Section A - General Responsibilities of Modifiers Examination modifiers should be experienced subject specialists who with students with a visual impairment. The purpose of modifying an examination paper is to make the paper accessible to a candidate with a visual impairment. It is the role of the modifier to recommend to the Awarding Body what action is needed to achieve this end. Questions should only be altered by the modifier when it is necessary to do so in order to provide this access. If a modifier needs to alter a question, the following principles should be applied. The amended question must assess the same skills, knowledge and concepts as the original question in the print paper and enable the candidate to meet the same assessment objectives in National Curriculum subjects. The question should be of an equivalent level of difficulty as the original. Any alteration should preserve the balance of the original examination paper in terms of both the content and the weighting of questions. A modified question should not require candidates to a disproportionately large amount of time to gain relatively few marks. Where modification of an existing question is not possible, the modifier may propose a replacement question which attempts to meet the same assessment criteria for approval by the Awarding Body. In the event that a replacement question is deemed unacceptable by the Awarding Body, the modifier and Awarding Body should consult to determine what action will be taken, with due consideration to ensure the minimum of disruption or confusion for the candidate.
advice. Mistakes in the print copy sent out are not unknown: corrections should only be made with the approval of the Awarding Body and these should be marked on the print or stated in a separate note attached to the paper for return to the Awarding Body with the paper. If there are special transcription difficulties, reference may be made to one of the major braille publishers for advice, if necessary, with the approval of the Awarding Body. It is a requirement that a print version of each braille paper is produced, to assist readers, scribes and invigilators. Further details are given in the section ‘Print Versions of Braille Papers’ below. Materials Braille examination papers should be embossed on good quality heavyweight paper (100 gsm minimum). The page size should be in the ranges 36-40 cells, 24-28 lines (although special large pages may be required for diagrams). Diagrams should normally be produced on swell paper, with thermoform being used only where the type of diagram requires this approach - see the section on diagrams below. Diagrams may also be required on drawing film (a thin plastic film which may be copied and then further added to by the candidate in the examination). Amendments and explanatory UEB provides 'transcriber's note indicators' which in general transcription work are used for additional explanatory notes by the transcriber, not part of the original text. For braille examination papers the use of transcriber's note indicators should in general be restricted to transcription notes as such, and not used to distinguish text modifications, or insertions, etc. made for the