Support for learners

We provide comprehensive support services to help learners succeed in their journey.

Reader/writer support for assessment

A reader/writer helps you overcome your learning difficulties during an assessment.

Ākonga can often feel nervous about an assessment and your reader/writer will do their best to make
you feel at ease during this time.

You are always in the driving seat and the reader/writer will only do what you are asking.

It is best you look over all your papers at the start of the assessment, so you have an idea of what you
will be doing and can better manage your time.

A reader/writer can only do the task(s) for which you have been approved special assessment
conditions.

Who cannot be a reader/writer?

To avoid a conflict of interest, the role of a reader, writer, or reader/writer cannot be undertaken by
someone who is:

a teacher of the learner
a relative of the learner
a friend of the learner
another learner
a tutor
a close family friend.

Assistive technology tools

Screen readers

Screen readers can be useful if you take in information best when hearing it (for example, to listen to assignment questions or information). They are also a very useful tool for proof-reading your assignments. When you hear your assignment read out you may be more able to pick up on grammar, sentence, or content mistakes.

Read Aloud

This is a free extension that can read out content from webpages.

Read Aloud

Speechify

This is another free Chrome extension that can read out webpage content.

Speechify

Read Aloud

This is a text-to-speech function found in Microsoft Word that acts as a screen reader and reads you the text from your document.

Screen tinter

Screen tinters can be helpful if you:

have difficulty reading black writing on a white background
are light sensitive
need to limit time looking at a bright screen.

Visor

Using this free extension, you can change the colour of a webpage to a pastel or grey overlay, with several colour options. This can help clarity of reading or reduce light strain.

Visor

Dictation tools

Dictation tools can be useful if you are unable to do large amounts of typing, struggle with spelling, or find giving a verbal answer easier than writing one down.

Voice In

This is a free extension that will type out what you say in webpage fields.

Voice In

Dictate

Dictate is a dictation feature built into some Microsoft Office products.

It works best with a headset, and it is important to speak slowly and clearly. You will still need to add punctuation marks (such as full stops, commas, and quotation marks) and formatting to your text.

Change font appearance

Dyslexia Reader

This free extension lets you customise the appearance of text on webpages to make text easier to read.

Dyslexia Reader