[Nfb-science] qualifying exam accommodations
Chrys Buckley
cbuckley at pdx.edu
Tue Oct 5 16:12:28 UTC 2010
Here is a thought for you, Stephanie.
Like you, I have albinism, which can complicate things b/c of the
added dimension of looking different. I think socially, that can
sometimes be a bigger deal than the blindness aspect of albinism, b/c
it's so visually striking to the overly-visual sighted world around
us. At least that has been my experience.
Recently I was talking to another friend with albinism about this, in
the context of job interviews. This friend of mine went to a career
counselor at one point, and the career counselor said something to her
along the lines of, "I am just going to be really honest with you. I
was so struck by your appearance that I don't remember a thing you
said in the first 15 minutes of our meeting." She then suggested to my
friend that when going on job interviews, she should really try to
make small talk in the beginning, more than the average person at an
interview would, to give the interviewer time to mentally adjust, put
them at ease, etc, before launching into anything important.
When my friend told me this, I wasn't sure what to think. I didn't
like the thought of looking so strikingly different that people would
need time to adjust, but it has worked for my friend, and it has
worked for me. Albinism is pretty rare, and a lot of people haven't
met an albino before and there are a lot of crazy pop culture images
that give people some really weird ideas about us. I probably don't
have to tell you some of the completely absurd things I have been
asked, or told, about myself b/c of my appearance.
So the point is, it is possible that these examiners were having
trouble adjusting and not registering what you said. Maybe when you go
to do it again, one thing to do could be to engage in a bit of small
talk, or a joke, or something. I know that can be hard in a science
setting, esp if this if fairly formal. It's like you have to do what
you can to put them at ease, to connect, to essentially say, "hey I'm
a human being not some freak from outer space," (well really more just
doing or saying things to show that) so they can get over themselves
and start listening to you and registering your words.
It's a small thing, but it really has helped in my own life even if
it's a bit of a pain in the ass! And maybe also you could restructure
your presentation next time, so that the more important stuff is a bit
further in. Kinda counter-intuitive for sure, but it gives them more
time to register and remember what you are presenting, more time to
get over it and start paying attention.
Anyway, just thoughts!
Chrys
Quoting David Hertweck <david.hertweck at sbcglobal.net>:
> I am blind with a lot worse vision than what you discribed. This sounds a
> lot like my master thesis defense. Presenting my research and having a
> board of Dr. in the field pose Qs for as long as they want. I have also
> worked at the University of Cincinnati for almost 10 years. I have seen
> many defenses of both masters and DRs. For the last 10 years I have worked
> in an R&D division with very chalenging people. I do not bye the statement
> that the test was unfair an oral exam is one of the most fare tests one can
> have. Even if you do not get the visual Qs a test like this will prepare
> you for real world challenges. Reading body language can also be auditory ,
> IE. People moving around or loud breathing. A truly intrested group does
> not move aroun much. What has served me well is to not blame things on "not
> fair" and do not make blindness an issue, when I do this people treat me as
> a peer. Even if test are unfair all test are unfair to one group or
> another.
> I do not know very many blind people but the few I know seem to bring up the
> fact that they are blind in more than half of the conversations they have.
> I do not understand this. I never bring the topic up unless I am asked. In
> the last 10 years I think the topic has only come up once at work. If it is
> never brought up as a problem then it will not become one.
>
> Some advice.
> 1. work hard, work some more, then work some more.
> 2. Do not give up from what you stated you are doing super, do not let one
> setback stop you.
> 2. Let your record do the talking. My eyes look very strange and I have had
> many job interviews that have went very well over the phone and when we meet
> in person and they see me the interview ends very quickly. That is there
> loss and I do not want to work for some one like that. Now that I have a
> long record of achievement this is no longer a problem.
> 3. now that I have a high level position I do not have to prove myself any
> more than anyone else. Just starting out everyone must prove them selves,
> some more than others but that is OK.
> 4. Is not fare does not cut it in the real world. Every thing is unfair in
> its own way so do not get depressed or hung up on that. Go to the testers
> and asked what did I do or not do to not pass. Do not make blindness a
> topic and I think you will find that it is not a problem.
>
> Pleas keep going if you want to do somethin go for it. Remember most people
> that can see could not do what you are doing.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----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 1:56 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
>
> _______________________________________________
> Nfb-science mailing list
> Nfb-science at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-science_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for
> Nfb-science:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfb-science_nfbnet.org/david.hertweck%
> 40sbcglobal.net
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Nfb-science mailing list
> Nfb-science at nfbnet.org
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nfb-science_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info
> for Nfb-science:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nfb-science_nfbnet.org/cbuckley%40pdx.edu
>
>
http://chrysanthymum.blogspot.com
More information about the NFB-Science
mailing list