[nfb-talk] standardized ttest accessibility

[lras]

You may have the right to get a test in the form that you want, but you may 
need to be more flexible.  And flexibility correlates with employability.
If they produce an electronic version of your test, there is no guarantee 
that they will have tested it with a screen reader to see whether it it is 
actually accessible.  If the volume of braille is a problem, then get it 
done with a qualified reader.  I hope you are talking with Scott LaBarre 
about these issues.
-- Lloyd Rasmussen, Kensington, Maryland
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Amelia Dickerson" <ameliadickerson at gmail.com>
To: <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, December 22, 2009 3:22 PM
Subject: [nfb-talk] standardized ttest accessibility


> I'm mostly just using this as a forum in which to gripe about being
> refused a standardized test in the accessible format I choose, and to
> see if anyone has any feedback. I am working on teacher licensure in
> Colorado in secondary sociaal studies, part of which requires I take
> the PLACE test. I registered and was promptly told I do not have the
> option of taking an electronic format of the test. I have discussed
> this with the testing company, but they are stone walling and ignoring
> my arguments. Fortunately, the Colorado Department of Education has
> been much more responsive and will potentially put some pressure on
> the testing company. People have been shocked at the idea that I don't
> want to license to teach blind students, but instead all secondary
> students, although I know there are other mainstream teachers who are
> blind in this state. The testing company insists that the only options
> I have are to take the test in braille or to use a reader. This is
> already a 5 hour test, and I am not going to put 80% of my energy on
> test day into reading massive amounts of braille, and I very, very
> much prefer to take tests electronically versus with a reader. I can
> do these things independently, but they are inssisting I depend on a
> human reading the test to me. I struggle to find workk because of
> employers' concerns about what I cannot do, but then other people will
> not let me just do. I have proper documentation from my doctor,
> confirming that I am in deed blind, but I have people asking if my
> doctor said that electronic format was the best way for me to take the
> test. What does my doctor know about that? She is a family doctor who
> can confirm that I am blind, but she doesn't know squat about how I
> maneuver the world. What makes her word into gospel truth on a subject
> I know far more about than she does? I know, I know, these are old
> issues. I'm just always surprised each time I run into situations
> where people who are sighted can be so block-headed about letting me
> do the wide variety of things I really can do. Oy vey.
>
> -- 
> Amelia Dickerson
>
> What counts can't always be counted, and what can be counted doesn't
> always count.
> Albert Einstein
>
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