I failed the initial exam

I failed the initial exam, the drawing part of the exam was easy enough, however it was difficult for me to follow instructions on the paper. I will spend some time looking at ways to make the understanding of written work with CAD easier to understand. I have been looking into ways in which I can do the exam independently, and trying to put right some of the scanning issues that I have when using an amanuensis. The first thing I needed to ascertain was what form I could get the exam paper in, I found out that it is originally a PDF document, that's ok as long as the text is not an image. I also looked at Adobe reader X which should be able to work alongside my screen reader NVDA. Martin looked at the actual exam paper using these two programs and the computer could indeed read out loud the actual instructions. This should give me the ability to scan read as many times as I like and read in what order I wish, which is something people do in exam conditions and take for granted. Adobe reader X can also be used to highlight certain paragraphs and put written notes on top of the text.

 My new space pilot came in the post, I can use some buttons on the pilot to save myself orientating back and forward from the keyboard to the mouse this is a more comfortable way of interacting with AutoCAD. I will not play with it too much until I have got the initial 2-D exams out the way as I do not want to give myself too much to do.

first exam

I had a pretty good week last week, I did my first exam. The actual drawing part of the exam seemed to be easy, and to go reasonably fast. In fact during the exam I drew an object three times not because I made a mistake but because I was working out the best way of flow. It is important to me that my drawings have a good start and finish.

I study for an exam by waiting until it is dark, turning out all the lights of my room so that the only thing I focus on is the computer screen, this gives me a lot more concentration. The only thing that breaks my concentration then is the sound of the wildlife that surrounds Enham which is a lot! If you close your eyes it is like listening to a Disney cartoon.

How the exam worked

For the exam Nick was my reader, this was fortuitous as Nick has a very clipped military accent, which made it easy for me to keep focused on what I needed to do. It is important to mention this because the quality of the Reader is essential especially during exam conditions.

There were times in the exam when I found it very difficult to cope, partly because the CAD setup on my college computer is different from the computer that I have been using to practise on, and partly because I had practised with DragonWord, speaking the commands into the command line rather than writing them but during my exam, my headset was broken so I had to do things in a way that I had not practised, which just added to the nerves. So it was a good job Nick was there, to structure my panic.

I have bought a cheap headset now, so I can use DragonWord on the college computers without too much trouble. It also became apparent during the exam that is difficult for a Reader to focus read in the way that an exam taker would normally scan read, Nick doesn't know what is of importance to me in the passage he is reading, so he can not pick out the most pertinent facts for me, which means that the process that would been done in one go by a normal exam taker, takes Nick and Me several passes before we get to the meat of the matter. This could be rectified if there was a way to get a digital exam paper, I could use a digital reader, that would mean that I'd be the position to take an exam independently, which is far more than I have been able to do in all my education.

What has happened with the 3-D plotter?

I've got in touch with Solvd Ltd, they are confident that they can carry out the work that needs to be done. At the moment, they are on the phone asking advice from another software company regarding my programme. And I explained to Steve of Solvd that it is important to get the programme done by the end of October as without the programme working, I will not be able to develop the vaccuum press, which is the hardware side of my project.

Enham - Shuffling to the left (and the right!)

Let me begin this entry by saying how supportive and understanding Autodesk have been to my learning needs, I had an issue with doing my exams on a student version of AutoCAD so I wrote to Autodesk to enquire how I could do the exams with a watermark when I needed to use Dragon word to import some of the written commands, A guy called Martin Ball came to Enham from Autodesk and looked at my 3-D plotter project! The explanation of the project seemed to go well. Autodesk also donated me a design suite of programs so that I could use them for my exam with Dragon word, this is because I would not be allowed to use the watermark student edition with my final pieces. We talked about the command line in AutoCAD and how initially I was very fearful of it, because of the written commands that you input manually and that my spelling was not up to it, however by using Dragon word it is giving me the independence to access the program efficiently, and how using AutoCAD successfully and is aiding me to use other 3-D programs which are not accessible to both my reading and writing software! We also spoke of the 3-D plotter project, and how nowadays it is difficult for me to develop 3-D objects in real life, and if the printer can be developed successfully, how 3-D programs can take up the slack of my coordination problems, and how 3-D programs can give people the ability to develop shapes and objects no matter what their disability, also by changing the way you interface with AutoCAD, can give a disabled individual an incredible amount of creative independence.


There is a lot that has happened and I need to get my head around some of the issues that have been thrown up in the last three weeks or so. I have been awarded a grant to work on the 3-D printer from Enham which is fantastic. It gives me the chance to finish off the programming that needs to be done.

I have approached 4 separate organisations to look at this as I want to get it finished by December if possible. I have given an initial brief to Autodesk, I have also put it on Freelancer.com and of course Solvd in Basingstoke, and the American Virtual Printer Driver

I had a cognitive assessment done in Southampton Hospital, the results shocked me a little bit, but it did explain some of the issues I've had in the workplace, both in getting jobs in the past and keeping them. The lady who carried out the assessment also said with the level of brain damage I have she would normally send me for treatment however because I've been born with the damage, treatment could not put the issues right. I was very glad to get a cognitive assessment. So much of thinking says you should concentrate on what an individual can do, and that may be true, however people tend to neglect what an individual cannot do and from the disabled point of view that is just as important.



I needed a way to complete at least some of the initial exams as I have not been able to enter my exams since I've been at Enham and even though I have developed the way to cope with the CAD exams with Dragon word I have not yet been able to put the theory into practice. And this has made me feel helpless, Martin my lecturer got in touch with the people who make Dragon word to explain that Enham would need a version of their software to assist me in the exam process, this has just arrived and so I will set up a speech file next week, and this should be what I need to complete the exams independently.

It is also important to mention that as well as feeling helpless for the time I have been at Enham (although achieving a lot) some of the systems that the scheme has offered me, such as STEPS and the lecture on Disability awareness have made me feel incredibly inadequate and rather than given me empowerment have done quite the opposite. The STEPS course is interesting in the way it gives people a system of thinking and visualisation which enables their goals, but the way my process of thinking differs from an able-bodied person, in trying to put STEPS into practice it just ended up filling me with despair. (See cognitive assessment).

The disabled awareness training ignored the issues entirely about being disabled and the difficulties that it brings, trying to gain full-time employment. They showed us a video about a bloke who was just diagnosed with a disability and how he coped with it.

It also talked about the Disability Act and how this Act is supposed to aid a disabled person into work. The bloke in the video didn't have much relevance to me because through my eyes I am not disabled, I was born like I am, I have not known any difference. The Disabled Act if you look through it piece by piece, apart from being very pretty statements, has nothing that can be backed up in a court of law. This makes me angry because the course is only words, the Disability Act is only words and yet the lecturers sell it to us as if it is a panacea to all disablement and disability related problems. There is no real understanding of my issues or the issues of any disabled person nor an understanding of how little support in law there is for us. It takes a lot more than saying you ‘deal with disability’ to deal with disability.

To try and make myself feel better, and develop a connection with my learning, I have bought myself a present of a second-hand mouse [HP 3DConnexion Spacepilot 3D SpaceNavigator CAD Pro Mouse] which should help me with my coordination issues and the way finding commands on the keyboard breaks my concentration. I don't want to struggle with CAD if I don’t have to! And it will be first-time I've acting on some of the issues raised in the cognitive assessment.