I am thrilled to be backing a petition to get the Joint Council For Qualifications to ensure that all hardcopy exam papers are dyslexia friendly using the British Dyslexia Association Style Guide. Mum, Alex Castle is behind the petition that is fast going viral. Read on to find out more and support the petition.
Alex Writes…
It’s exam results week just round the corner, and for the 2nd year GCSEs and A Levels will be based not on a single set of written papers set by the various exam boards, but on the work of the student over a sustained period. I fully appreciate that this has its own problems, but the one benefit it had, is it at least meant that the contributing work will likely have been done with any SEN child’s normal way of working in place.
For 2022 it’s back to formal exams though, with access arrangements effectively limited to those stipulated in JCQ’s Access Arrangements and Reasonable Adjustments. What does that mean for dyslexics? Well, I can’t comment on the provisions surrounding assistive technologies or scribes, as my daughter is classified as a moderate dyslexic. For her, as with many dyslexics, it is the formatting of the text she is reading that hugely influences the readability – both in terms of speed and comprehension - increased line and word spacing, uncrowded pages etc. With resources such as the British Dyslexia Association style guide, and publishers like Barrington Stoke, and the ease these days of reformatting text electronically, I thought dyslexic-friendly format papers would be a fairly standard reasonable adjustment. Apparently not, the school asked, exam board refused, so a direct approach was suggested.
Fast forward 10 months, my escalations to JCQ, exam board and back to JCQ, continue to be met with the response that larger font, provided as an option for those with partial sight loss are sufficient or, and I kid you not, that “some candidates with dyslexia choose to use a blank sheet of paper which covers the line below the one that they are reading when accessing a hard copy of an assessment. We understand that this simulates the effect of double line spacing.” Now to me, that statement tells me they know full well increased line spacing is an aid to reading, but still the educational bodies that award the qualifications that your children are defined by on paper for a lifetime, in terms of CVs and applications, have decided that dyslexic friendly exams are not something they are willing to offer. Both JCQ and AQA have in separate communications to me referenced RNIB input as being somehow relevant to dyslexia? Hence their ‘large font fits all’ philosophy – something which RNIB when asked dismissed immediately advising BDA to be the appropriate authority.
Anyway upshot is, as a parent, I’ve tried all reasonable avenues, and a few spurious ones to boot, just trying to get exams in an accessible format. The Equality & Human Rights Commission are very clear on schools’ obligations in their guidance, but surely this should also apply to exam boards?
So it’s over to people power to make a difference – it may not happen in time to help my daughter for GCSEs but it could help others in the same position.
