Hi Friends Have drafted a Policy for Examinations of the Visually disabled in India thanks to the input from Anjali, Asif, Dipendra, Harish, Ketan, Neha, Pranav, Rajesh, Sam and SGS Sisodia and numerous others who helped when the Maharashtra Guidelines were being framed.
Please let me have your comments on this draft urgently and no later than this evening. I need to send it to the Disability commission. thanks Kanchan Policy for Examination of the Visually Disabled The need for a standard and comprehensive Policy throughout India for the examination of the Visually Disabled has been growing since: a.. Every year more and more Visually Disabled candidates are appearing for various examinations. b.. Number of examining bodies has been increasing over the years a.. Various orders/judgments/directions have been passed by various Courts/Commissions/Authorities and deal with the problem in piecemeal. a.. Various examination conducting authorities have different rules and/or implement the rules in different ways. a.. Technology is improving and needs to be taken into account a.. The anxiety suffered by the examinees before and during the examination has to be removed a.. Questions asked at written examinations and the examinations themselves are varied and need to be answered in various ways. a.. Competition is increasing and the Visually Disabled have to be given a level playing field This Policy will apply to all examinations being conducted in India generally and specifically to examinations conducted by Educational institutions- schools and colleges (both internal and external), School and College Boards, universities and deemed universities, autonomous bodies conducting entrance or promotional examinations as well as all recruiting/promoting authorities and any other authorities or bodies under which a Visually Disabled examinee wishes to appear for an examination for any purpose whatsoever. The paramount purpose of the Policy is to alleviate the hardship being caused to the Visually disabled candidate due to uncertainty in policy and to mitigate the effects of a disability. 1. Scribe a. The Visually Disabled candidate must be allowed the use of a Scribe who will read the question papers and write/type the answers dictated by the Visually disabled candidate. b. Since one of the important factors while doing an examination is speed, adequate practice is necessary, Visually Disabled persons should be allowed to use the services of a scribe of his/her own choice. The Visually Disabled candidate may however request the Examining authority to provide a Scribe. c. The discretion to arrange for his/her own Scribe or to be provided by a Scribe by the Examining Authority is with the candidate alone. d. No other restriction other than those mentioned in Clauses 3 or 4 herein below should be imposed on the selection of a scribe. e. It is desirable that the candidate and the scribe are from the same stream. 2. Examination Form/Application a. All Application Forms/Advertisements for exams should mention that a Visually Disabled candidate will be allowed the use of a Scribe and alternative formats will be provided. b. The examining authority should give a clear option in the advertisement itself whether the examinee wishes the scribe to be provided by the examination conducting body or he/she wishes to arrange the scribe on his/her own. c. The Examining authority at the time of advertisement/application should also print the criteria/qualification for scribe to be followed. d. The application form should have a provision asking low vision persons to indicate the requirement of question paper in large print. The advertisement for examination as well as the application form should also clearly mention that the low vision persons would be allowed the use of magnifying glass. 3. Scribes chosen by Candidate a. In case the candidate avails the services of his/her own scribe/writer, the scribe/writer should be one grade junior in academic qualification than the candidate if from the same stream. However, this condition shall not apply if the scribe/writer is from a different stream. b. For competitive examinations the scribe needs to be one level below the eligibility criteria of the competitive exam in consideration. c. For internal exams of schools and colleges the condition of the scribe being one grade junior in academic qualification than the candidate should not be enforced strictly as this would cause undue hardship to the candidate and give rise to unviable solutions. 4. Scribes provided by Examining Authorities a. Considering the practical problems, it is necessary that even if the scribe is provided by the examination conducting authorities, at the request of examinee, such authorities must ensure the competence of the scribe/writer. If the scribe is provided by the examining authorities, it should be ensured that the scribe is adequately qualified to understand the questions and to explain them to the candidate. b. To ensure the competence of such a scribe provided, the following conditions should be adhered to: i. as far as possible and practical, the scribe himself/herself should be a current student; ii. In any case, the time interval between when such a scribe ceased to be a student himself/herself and the time he/she is acting as a scribe should not be more than three years, because with the lapse of time, natural abilities of a student like writing speed, taking dictation and writing an examination efficiently in a specified time frame, suffer a considerable decline. However strict adherence to this requirement cannot be stretched beyond a logical point. iii. The medium of instruction of the scribe in his/her studies should essentially be, or have been, the same as the examinee. iv. Scribe should, as far as possible, belong to the same stream as the examinee. v. In cases where the scribe is provided by exam conducting bodies at the request of the examinee, she/he should not have scored below 55% marks in the last exam. c. The examining body should identify the scribes/writers and make the panels at district/Division or state level as per requirement of examination. d. The Panels of scribe should be as per requirement of the stream/discipline eg. Arts, Commerce, Science & Mathematics, Engineering, Medical etc. and only eligible scribes should be included in the panel. 5. Supervision Any attempt at cheating and other malpractices can be curbed by ensuring proper supervision and vigilance by the invigilators. This is the responsibility of the Examining Authority. No restrictions should be imposed on the choice of a scribe by a candidate on this account. 6. Additional time a. The facility of Additional time must be allotted to all Visually Disabled candidates appearing for examinations in any format with or without the use of a Scribe. b. For a written test of duration of 1 hour at least 20 minutes extra time should be allotted. c. Similarly For written tests involving more than one or less than one hour extra time should be worked out on the basis of 20 minutes per one hour criteria. 7. Arrangements at the Examination a. Proper sitting arrangement should be made before commencement of the examination so as to avoid confusion and distraction. b. Sitting arrangements for the disabled candidates should be made on the ground floor, as far as possible. c. Refreshments, if any to scribes/writers should either are served before or after the examination and not during the examination. d. The Chief invigilator of the examination center should have discretionary powers to accept last minute change of scribes under exigencies. e. Considering the fact that many exams are held in overlapping schedules and also the fact that the scribes may not be free/willing to commit themselves for the entire duration of exam or examination of various languages, more than one person may be permitted to write different papers for the same examination, provided they fulfill all other conditions laid down in clauses 3 or 4 above. For enacting such a change in scribes for different papers, the ground of contingency should not be a mandatory requirement. f. The letter approving the scribe should contain the following information in writing: i. The extra time given to the candidate ii. He shall be seated separately iii. Contact address and phone number of competent authority should also be printed for last minute change of scribe. g. To minimize the need for last minute change in the scribe and in view of (e) above, a collective sanction letter may be issued, sanctioning multiple scribes proposed by the examinee, so that any of them may be called upon to act as the scribe in any particular paper, without the hassle of formalities involved in changing the scribe at the eleventh hour. h. Candidate, scribe and supervisor should be provided with full information about the duration of the examination. 8. Aids and appliances a. a. All Visually Disabled candidates may be allowed to carry special mathematical aids such as Taylor's frame or abacus as they have no other way of calculating sums. Neither abacus nor Taylor's frame calculate the sums but are mere aids such as a paper for candidates with vision. b. in papers such as accounts the visually disabled candidate may be allowed to carry Braille slates and papers for writing the numbers as it is difficult to remember the balance sheets c. The visually disabled candidate should also be allowed to use optical/ electronic low vision aids such as magnifying glass; 9. Alternative Formats a. In addition to the facility of a scribe the Visually Disabled candidates have the facility to write answers in Braille or on a computer or a typewriter or may ask for question paper in large font. b. The answer paper in Braille should be evaluated by the expert/examiners in Braille script. If possible the question paper may be provided in Braille or in digital text. c. The font size of the question paper should not be less than 20 for the benefit of low vision candidates. d. Considering the developments in technology, all examination conducting bodies should facilitate the use of computers for taking the exams by the visually Disabled examinees, if the candidate so desires. e. Visually Disabled candidates appearing for "Open book Exams may be provided the texts of such books in Braille, in digital format on the computer or in large text at the choice of the candidate. 10. Alternative Questions a. Alternative questions must be provided in cases where the original question contains visual elements and/or require the candidate to interpret or produce such visual elements. However the candidate may elect to answer the original question. b. Wherever possible, the visual graphs should be supplemented by descriptive explanation of the graphs for visually Disabled candidates. c. For practical exams the Visually Disabled candidate must be allowed the help of a laboratory assistant to conduct the experiment and or be provided alternative oral questions in place of the experiment to be conducted. 11. Examination on Computers a. Visually Disabled candidates can appear in examination on the computer only if students are computer literate and can type at least at the speed of 30 words per minute. The software and hardware is now available to make students write their examinations both in Hindi and English mediums b. This form of examination is preferable than the use of scribes due to the following reasons: i. High payments being demanded by Scribes ii. Wasting crucial time just before the examinations just to look for scribes. iii. Sexual harassment of girl students. iv. Losing marks due to mistakes of scribes or casual attitude of scribes. v. Week students getting away with good marks by making their scribes write answers to questions that they do not know. c. The use of computers for examination does not mean that a scribe to read the question paper is dispensed with. However the candidate may not require a sighted person and dispense with the same. d. The responsibility to bring a computer is not on the student/ candidate. The centre/ Examining authority shall spare one of its own Computers for the exam. e. However if it is feasible then the candidate may be allowed to use his own computer. This may be decided by the candidate and the examining authority mutually. f. the only responsibility that a student aspiring to give exam on computer has, is to bring the screen reading software. g. The candidate should be allowed to install the screen reading software a day in advance on the computer provided with printer installed h. recommended Equipment preparation: i. For each candidate appearing in the examination two computers may be set up for this purpose. One for writing the examination and one as stand-by in case of any failure in the machine. ii. The computer must have the following software installed: A. MS Office B. Page maker 6 C. Jaws for windows screen reading software. iii. The medium of examination for the student can be in English or Hindi . iv. All the data on the Computer must be password protected using the utility software called Folder Access. This software can make any folder access limited by password. 6.. UPS with back-up of 2 hours must be installed at the centre. 7.. Vi. Two printers may be kept for taking the final print-outs of the answer sheets. i. Recommended procedure for examination: i. The computer centre or the library may be designated as one of the examination centres for conducting the examination. ii. Question paper must be sent to this Centre on a CD. iii. The question paper may be sent in the page-maker file format. iv. The paper then requires to be converted into a MS word file. The original file may be opened in the page maker software. Each page of the question paper must be copied and pasted in the MS word document. v. if the candidate is appearing in English Medium, the Jaws software may speak gibberish where Hindi text appears, all Hindi language text must be deleted from the question paper. vi. This MS word file must be password protected. vii. Answer sheet- One blank MS-word document may be created on the Computer and shortcut to this may be created on the desk-top. This blank document must have the paper size and margins set according to the extension sheets of the answer sheet on which the final print-out will be taken. Viii. The role-number and other details of the candidate must be filled on the original sheet by the invigilator using normal pen. These extension sheets must be stapled with each sheet of the original answer sheet. Each sheet must be signed by the invigilator. 8.. The candidate must be allowed to have access to the Computer 10 minutes before the start of examination time. 9.. X. At the time of start of examination, the password for the question paper file must be told to the candidate. 12. Other Disabled Candidates Although the aforesaid guidelines are specifically for Visually disabled candidates these guidelines may be used by the Examining authorities while conducting examinations for other candidates suffering from disability whether permanent or temporary. To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
