[nabs-l] Grade deductions for visual mistakes

[Cindy Bennett]

Hi Kaley,

I understand how frustrating it is to make a paper visually appealing.
However, if you want to be held to the same standard as your sighted
peers, I think there are a lot of great ways you can learn to maximize
the accessible tools available and use a reader to assist you with
visual nuances that you may not be able to do accessibly. If you are
making mistakes with punctuation, perhaps you can set your screen
reader to read all punctuation. This way, you would hear when there
are two periods.

I had some great teachers who were often understanding if I made a
mistake once in a while that was clearly do to inaccessible
formatting, and luckily, they gave me constructive feedback. But, I
think it is essential to get in the habit of formatting documents the
best you can, because in some cases such as applying for jobs, even if
you attend a networking event with your resume, writing, aka your
resume, an email, or a cover letter will be the only impression you
get to make. I think it is very reasonable for teachers to count off
even for little mistakes like that, because they are prepare you to
write professionally.

If I am completing an assignment worth a lot of my grade or reputation
like a conference paper, I always vet it through a reader. If I am
collaborating, often I will offer to do something extra , or something
that would make it fair for the sighted person to do some of the more
complex formatting. For example, when doing group work, I try to be
proactive ahead of the group and create a rough PowerPoint with a lot
of great content. So then they are just editing content and then it
isn't such a big deal to ask them to choose a scheme that looks nice
or to insert appropriate photos.

If an assignment isn't worth a lot, or if I am just turning in
something for my advisor to look over, I wil format it to the best of
my ability but not worry about vetting it through a reader. My
professors and collaborators are often fine with this, because I do
turn in documents that are grammatically correct. Often, my mistakes
come with unpredictable Microsoft formatting.

One thing I have learned is that if I am editing something that
someone has already assisted me with such as my resume, and I need to
add a new heading for example, I will copy and paste an existing
heading. I will then write just next to the heading and delete the
original characters. Often, my text takes on the formatting
charactoristics of the original text. So try to do that if you can
remember. I have also learned to ask questions. If I am working with
someone who is doing formatting as a part of their contribution, I ask
them how the document looks and why they made the choices they did.
Over time, I have remembered some things that look good and now
incorporate them into my formattting.

I think it takes a while for all of us to learn how to format papers
to the best of our ability nonvisually and we learn when we need to
ask a reader for help. However, if you are concerned about formatting
mistakes affecting your grade, be proactive. Ask to meet with your
teacher to go over the most common mistakes you make, and the two of
you can brainstorm to come up with ways you can minimize them in the
future. I think that if you are proactive, and if you do make an
effort to turn in papers that look appropriate according to the
assignment, if you make small mistakes, your teachers will be much
more forgiving and might use them as opportunities to educate you
rather than dock points.

Even when you get really good at formatting, things happen. For
example, one time, I turned in a blank paper because I didn't realize
my printer cartridge was empty. Also, to minimize some of the
automatic formatting in word, I will select all and left align and
make sure it is the right font, size and style such as regular. I then
go back and change all of the things that would be different such as
centering headings and bolding important words. I tend to forget if I
do these things in process, so I save it all for the eend. Other
people may have other ideas,, but those are a couple of the strategies
I use.

Cindy

On 11/18/14, kcj21 via nabs-l <nabs-l at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Hello all,
>       When writing a paper, I have Zoomtext Appreader read my paper aloud
> and I use Spell Check. However, occasionally, there are small formatting
> mistakes that I don't notice. Unfortunately, I usually get a slight grade
> reduction for these visual mistakes. Once, I got points off because I had
> two periods and recently, I lost a few points because my paragraph wasn't
> indented, but it was definitely separated from the previous paragraph. What
> do you guys do in these circumstances. Should I explain these visual
> mistakes to my professor?
>
> Best,
> Kaley
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-- 
Cindy Bennett
1st Year Ph.D. Student, University of Washington
Human Centered Design and Engineering

Treasurer of the Greater Seattle Chapter and of the National
Federation of the Blind of Washington
Affiliates of the National Federation of the Blind

clb5590 at gmail.com