All, My reference for cheating wasn’t clearly outlined. so I will attempt it again. :-) the mechanisms that a vendor uses to counterbalance the cheating which occurs with all certification exams is a pain point for them. The vendor wants to provide a high level of quality to their exam’s to ensure they are highly regarded in their specific I.T sector. Thus they are continually looking at ways to improve the exams to prevent cheating. Examples Andrew and Vincent raised like simulation questions, where the vendor is asking you to enter in commands to reproduce or configure something are some methodology used. Questions that are multiple choice all can be made accessible. In relation to audio describe for screen shots or diagram, this is a good idea depending on the information being shown. I can see this working for a simple dialog or diagram. But if it is a output from a CLI command or complex diagram/dialog. Then audio describe will not work because you will have to play the output multiple times to get the information you need. Also audio describe does not help deaf and Blind users. In this situation a text output is the way to go. The diagram, dialog or CLI output is provided as described text where the assistive technology is used to review the information. This has been very successful with the CAVI courses for their CCNA cert. The other area where no one has mention is the vendors who provide training material or courses that you can take. INE is one example where it is not very accessible. I am sure there is a lot of others that could improve in this area. Before people can take the exam, they must be able to access the information and training material. How many times have you come across a book that uses screen shot showing outputs where you could not get the information without getting sighted help because the supportive printed information doesn’t clearly explain the diagram. I have come across this a lot with networking in MPLS, Multicast and QoS for example. Since I am studying for my CCIE R&S. I also have seen this in programming books and Platform base material. You as a VI have to go through hoops to learn the same material. If we are talking about making a level playing field, then this must be also included. At this stage, a mix of using assistive technology and a reader when taking certification exams is the quickest solution. Long term is a different story which I suspect everyone on this list is seeking for. That is, not requiring the need of a reader to get full independence. Sean
On 16 May 2015, at 7:45 am, curtis jackson <cjackson102@cox.net> wrote:
maybe some one could record an audio discription of the screen shots that will play when you get to those questions.
Sent from my iPhone
On May 15, 2015, at 4:31 PM, Sean Murphy <mhysnm1964@gmail.com> wrote:
People, I am more then willing to join the team. I have done some work internally with Cisco on this and have made good movement forward with the CCNA certs. At this stage, I cannot share much of this due to NDA.
The biggest issue vendors like Microsoft, Apple, Cisco, etc has is to prevent cheating. Thus some components of the exam might be designed to prevent this from happening in turn making that part of the exam inaccessible. Thus you might still require a reader for those part if they can make the other parts of the exam accessible.
In Microsoft or Apple exams, I assume there is a lot of screen shots. Thus they would have to make that information accessible some how. so how would you make a screen shot of the task manager accessible for example to ensure the same level of information and challenge is provided to all parties for that question?
Sean
On 16 May 2015, at 7:01 am, Kelly Prescott <kprescott@coolip.net> wrote:
I am up for it as I am trying to work on this just now! I wouldn't mind coordinating etc. kp
On Fri, 15 May 2015, John G Heim wrote:
If you folks would like to try to do something about this, I suggest we form a team to look into it. If someone steps up to lead the team, we can arrange a meeting via skype with IAVIT's lawyer to see if we have any recourse.
On 05/15/2015 01:09 AM, Andrew Hodgson wrote: Hi,
As others have said, the only way you will get through it is with a reader who can confidently read technical questions in a timely manner. I did the MCITP Enterprise and server 2008 R2 certs (6 exams), and only got anywhere with a training company in the UK called Firebrand. All other attempts to get certs have gone wrong. I tried to do the upgrade exam to 2012 R2 last year and had a similar failure due to not getting a competent reader.
Thanks. Andrew.
-----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Kelly Prescott Sent: 14 May 2015 23:21 To: blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] certification questions
Hello to all on this list. My name is Kelly Prescott and I am currently enrolled for a degree in Information Technology-Network Administration. I am not new to this area, but up to now, my experience is with Unix/Linux systems which I have little to no problem with in terms of accessability. I managed the Network Operations Center for a ISP for about 10 years, so I am relatively experienced. My weak points are stuff involving Windows as that was not my area. This program is All Windows All the time! I am trying to do the Microsoft certifications and my forst cert attempt was a total non-success. Certiport who provided the test said it was accessible with JAWS, and it was not. So my first question is Is there anyone on here who has gone through the certification process with Microsoft, and if so, how did you manage accessability? My testing center knows less than I do about the process, and when I called certiport customer service, They told me to send a email.
I did that, but I am looking for input/ideas from others so I don't have to "blaze" a new trail from scratch.
-- Kelly PRescott
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