[senco-forum] Colour Blind student

Hi

This is an easy one to answer. Simply put yourself in his student's
shoes (or eyes) -- literally!

How? Find out from this student's optometrist or parents what is the
exact nature of their colour blindness. Or to put this more
technically, which of the three primary colours are not recognised by
their eye's photoreceptor cones and to what degree are their eye's
monochrome only seeing photoreceptor rods able to make up for this.
For more details of how human eyes work in this respect go point your
browser at;

  http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/vision/rodcone.html

Armed with this information you'll be able to construct a simple
colour filter you yourself can look through that'll give you a very
good idea of what this child actually sees in practice. Now you've got
the means to see how this child does it'll be easy-peasy to preempt
any potential difficulties they might encounter.

As for exam papers that might be problematic, simply contact the exam
boards ahead of time, explain the problem and ask them to supply you
with exemplars that have the same colour scheme and ink colours that
will be used on the papers this student will be sitting. The exam
boards are obliged by law to send you this or similarly appropriate
information in respect of their duty under the Disability
Discrimination Act.

Now you can scan these exemplars into a computer and then using image
manipulation software you can practice adjusting the colour balance
controls to make features lacking in balance stand out more -- not of
course omitting to check with this student that your colour
adjustments actually make a difference for the better. Then, when the
real exam paper arrives shortly before the exam, you'll be well
prepared to do the same thing in respect of what they'll be working
from.

One other thing you can try now is making monochrome photocopies of
all coloured materials you are using. From these it should be
immediately obvious if there are problems. Furthermore you can give
these monochrome copies to the student who should see exactly what you
see, whereas the coloured originals might look entirely different to
them with selected coloured feature missing altogether.

Hope this helps.

David Bowles

>> Hi
>> We have a student who is a high achiever. He is severely colour blind.
>> Does anyone have any ideas how we can support him in Geography. There are
>> particular concerns for examinations.
>> Thanks
>> Tara
>> ---
>> Tara Marshall
>> Learning Support Co-ordinator
>> Mater Maria College
>>
>>

David Bowles