
>> subjects, listening to the dialogue should be enough to do the
>> following activities.
>>
>>  ----- Original Message -----
>> From: Kaiti Shelton <crazy4clarinet104 at gmail.com
>> To: National Association of Blind Students mailing list
>> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org
>> Date sent: Tue, 26 Mar 2013 23:30:55 -0400
>> Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Fair/appropriate accomodations for
>> assignments andtests involving videos
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I've had similar issues both in Spanish and other classes.  I
>> like
>> your aid's suggestion of giving you the subtitles in a document
>> for
>> you to read along with the Spanish; I did something similar with
>> spanish videos myself.
>>
>> If you choose to have a friend sit with you and explain the
>> movie,
>> make sure they're someone who can fluently read the subtitles.
>> Explain that they can explain things about the movie that aren't
>> covered in the dialogue, but that they should wait for an
>> opportune
>> time to do theese like when no one is talking and there are no
>> subtitles to be read.  If those opportunities are scarce, have
>> them
>> run through the plot with you after the movie when they're not
>> worried
>> about cramming in the explanation along with the subtitles.  Ask
>> them
>> to be detailed.  They don't need to give you every single bit of
>> information, but something as significant as someone dying on a
>> ship
>> might be worth mentioning.  If you choose this route you can also
>> jot
>> down questions on a notetaker as you're watching the movie so you
>> can
>> go over them later.  I did a mix of these methods last semester;
>> for
>> my intro to the university class we had to watch a few movies,
>> one
>> documentary and one fictional film about a violin protegy, about
>> the
>> music from China.  Both times I had the TA for my class sit with
>> me
>> and read the Chinese subtitles.  Luckily, she's a very observant
>> student and a great reader, and I actually didn't even have to
>> tell
>> her when to describe things as she naturally felt the best time
>> to
>> describe what happened in the previous sceen would be during a
>> musical
>> part of the movie when no one was talking.  In such cases, you
>> might
>> get all the information you need just because the person reading
>> to
>> you is awesome at it.
>>
>> I'd definitely go to your teacher about it though.  I'm sure if
>> you
>> explain the situation they would at least throw out the questions
>> you
>> got wrong or didn't answer because you couldn't have answered
>> them
>> correctly from your test to make it fair, especially if the
>> teacher
>> didn't even remember to tell you all the things you would be
>> tested
>> on.
>>
>> Good luck.
>>
>> On 3/26/13, Julie McGinnity <kaybaycar at gmail.com> wrote:
>>  Hi Miso,
>>
>>  As a German major, I have been confronted with the issues of
>> videos in
>>  the classroom as well.  There are a few things you can do.  To
>> be
>>  honest, whatever you do, you won't get the same thing out of the
>> video
>>  as the others do, but you can try to get accomidations to make
>> it
>>  better.
>>
>>  First, you can get a friend to read you the subtitles, which is
>>  something you seem to be doing already.  This will be difficult
>>  because your friend will probably try to read you the subtitles
>> and
>>  explain the movie at the same time.  You will miss things.  The
>> other
>>  thing you can do is get your teacher to provide you with a
>> detailed
>>  summary of the movie ahead of time, so you have an understanding
>> of
>>  the plot of the movie.  I have found this to be helpful.
>>
>>  I have noticed that movies are one of the biggest ways we are
>> left
>>  behind as blind students.  It is difficult to get accomidations
>> to
>>  fully supplement what the sighted students are learning from a
>> movie
>>  because either we miss it completely due to lack of description
>> or we
>>  learn it after the fact.
>>
>>  On 3/26/13, Miso Kwak <kwakmiso at aol.com> wrote:
>>  Being the only blind student in classroom, there are times when
>> I feel
>>  like class activities are not suited for the visually impaired.
>>  There are just some times when I strongly feel like teachers
>> don't
>>  consider enough about the only one blind student in his/her
>> classrooms.
>>  One of those occasions is watching a video and doing follow-up
>>  activities.
>>  Currently, I am enrolled in Spanish 3 Honors class. In the class
>>  recently, we watched a movie and had to do 3 worksheets and a
>> quiz in
>>  the end.
>>  The movie was entirely spoken in Spanish. There was English
>> subtitle on
>>  the screen.
>>  When the class started watching the movie, teacher asked one of
>> my
>>  friends to explain the storyline of the movie, so she did.
>>  I didn't understand thoroughly but I just grasped what was going
>> on...
>>  I didn't do most of the worksheets because they didn't worth
>> many
>>  points and I frankly didn't know what to write. If I were
>> desperate for
>>  the points, I probably would have bs-ed.
>>  The teacher reviewed the movie and I asked some questions.
>> Afterward I
>>  felt like I had a better understanding of the movie.
>>  Then there was a quiz. I felt prepared goinginto the quiz but
>> when I
>>  took the quiz I was shocked because there were so much more than
>> I
>>  previously had thought.
>>  For example, one of the questions asked who died in a ship. I
>> didn't
>>  even know someone had died in a ship. It was just one of those
>> details
>>  which neither my friend nor the teacher mentioned.
>>  There were couple more questions that made me realize I had
>> missed so
>>  much.
>>  I am debating whether to confront my teacher about this matter
>> or not.
>>  If you were in my situation, would you tell her that the test
>> was
>>  unfair?
>>  When you have assignments involving videos what kinds of
>> accomodations
>>  do you have?
>>  My aide who usually types materials into doc documents suggested
>> she
>>  types the subtitle, I read the subtitle, and retake the test,
>> which I
>>  think is reasonable...
>>  Miso
>>
>>
>>
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>>
>>
>>  --
>>  Julie McG
>>  National Association of Guide dog Users board member,  National
>>  Federation of the Blind performing arts division secretary,
>>  Missouri Association of Guide dog Users President,
>>  and Guiding Eyes for the Blind graduate 2008
>>  "For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that
>>  everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal
>>  life."
>>  John 3:16
>>
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>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> Kaiti
>>
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>
>
> --
> Kaiti
>
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