Learning and Teaching: Essential Guides

No 10: Strategies for Assessing Students who have Vision Impairment

• Provide extra time in examinations. Some students with vision impairment may require double time for examinations, so time for rest breaks will be essential.

• There are some good assessment practices which will enhance the learning of students with vision impairment (and all other students in the class!):

• Know what you are testing, whether it is decision-making, strategic planning, creative application of information data collection and processing, logical sequencing, or argument.

• Create assessment activities in which students have the opportunity to link their learning to what they already know, and to past experience.

• Make your expectations (assessment criteria) clear so that students know what they are expected to be able to demonstrate.

• Keep written examination instructions and sentences within examination questions short. Questions using bullet points, lists or separate parts are more likely to be followed and correctly interpreted.

• Avoid using assessment methods which encourage students to rote learn material. Open book examinations are one way of doing this. Remember that this will need forward planning so that printed material can be transcribed to Braille or enlarged before the exam.

• Make explicit the way in which marks will be allocated, both in discussion with the class beforehand, and on any examination papers.

• Provide optional pathways towards meeting stated learning outcomes, options that allow

In considering alternative forms of assessment, equal opportunity, not a guaranteed outcome, is the objective. You are not expected to lower standards to accommodate students with a disability, but rather are required to give them a reasonable opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned.

Students with vision impairment may need particular adjustments to assessment tasks. Once you have a clear picture of how the disability impacts on learning you can consider alternative assessment strategies.

• Allow extensions to assignment deadlines if extensive reading has been set. Consider setting alternative assignments in which students have the opportunity to work intensively on a few selected texts rather than having to read extensively.

• Examination papers may need to be enlarged or produced in Braille, with tactile diagrams, maps etc. It may be necessary to provide heavy line paper, a scribe, or special writing implements. All of this takes time so liaise with the Disability and Dyslexia Service’s Sensory Impairments Advisor well in advance of the assessment period.

• Some students may undertake examinations using a personal computer with voice synthesiser. Some may need a reader, an oral examination with the examiner, questions on audiotape, or large print papers. It may be necessary to provide extra space for equipmentandspecificpersonnel,oraseparate examination venue if the noise from equipment being used is likely to be distracting for other students.

Learning and Teaching Essential Guides

Learning and Teaching: Essential Guides

forflexibilityinapproach,inorganisationand assessment. You might provide project-based exercises in which students choose their own topic for exploration. Given the diversity of students,the greater the diversity in methods of assessment, the fairer the process. Make accommodations based on individual circumstance and need. Remember that students may need the opportunity toexperimenttofindtheadaptationoraccommodation which best meets their learning style/needs.

• Include self-assessment as a component of the course. Self-assessment involves discussion with students about the criteria according to which they assess their own performance, and the level of performance required for different grades.

• Discuss and collaborate on assessment alternatives with staff who have had previous experience teaching students with disabilities. You (and your subject area/School) should regularly review any alternative arrangements to ensure that these meet both the student’s needs (which may change over time) and stated module/programme objectives.

Teaching staff should ensure that they are familiar with the requirements of the following legislation relating to disability: Equality and Diversity Act 2010. Details may be found on the Equality Tab on Portia.

Queries regarding the needs of individual students should be referred to the Disability and Dyslexia Services Tel: (external) 01243 812076 (Internal) 2076 or to the Sensory Impairments Advisor on 01243 81245, e-mail sensadvisor@chi.ac.uk

Centre for Learning and Teaching/Disability and Dyslexia Service Enhancement Guides

The University promotes an inclusive approach to learning and teaching, based on equity and equal entitlement. The university’s aim is to increase the proportion of students who are currently under-represented in higher education in order to widen participation and its objective is to provide suitable facilities, and implement policies that enable all students to undertake and complete their studies successfully.