Schoch, C. S. (2010). Teacher variations when administering math graphics items to students with visual impairments (Publication No. 3434384) [Doctoral dissertation, The University of Arizona]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global. https://www.proquest.com/docview/841889947

The University of Arizona (Tucson, AZ); ProQuest document ID: 841889947

The combination of verbal input with enlarged print and tactile graphics was used for this study, because this combination of accommodations is commonly used for students with visual impairments in standardized testing.

Participants were recruited through an online "listserv" and were from several public and residential high schools in three states in the South (U.S.). Ten teachers of students with visual impairments and 10 visually impaired students participated. Out of the 10 high school student participants, all were legally blind; 5 had some vision and 5 had light perception or total blindness.

Math items using graphics were used for this study. Several types of items containing graphics were recreated from publicly-available sample items from four state tests. Problems were recreated in large print (18 point font), and embossed. Teachers administered the items to the student participants as they would in a standardized test. Teacher and student interactions were analyzed, as well as teacher techniques.

Interviews with teachers revealed that they provide more support to students using tactile graphics than they do to students using large print. No statistical significance was found within and between braille and large print groups with regard to teacher variation, student variation, or scores on items. No differences in scores were found between the groups using braille and those using large print items. Although there were no statistically significant differences between type of math graphic, students made the most errors on problems with circle graphs. Limitations of the study were reported, and future research possibilities were suggested.