Bradford College's SEND and ALS Assistive Technology Service loans a wide variety of technology to students through the academic year. Exam Reader’s are an important part of their provision, because they provide portable, wireless free reading support. 

Bradford's loan agreement enables students to take Exam Reader's home and use them for as long as they need them. This arrangement provides students with the benefit of independent reading support wherever they may be working. Because the pens are wireless, students can access reading support when they need it, be that in a classroom, bus, bedroom or study.  Exam Reader’s are discrete, attractive and portable, this means that students regard them as part of their essential learning equipment. For many learners, an important feature that can influence use is that it can fit into a pocket!  

Bradford College found that long term loans of assistive technology equipment increased their effective use. Providing long term loans of Exam Reader has helped level the playing field for SEN learners and those who need additional support. Familiarity, regular use and confidence in ownership is likely to have contributed to this. 

The impact of this has been measurable in terms of improvement in learning productivity for many more students. Equality of access to learning is vigorously promoted by Bradford College. Long term loans of Exam Reader is part of the high-quality provision they make.

In these times of social distancing, and while so many learners are predominantly working in a home setting, the Exam Reader is proving to be an essential tool in Bradford Colleges support offer. Students who struggle with literacy, have dyslexia, and who benefit from the confidence that Exam Reader brings, are benefiting from reading and decoding support. This means that equality of access to reading materials and essential texts is happening, even in these very challenging times of home learning and limited human support. 

SEND & ALS – Systems and Technology Team Leader at Bradford College, said, “As part of our SEND & ALS Assistive Technology Service we loan a wide variety of technology (including ExamReaders) to supported students throughout the year. Our loan agreement allows the students to take the technology home as we have found this significantly increases the effectiveness and use of the technology. This means our students can continue to access loaned reading pens and other technologies whilst they are studying from home, allowing adjustments to learning through continued use of assistive technology.” 

They continued, “To support the use of these technologies whilst off-site we have launched a refreshed online self-serve portal (on the students learning portal) containing a range of resources and blog posts on technologies and accessibility including links to Exam Reader resources. In addition, we are continuing to operate our Assistive Technology support service remotely using a range of tools.”