Adapting public examination instruments to overcome reading limitations faced by blind participants

Abstract

This study focuses on the facilitating action of “Ledors” in administering public testing instruments to groups of individuals with different characteristics and specificities, as is the case of blind persons accessing measuring instruments through their own distinct means. It seeks to verify the fidelity (adhesion) of this action to the principle of Equity and examines the interference of the Ledor’s life experiences with the construction meaning of the text in question. The assumption is that reading a text is an act of giving meaning to it, the Ledor in this case being the person who reads to the other through oralization of the text in question. For analysis in this study, Mathematics questions were selected from the Enem exams (High School National Examination) of 2016, 2017, and 2018, as well as Level 3 questions of the OBMEP (Brazilian Mathematics Olympics for the Public Schools) exams for the same years. A data analysis methodology was used inspired by the text “Análise de Conteúdo” (Content Analysis) by Roque Moraes (1999). The “Ledor” was presented with a “Ledor” test version as a Standard test destined to “Ledors” which had images described by specialists and a discussion of limits to constructing these versions and adaptations. Using the TRI (Item Response Theory) as a beacon light in constructing distinct tests that would allow positioning of participants on the same proficiency scale, one ensures isonomy among all participants in public evaluations. In this sense, it is proposed that different tests be constructed for different groups of participants with distinct characteristics and specificities in terms of their means of access to evaluation instruments; especially in relation to groups of individuals, who are sighted and those who are blind.