VISUALLY IMPAIRED STUDENTS:COMPLETING THE Leaving Cert cycle is difficult enough, but completing it while blind is a special achievement.
Two who did were Saleem Ur Rahman (20) from Lucan, Co Dublin, and Robert Creed (19) from Leixlip, Co Kildare, both of whom attended Pobalscoil Rosmini in Drumcondra, Dublin.
Like every other student awaiting results yesterday, Robert woke up nervous. He need not have worried, however, securing an impressive 410 points.
“I’m just really, really surprised. I thought I had done terrible in French but I did fine, and I got an A2 in music, which is something I always wanted.”
Visually impaired students sit the same exams as every other student. It is the way they take the exams that differs.
“I had a reader and scribe for all of mine,” said Robert, referring to a person to tell him the questions and another to write down what he said.
The other option for visually impaired students is to take a paper in Braille. Saleem, who achieved honours in several subjects, chose this method for his maths paper.
“It was just what I was comfortable with. I didn’t like being read out figures and having to do it all out loud.”
To facilitate writing the answers, a Braille writing device was provided.
He may have chosen Braille for other subjects but decided to go with the reader and scribe in all but maths. “It can be an advantage actually,” he said with a laugh. “You don’t have to worry about your spelling or writing, and I would have worried about my spelling.”
He said the Braille machine does not allow for deleting, which meant in his maths exam he had to type in sentences such as “that was a mistake” before carrying on, to make sure the correctors knew which parts to grade him on.
Both Robert and Saleem described taking the exams, and their schooling in general, as much more similar to a sighted person’s than most people think.
“I had great friends in school that were really good. They never backed off me or anything, and if I needed help they were always there,” said Saleem.
Like most of the other students who collected their results yesterday, Saleem and Robert’s attentions now turn to the next part of their education, with both having almost certainly secured the college courses they wanted in UCD and UCC respectively.