Classroom and SQA accommodations for dyslexic learners

These are the practical adjustments that Scottish schools and the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) can put in place. Several are quietly under-used. None of them require a private diagnosis to put in place day-to-day.

SQA Assessment Arrangements

For National Qualifications, the SQA publishes a framework for Assessment Arrangements — adjustments that let a learner show what they know without changing the standard being assessed. Schools request them, the SQA approves them. They include:

• Extra time — typically 25 percent, granted on evidence of need.
• Reader — a human reader, or a digital reader via Digital Question Papers.
• Scribe — a human scribe, or speech-to-text software.
• Digital Question Paper (DQP) — the paper as a PDF the learner reads on a laptop, often with text-to-speech.
• Prompter — a member of staff who keeps the learner focused.
• Use of ICT — typing instead of handwriting, often with spellcheck disabled or enabled depending on the assessment standard.
• Separate accommodation — quieter room, fewer distractions.

Assessment arrangements are most credible to the SQA when they reflect the learner's normal way of working in class. That is why the everyday classroom adjustments below matter so much — they create the evidence trail.

Everyday assistive technology

Assistive technology is not just an exam concession. The Addressing Dyslexia Toolkit and the CALL Scotland centre treat it as everyday practice. Common, low-cost, often built-in tools:

• Text-to-speech (Microsoft Immersive Reader, Read&Write for Google/Microsoft, built-in iPad and Windows readers).
• Speech-to-text dictation (built into iPad, Chromebook, Windows, Word).
• Word-prediction (Read&Write, ClaroRead, Co:Writer).
• Spellcheck and grammar tools enabled by default, not as a special arrangement.
• Digital copies of class texts and worksheets so the learner can use any of the above on them.

Classroom adjustments that cost nothing

• Reduced copying from the board — give a printed or digital copy instead.
• Coloured overlays or tinted paper — for learners who report visual stress when reading.
• Larger font, more white space, 1.5 line spacing on handouts (often called dyslexia-friendly formatting).
• Sans-serif fonts for body text (Arial, Verdana, or Open Dyslexic if the learner prefers).
• Chunked instructions — give one or two steps at a time, not five.
• Pre-teach key vocabulary so reading in the lesson is decoding known words, not decoding and learning at once.
• Alternative recording methods — mind maps, voice notes, drawings, photographs of practical work.
• Marking by content, not by spelling, in subjects where spelling is not the standard being assessed.
• Extra processing time when asking questions in class.
• Movement breaks and a quiet workspace option during extended writing tasks.

Exemptions and alternative pathways

Where appropriate, learners can be exempt from specific assessment elements (for example, an aspect of a unit that would not be a valid measure of their ability for an unrelated reason) or routed via alternative qualifications. This is a school-led decision in line with SQA guidance and the wider Curriculum for Excellence principle of personalisation and choice.

Wellbeing and the SHANARRI principles

Under GIRFEC, every accommodation should be checked against the SHANARRI wellbeing indicators — Safe, Healthy, Achieving, Nurtured, Active, Respected, Responsible, Included. A learner who is exhausted, anxious, or withdrawn is not Achieving or Included, even if their attainment data looks acceptable.

See also: your statutory rights · what to say at the school meeting · transition planning

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