Despite advances in technology and assistive technology there remain many occasions where having someone read information out remains an impactful reasonable accommodation.
The most common reason for people needing information read out is likely to be a visual impairment, with people often using friends and family as ‘their eyes’. Increasingly, having a reader is also recognized as an appropriate accommodation for people with a learning difficulty such as dyslexia, a learning disability, or conditions such as Asperger’s where having information read out can make it less stressful and therefore easier to understand.
Although a simple solution on the face of it, there are some golden rules:
- Always involve the individual, check their requirements, see if they know someone or have any special requirements for the reader to be aware of – they will not mind you asking.
- Information containing complex graphs or diagrams is unlikely to translate and it is potentially unfair to expect the individual to hold such information in their head – particularly in an assessment context or under pressure of time. Other people would be able to revisit information and remind themselves of figures on a graph for example, so the barrier would not be removed in this situation
- To make information accessible for use when a person is reading it out, a good approach is to review it in advance and remove items that would not translate verbally with ease.
- In an evaluation or assessment context, make sure that the use of a reader is not going to remove the validity of the test by revealing the answers via the description. Your test publisher can advise on this.
- The reader must set a pace with the individual that is appropriate and can be followed
- The reader must speak clearly and check understanding regularly with the individual
- There are trained readers available as support workers through agencies, which you should be able to get advice on locally
- A friend or family member can act as a reader but do make sure they understand that they are not to interpret information or answer questions
- Avoid noisy areas which make it difficult to hear the reader
- Using a reader in any evaluation or assessment context will take longer, making extra time an additional accommodation to be made.