Re: [Blind-sysadmins] certification questions

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

Well I've past a few MS exams over the years. The reader plays a crusial part in both my failures, and successiss. My win xp / server 2003 exams were done via a large company called pearson vue. They asked me for a statement from my dokter, and let me select a reader by my self. A kind of nice / helping experience that was. Years later I was working in a diffirent organisation, and exams were organized buy my employer via the company who trained us. I then had to deal with prometric, which was a sort of a failure. They fixed me a reader via a 3rd party, which turned out was a guy from Eastern Europe with a bigg accent in his and could not differ slashes from backslashes etc. Luckeley i've passed that exam. Butt there was a lot of missunderstanding, involved. When I want to do a exam, I have to let them know a month in advance, so that they can hire a reader, which they forgot one time. So yea for no exam at all today. sighted people can sign up a day before I think. If we can change the way of doing this thing, it would be great. Butt from what I understand the exam software my reader had to use, is kind of complex. It is not only screenshots you have to deal with. Sometimes you have to complete procedures, which are displayed in a anamation. Hope this helps a bitt, Vincent. On 5/15/2015 11:45 PM, curtis jackson wrote:

Hi, Microsoft have changed back to using Pearson Vue now from Prometric. My last exam at the end of last year was with Prometric. I am going to see what happens when I change jobs in the next few months to try and sort out the retaking of the Server 2012 R2 exam now as there aren't really many exam centres in my area at the moment. Andrew. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Vincent van Itallie Sent: 15 May 2015 23:00 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] certification questions Well I've past a few MS exams over the years. The reader plays a crusial part in both my failures, and successiss. My win xp / server 2003 exams were done via a large company called pearson vue. They asked me for a statement from my dokter, and let me select a reader by my self. A kind of nice / helping experience that was. Years later I was working in a diffirent organisation, and exams were organized buy my employer via the company who trained us. I then had to deal with prometric, which was a sort of a failure. They fixed me a reader via a 3rd party, which turned out was a guy from Eastern Europe with a bigg accent in his and could not differ slashes from backslashes etc. Luckeley i've passed that exam. Butt there was a lot of missunderstanding, involved. When I want to do a exam, I have to let them know a month in advance, so that they can hire a reader, which they forgot one time. So yea for no exam at all today. sighted people can sign up a day before I think. If we can change the way of doing this thing, it would be great. Butt from what I understand the exam software my reader had to use, is kind of complex. It is not only screenshots you have to deal with. Sometimes you have to complete procedures, which are displayed in a anamation. Hope this helps a bitt, Vincent. On 5/15/2015 11:45 PM, curtis jackson wrote:
_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org https://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

Hi, Microsoft have changed back to using Pearson Vue now from Prometric. My last exam at the end of last year was with Prometric. I am going to see what happens when I change jobs in the next few months to try and sort out the retaking of the Server 2012 R2 exam now as there aren't really many exam centres in my area at the moment. Andrew. -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Vincent van Itallie Sent: 15 May 2015 23:00 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] certification questions Well I've past a few MS exams over the years. The reader plays a crusial part in both my failures, and successiss. My win xp / server 2003 exams were done via a large company called pearson vue. They asked me for a statement from my dokter, and let me select a reader by my self. A kind of nice / helping experience that was. Years later I was working in a diffirent organisation, and exams were organized buy my employer via the company who trained us. I then had to deal with prometric, which was a sort of a failure. They fixed me a reader via a 3rd party, which turned out was a guy from Eastern Europe with a bigg accent in his and could not differ slashes from backslashes etc. Luckeley i've passed that exam. Butt there was a lot of missunderstanding, involved. When I want to do a exam, I have to let them know a month in advance, so that they can hire a reader, which they forgot one time. So yea for no exam at all today. sighted people can sign up a day before I think. If we can change the way of doing this thing, it would be great. Butt from what I understand the exam software my reader had to use, is kind of complex. It is not only screenshots you have to deal with. Sometimes you have to complete procedures, which are displayed in a anamation. Hope this helps a bitt, Vincent. On 5/15/2015 11:45 PM, curtis jackson wrote:
_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org https://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

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

At 08:15 PM 5/17/2015, you wrote:
Let's not call it a cert. It is in terms of the student having demonstrated that they know the material covered in the courses, but it's certainly not a cert recognized by say, an employer, by Cisco or other industry partners. and in saying that, I am not trying to denigrade Cavi and their excelent courses and instructors. That's all great, and they get us say 85% of the way towards having the right piece of paper at the end. They're doing great work. What I'm curious to know is why this how things are? I mean, what formal hoops would Cavi have to go through to grant industry-recognized certifications to the people who pass their courses? Is this different for people who study in person with Cavi, in Australia? Do they end up with CCNA, or do they, like the international students, send their graduates elsewhere to take the required cert exams too? If Cisco allow Cavi to use their training materials, Netacad system, etc. etc. then what barrier is there that stops Cavi from being able to offer the last part of the package, the actual piece of paper that is recognized by prospective employers in the wider world? Chris

Hi all, I have not posted on this list before (I think) but would be interested in joining some kind of team to try and get some traction on this. Currently I work in tech support, but would like to move in to more sys-admin type roles in the future. Currently it seems that I need at least some Certs to get a foot in the door, unless I can find a company willing to give me a chance based on my experience so far, or let me train on the job. I had a bit of a rough time doing my cs/cybe degree due to a lot of accessibility issues, so haven't felt like trying to do certs and do a lot if fighting (at least for a while). I am however doing a module with the OU, which is very accessible, though this is a bit off the topic :) Anyway let me know what I can do to help. Cheers, Jen. On 5/18/15, Chris Smart <csmart8@cogeco.ca> wrote:

Jen, Have you ever tried to take a cert, and if so what has been your experience? -- Kelly Prescott -----Original Message----- From: Blind-sysadmins [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org] On Behalf Of Jen Bottom Sent: Tuesday, May 26, 2015 6:19 AM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] certification questions Hi all, I have not posted on this list before (I think) but would be interested in joining some kind of team to try and get some traction on this. Currently I work in tech support, but would like to move in to more sys-admin type roles in the future. Currently it seems that I need at least some Certs to get a foot in the door, unless I can find a company willing to give me a chance based on my experience so far, or let me train on the job. I had a bit of a rough time doing my cs/cybe degree due to a lot of accessibility issues, so haven't felt like trying to do certs and do a lot if fighting (at least for a while). I am however doing a module with the OU, which is very accessible, though this is a bit off the topic :) Anyway let me know what I can do to help. Cheers, Jen. On 5/18/15, Chris Smart <csmart8@cogeco.ca> wrote:
_______________________________________________ Blind-sysadmins mailing list Blind-sysadmins@lists.hodgsonfamily.org https://lists.hodgsonfamily.org/listinfo/blind-sysadmins

Hi Kelly, No, I haven't. I have been to put off by what I have read and found out from other VI people who have tried to really look in to it. If I had a bit more money I would probably risk it, but right now that isn't an option. Also I think that currently I wouldn't be able to get the company I work for to pay for the attempt, as I don't need any Microsoft of Cisco certs to do my job (at least that's how they will probably see it). If there are some RedHat certs out there I might have a go at that this/next year, as we could do with some more RHL experience in my support team. Cheers, Jen. On 5/26/15, Kelly Prescott <kprescott@coolip.net> wrote:

Hi Kelly, No, I haven't. I have been to put off by what I have read and found out from other VI people who have tried to really look in to it. If I had a bit more money I would probably risk it, but right now that isn't an option. Also I think that currently I wouldn't be able to get the company I work for to pay for the attempt, as I don't need any Microsoft of Cisco certs to do my job (at least that's how they will probably see it). If there are some RedHat certs out there I might have a go at that this/next year, as we could do with some more RHL experience in my support team. Cheers, Jen. On 5/26/15, Kelly Prescott <kprescott@coolip.net> wrote:

Hi all, I have not posted on this list before (I think) but would be interested in joining some kind of team to try and get some traction on this. Currently I work in tech support, but would like to move in to more sys-admin type roles in the future. Currently it seems that I need at least some Certs to get a foot in the door, unless I can find a company willing to give me a chance based on my experience so far, or let me train on the job. I had a bit of a rough time doing my cs/cybe degree due to a lot of accessibility issues, so haven't felt like trying to do certs and do a lot if fighting (at least for a while). I am however doing a module with the OU, which is very accessible, though this is a bit off the topic :) Anyway let me know what I can do to help. Cheers, Jen. On 5/18/15, Chris Smart <csmart8@cogeco.ca> wrote:
participants (7)
-
Andrew Hodgson
-
Chris Smart
-
curtis jackson
-
Jen Bottom
-
Kelly Prescott
-
Sean Murphy
-
Vincent van Itallie