[Nfb-science] qualifying exam accommodations

Fri Oct 1 21:12:52 UTC 2010

I'm not saying I failed due to my inability to read visual cues, but
that it may have played a part.  I'm sure the result was a combination
of things, including faults in myself.  I'm pretty sure the committee
thinks I can do the research.  I think they actually want to help.
I've found ways of dealing with data analysis and generation and in
fact just recently got a manuscript accepted, so that's not the
problem.  The main problem was that they didn't like my proposal.  I
had taken communications classes already and did fine in them, by the
way.  I and my peers didn't seem to think the proposal was THAT poorly
written, to be honest.  It had to do with the specific aims of the
proposal itself and my poor ability to defend them.  That being said,
it's hard to defend something your committee thinks is indefensible
anyway.  The very best outcome would have been that I passed on
condition that I rewrite the proposal....but I didn't manage that.

Yes, maybe just have someone there to like, be my eyes?  Maybe my
mentor or some other outside party ?  I still like the idea of a
45-minute presentation with questions to follow as well.  But is this
fair considering the normal format?

On Fri, Oct 1, 2010 at 1:42 PM, cheryl fogle <cfogle at unm.edu> wrote:
> Stephanie,
>
> I'm almost finished writing a dissertation in the dept of anthropology,
> University of New Mexico.  Students here present our research proposal and
> then take questions as our qualifying exams.  The proposal presentation is
> expected to be 45-50 minutes and the questioning period goes on as long as
> the committee feels necessary for the student to address questions, but
> usually 15-30 minutes tops.  Prior to the exam, we take a proposal writing
> seminar, and this class is supposed to help students work out the details of
> how they will conduct the research.  I found the seminar difficult because
> it was at that stage when I had to problem solve about how I would collect
> and analyze data as a blind person.  I developed a protocol for hiring and
> working with sighted students at the various university museums where I
> analyzed collections of stone tools.  I'm totally blind because of ROP by
> the way.  Since I had to problem solve, I needed to retake the seminar
> before proceeding.
>
> Perhaps, the faculty on your committee didn't grade you fairly because they
> didn't understand how a blind person would conduct the research that you
> proposed. Did you address alternative techniques in discussion of your data
> collection or analysis?  If you haven't already done so, you might discuss
> these issues with your PI or dissertation committee chair.
>
> I think if you choose to retake your oral exams, you should ask the
> examining committee and ask them to give you more verbal cues if they would
> like more information or if they want you to move on to a different topic.
> Personally, I wouldn't want someone interrupting the discussion to give me a
> play-by-play on body language. I think you may be focused on your  inability
> to read the body language of your examining committee rather than any
> underlying issues they might have about you’re ability to conduct research.
>
> I wish you the best of luck resolving these issues.
>
> Cheryl Fogle
> Ph.D. candidate, department of anthropology, University of New Mexico
>
>  -----Original Message-----
> From: nfb-science-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfb-science-bounces at nfbnet.org]
> On Behalf Of Stephanie Hirst
> Sent: Friday, October 01, 2010 12:56 PM
> To: NFB Science and Engineering Division List
> Subject: [Nfb-science] qualifying exam accommodations
>
> Hello,
>
> As a listserv of fellow blind/visually impaired scientists and engineers, I
> was hoping some of hou may have some advice for me.  I am currently in the
> beginning of my third yar in the Vanderbilt University Chemical and Physical
> Biology graduate program where I am in the lab of Jens Meiler doing
> computational protein structure prediction.  My visual acuity is about
> 20/400 and is basically non-correctable (I have oculocutaneous albinism).
>  My glasses only help somewhat, but even with them, I'm still legally blind.
>
> Anyway, I recently took my qualifying exam, which one needs to pass in order
> to be considered a qualified PhD candidate.  While I, my peers, my exam
> committee, and my mentor (PI) all agree that I'm actually quite qualified to
> work for my doctoral degree, I did not pass my exam.  This was to the
> surprise and shock of everyone, including myself, because I seemed to do
> very well in my mock exam beforehand.
> I am quite knowledgeable about my proposed research and most of the
> background, but the committee did not like the things I was proposing, but
> that is beside the point of the email,.
>
> Among other things, it was brought to my attention that the exam format may
> be somewhat unfair for visually impaired students.  It is a 90-minute oral
> exam, but you do now know beforehand what they are going to ask.  One can
> anticipate a little, but I anticipated wrong!
> The format is basically like this:
>    Two weeks before the exam, you submit an NIH style proposal of your
> thesis research that you want to do to your committee.  They are supposed to
> read this before the exam.
>    On the day of the exam, you have 5 minutes to present 3 powerpoint slides
> describing what you want to do for your research.
>    After the 5 minutes, they ask you open-ended, somewhat unpredictable
> questions for 90 minutes based on the proposal and the background concerning
> your research.  This is to test the student's ability to defend their
> proposed research and to see if they hve adequate background to do it.
>    The exam is pretty discussion-based, and there is a lot of give and take.
>  The committee members (there are 4) tend to feed off of each other, and
> often new questions stem from questions asked previously.
>
> One idea is that I had a hard time with this discussion-based format because
> I cannot erad visual cues, such as facial expressions, hand movements, signs
> of irritations or disappointment, etc.  I also get no positive feedback.  I
> also memorized my power point slides because I personally can't see them.
>  In this case they were more for the committee than myself, even though
> other students tell me they used them to kind of jog their memory if they
> get stuck on a subject.  For me, it's just more morization and things to
> remember and worry about.
>
> The person who proposed the idea that the exam format may have been a
> problem for me as a visually impaired student has a masters in special
> education.  She says:
>
> "Hi Steph, my thought was that when a sighted person goes to a committee
> qualifying exam, they rely heavily on visual cues and body language cues
> from the faces of the committee members. For example, the sighted person can
> tell when they should provide more information at a particular juncture,
> after noticing that two of the committee members clearly require more
> information.  They also know when to stop talking about something, if the
> committee members are displaying fidgeting or exchanging glances etc.  The
> low-vision student may not be able to benefit from those cues.  So, it would
> be reasonable for someone to sit with the student, and perhaps suggest "Dr.
> Y seems to be looking for more information on that topic."  or "The
> committee appears to have heard enough on that slide and you can move on."
> The second thing is that from what I understand you do not read your slides
> - so the slides are not useful to you but only serve as a visual cue for the
> committee?  You memorize your slides and the places to put your pointer?
> Correct?  Well, I think that having a person with you to help with those
> visual things would be helpful. The person would have to be someone trained
> to work with low vision people."
>
> So I was wondering if any of you have experience anything similar to this
> and would have suggestions on how to handle this situation.  Do you think it
> is fair to ask for accommodations to make the exam more fair?  Or do you
> think the exam is already fair?  Remember that this is no normal oral exam
> where they have a written test that they just read the questions out to you.
> These questions are extremely hard, if not impossible, to predict, are very
> open ended, and are mostly based on the discussion occurring around them in
> the room.  We had some ideas on possible accommodations.  1) Instead of
> 90-minutes of open ended questions, give a 45-minute presentation with a
> shorter period of questioning, 2) meet one on one with each committee member
> for 20 minutes so they can ask questions, instead of having all four sit at
> the end of a table and ask questions at the same time, 3) have the same
> format as before but with a mediator (perhaps someone from DSS) who can help
> provide more verbal cues that I don't get visually.  Do you guys have any
> other ideas?  How do you handle such situations?  I have spoken with the
> disability services people here, but this is quite a unique case (not too
> many VI/blind people in chemistry PhD programs here), and I think they know
> about as much as I do.
>
> Of course I'm not trying to get out of taking the exam or cheat, and I know
> I will need more practice.  I wonder if this is a valid thing that will be
> important if future disabled students come along, though.
>  Thoughts?
>
> Thanks and looking forward to hearing from you,
>
> Stephanie Hirst
>
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