It would appear that Special Ed hasn’t caught up with the working world of 2020.
It seems that my 17 year old son with ASD and oligo arthritis may not use a computer to prevent hand cramping. Nor can he use dictation software.
If I understand correctly, Special Examination Provisions for students with physical disabilities in NSW are that they may sit apart from other students and and dictate to a scribe (if available) who may use a biro.
That is, no computer can be used for fear of cheating or spell check.
Fine for my son, probably. Just takes away his sense of agency. The scribe probably has better writing and punctuation, anyway,
But, imagine rolling into the HSC in 2019 with a major physical challenge and no computers allowed.
The next Stephen Hawking may trundle into an examination room to sit her or his first exam. This might even be one of her or his best subjects, mathematics.
He or she is stopped.
Voice transcription devices operate through computers, so there’s a truckload of argy bargy about whether the device is legit.
After all, she might have a sneaky copy of Wikipedia on this device.
Under such circumstances, to remove a computer would render the genius student mute.
The examinee can sit in a separate room. If she or he has a way to speak, a semi-literate scribe (who may be biased against the candidate in some way) can try to write down their words in pen, longhand. If they understand them.
However the scribe must be first be trained and tested to prove that they will not over compensate for Our Pupil’s physical challenges in any way. The fact that they are not well trained in mathematics is not seen as a disadvantage the student.
Can she alternatively dictate his answers into Mathematical software?
No she cannot … as this may cause undue advantage.
So the next Hawking ends up sitting in daycare or works at data entry.
Not very cool.
Jane Salmon, KHS Parent
