Screen readers for exams - advice please

[enjay]

We are looking at the possibility of using laptops and screen reader software for some students in exams, rather than have human readers. Who else does this and what do you use? Does it work effectively? What are the problems, etc.?

[dloudon96]

We use Read/Write Gold, it's quite pricey but works well. The only issue is you'd have to create an account per machine/user - e.g. Exam 1 (account) per PC. So if you have 20 machines you'll need 20 accounts as it can only run on one account. If that makes sense?

 

If you want more info just message me.

[icemonkey]

We also use Read&Write Gold - I agree with the pricey comment. Haven't really looked at it in a huge amount of detail, only had time to get it working for exams.

 

Couple of issues we had:

- pdf's of exam papers ~ Most exam boards were fine with handing them over (secure online areas etc) but Edexcel were very funny about it, we requested papers weeks before hand yet still ended up having to make an urgent phonecall to them before each exam before... did cause a lot of stress as start times were delayed because of this

- Software struggled with reading text within images ~ English Lang exam in particular, despite being scanned beforehand

 

This was the first major group of exams we've used it for so I expected some teething issues.

 

All we're used it for:

- Reading the exam paper aloud

- Masking the screen for a text editor

 

Also using Read&Write for Google Chrome for using on Chromebooks in lessons.

[enjay]

Couple of issues we had:

- pdf's of exam papers ~ Most exam boards were fine with handing them over (secure online areas etc) but Edexcel were very funny about it, we requested papers weeks before hand yet still ended up having to make an urgent phonecall to them before each exam before... did cause a lot of stress as start times were delayed because of this

We have been told we can download them an hour before the exam - do you find that is sufficient time? Did you request modified papers in advance?

[enjay]

When you say pricey, how much are we talking?

[enjay]

On the topic of unreadable papers, I have a sample paper for the new spec English exam. If I sent it to you (any reason I can't share it?), would you be able to see if it is readable?

[box_l]

Adobe reader has read aloud built in.

https://helpx.adobe.com/reader/using/accessibility-features.html

 

This may not work with all papers, but has sufficed in a couple of schools.

[PyROm]

We currently use ClaroRead SE (A cut down version of their full product). It was £495 for a perpetual site license (Scroll to the bottom of their licensing page for school prices). We have run exams for 2 years now with it and it seems to work well. We have 1 locked down user account which we log all the pc`s into before the exam, with just a Claroread shortcut and the exam paper on the desktop. Our main problem has been trying to explain to teachers preparing mock exams that a photocopy is an image and not writing, therefore it cannot be read (I'm not getting into the complexities of OCR). Edited August 11, 2016 by PyROm