Computer-Based Read-Aloud Tools: An Effective Way to Accommodate Students with Disabilities
Testing Accommodations Summary Computer-Based Read-Aloud Tools: An Effective Way to Accommodate Students with Disabilities Computers Improve Students' Writing Performance on Tests Using Computers for Reading Tests Does Not Affect Scores Computer Accommodations Must Begin as Classroom Accommodations
Overview
When students have reading disabilities or decoding difficulties, they often
struggle to understand or gain access to questions on standardized tests.
How then, can we reliably assess their understanding of the skills and knowledge
being tested? Many schools offer "read-aloud" options, which offer
oral presentation of directions and test items as a way to give students
unhampered access to tests. This accommodation is typically provided by
a teacher or test proctor working with individual students or with a small
group of students. Past research shows two major problems: first, proctor
availability. Second, readers sometimes inadvertently provide clues to correct
answers. An alternative, computerbased text-to-speech tool, shows promise
in overcoming these shortcomings.
Study Design
To examine the feasibility and effect of using computers to provide a read-aloud accommodation for a mathematics test, 274 students in grades 10 and 11 from three New Hampshire high schools were randomly assigned to perform the same tenth grade multiple choice mathematics test in one of three modes: (1) computerbased delivery with digital read-aloud accommodation, (2) paper-and-pencil with delivery of the read-aloud accommodation by a human reader, and (3) paper-andpencil delivery with no accommodation.
Computer Read-Alouds Work well for Students with Disabilities
This pilot study indicates the read-aloud accommodation with computers is
a feasible option. Students taking the test on a computer with this option
did not report major problems with the computer-based test or the read-aloud
tools. In addition, the results suggest that the read-aloud method increased
students' access to mathematics items. As seen below, students with special
needs performed noticeably better. Students were more willing to listen
to an item multiple times on computer when they might have been reluctant
to ask a proctor to re-read an item aloud. The study also found that providing
the read-aloud accommodation on computer closed the gap in performance between
native English speakers and students who speak a language other than English
at home.
Recommendation
State testing programs should begin exploring the feasibility of incorporating
a computer-based read-aloud accommodation into their testing programs.