Books
for All
CALL Scotland and Books for All
Dyslexia Scotland AGM
13th November 2010
Communication, Access
Literacy and Learning
School of Education
University of Edinburgh



Books
for All
“CALL Scotland provides services and projects,
working with all those involved in meeting the
special needs of people who require augmentative
communication and specialised technology.”
Established in 1983
Funded by Scottish Government Education
Department (60%) and health department (5%),
contracts with local authorities and research
projects
http://www.CALLScotland.org/.uk
CALL Scotland

Strategic Leadership

Pupil Assessment and Support

CPD and Training

Information and advice: books,
guides, resources, videos, web site

Loan of assistive technology

Knowledge Transfer, research and
development
Books
for All
Today’s Topic

Reliant on readers, Stuck with Scribes,
or Independent with ICT?
or.....
 How
can I get the stuff I need in a
format I can read and use?
Books
for All
EXAMS!!
Books
for All
SQA Assessment
Arrangements
Books
for All
“Assessment arrangements should
ensure that all candidates have an
equal opportunity to show that they
can achieve the national standards
required for Units and Courses.”
Introduction to Assessment Arrangements
SQA, November 2008
SQA Assessment
Arrangements 2009

Requests for Assessment Arrangements
made for 13,041 candidates
(8% of candidates)

Requests made for 45,612 entries
(6.2 % of entries)
Books
for All
2010 assessment arrangements
Books
for All
Extra Time
36,962 Digital Question Paper
2,001
Separate accommodation
28,689 Calculator
684
Reader
16,863 Transcription without correction
590
Scribe
14,313 PA referral
465
Use of ICT
7,622 Modified content
267
Prompter
2,404 Adapted certificate
139
Coloured Paper
1,964 Paper signed to candidate
52
Rest Period
1,636 Candidate Signs Responses
38
Enlarged Print
1,209 Live presentation
36
Transcription with correction
1,110 Braille
59
Curriculum for Excellence
Books
for All
'Our aspiration is to enable all children to
develop their capacities as successful
learners, confident individuals, responsible
citizens and effective contributors to
society.'
A Curriculum for Excellence: The Curriculum
Review Group (2004).
How can you be a…
Successful learner - if you can’t access
books and other materials
 Confident individual - if you depend on
others to read to you or write for you
 Responsible citizen - if you don’t have
access to information
 An effective contributor - if you can’t find
out what’s going on in your community or
in the world at large

Books
for All
Money money money…
Books
for All
Costs of readers/scribes
Books
for All
16,868 reader requests; 14,313 scribe
requests
 ~ 30,000 individual exams
 ~ 45,000 hours
 Say average £20/hour for reader/scribe?

= £900,000

Say £10/hour for invigilator?
= £540,000

TOTAL = £1.35m in Scotland per annum
SQA Digital Papers
www.AdaptedDigitalExams.org.uk
Time
for a
joke?
PDFAloud speech tools
Sentence being read
and each word
highlighted
Form fields for answers
Books
for All
Adapted Digital Papers 2006-2010
Books
for All
2500
2000
1500
Number of requests for
ADPs
1000
Number of candidates
for whom requests for
ADPs were made
500
0
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
Who uses Digital Papers?
Learning
Disability, 3%
Social Emotional
Visual
Hearing
Impairment, 2% Behavioural
Difficulty, 2% Impairment, 1%
Books
for All
Mental Health
Problems, 0%
Physical Health
Problems, 3%
Blind, 0%
Deaf, 0%
Autistic
Spectrum, 4%
Dyslexia, 38%
Other Moderate
Learning
Difficulty, 11%
Physical or Motor
Impairment, 13%
Language or
Speech Disorder,
1%
Other Specific
Learning
Difficulty, 22%
2010 requests by local authority
Requests
Fife
306
Dundee City
201
Edinburgh City
175
Argyll and Bute
122
Aberdeenshire
115
South Ayrshire
108
City of Glasgow
102
Dumfries and Galloway 102
Perth and Kinross
100
Falkirk
98
Highland
65
Scottish Borders
64
West Lothian
59
Stirling
58
Independent
55
Moray
39
North Ayrshire
FE College
Angus
East Renfrewshire
Inverclyde
Aberdeen City
Shetland Islands
South Lanarkshire
Midlothian
East Lothian
Renfrewshire
East Ayrshire
East Dunbartonshire
Eilean Siar (Western Isles)
North Lanarkshire
Clackmannanshire
Requests
Books
30
for All
28
23
21
20
19
16
16
14
13
12
8
4
4
2
1
‘Top 15’ schools in 2010
Centre
Queen Anne High School
Campbeltown Grammar School
St Paul's RC Academy
The Royal High School
Kinross High School
Stranraer Academy
Prestwick Academy
Ashcraig School
Mintlaw Academy
Bo'ness Academy
Harris Academy
Holy Rood High School
West Calder High School
St John's RC High School
Peebles High School
2009
122
37
32
82
59
62
60
37
48
68
20
30
23
9
35
2010
233
122
114
111
100
89
89
69
61
54
46
41
39
34
33
Books
for All
% change
91 %
230 %
256 %
35 %
69 %
44 %
48 %
86 %
27 %
-21 %
130 %
37 %
70 %
278 %
-6 %
Successful learners?
Confident individuals?
“We had 2 rooms set up with
double sized tables to allow a
comfortable amount of room
for laptop and papers. Each
candidate was allocated a
table which was the same for
each exam. All tables were
numbered and we made use of
screen dividers which created
a booth effect and cut down
distractions and gave a certain
amount of privacy in the small
classroom. We had 9
candidates sitting the exam in
digital format and 2 writing in
the same room for the
Standard Grade English exam.
Candidates names and
numbers were on the desks,
and times.”
Books
for All
Software for Digital Papers
 To
Books
for All
access the papers:
 Acrobat
Reader 8 or 9 (free)
 www.adobe.com
 To
have the paper read out:
 Adobe
Reader Read Outloud (free) or
 PDFaloud (£295 site licence from LTS)
or
 Another TTS program e.g. Read and
Write Gold, ClaroRead, Natural Reader
etc
Past papers at home...
Books
for All
SQA Assessment Arrangements
Books
for All

Official policy
and guidance

Digital Past
Papers for
2007, 2008,
2009 and 2010
http://www.sqa.org.uk/assessmentarrangements
If you need digital exams...
.... then you probably could also use ...
 digital prelims
 digital tests
 digital textbooks
 digital study guides
 digital worksheets
 digital homework
 etc......

Books
for All
Improving communication and the
delivery of school information
64.
Books
for All
“Responsible bodies should ensure that
any information that is important to
enable pupils to learn or to be able to
participate in school activities can be
provided in an alternative form if the pupil
may have difficulty reading information
provided in standard written form.”
Scottish Executive (2002) Planning to Improve Access to Education for Pupils with
Disabilities; Guidance On Preparing Accessibility Strategies.
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/library5/education/gpas-00.asp
Books
for All
So where can
we get digital
books and
curriculum
resources?
Book search
Book
Where from and what
Standard Grade Chemistry
(Hodder)
Standard Grade English
Revision Notes (Leckie &
Leckie)
TeeJay Level D Maths
(TeeJay)
CALL Scotland (PDF)
Private Peaceful (audio), by
Michael Morpurgo
Artemis Fowl, by Eoin Colfer
Books for All Scotland
Database (PDF)
Books for All Scotland
Database (Large print)
Calibre
Amazon (Kindle)
Books
for All
Books for All web site
www.Books4All.org.uk
Books
for All
Digital books
Books
for All
Int. 1 Biology textbook
PDF (adapted) from
Hodder Gibson
Harry Potter novel
Plain text from
www.seeingear.org,
read with WordTalk
Royal Mail Book
Awards book
ORT book
Adapted PDF from
publisher
Scanned and made
into a Clicker 5
talking book
5-14 test
Heinemann maths
Biology Homework
Sample prelim
DOC with forms
TextEase
DOC
DOC
Digital formats and readers
Books
for All
Format
Reader
Text to speech?
PDF
Adobe Reader
(free)
Yes: ‘Read OutLoud’ is built in to Reader, but
it is limited – try one of the others
DOC
Microsoft Word
No: try WordTalk (free) or another text reader
DOC
OpenOffice /
Writer (free)
No: try a general purpose text reader
Daisy
Amis Reader
Yes: both Amis and EasyReader have
(free)
excellent text to speech
EasyReader (£40)
LIT
Microsoft Reader
(free)
Yes: OK – better than Adobe Reader, say, but
not as good as the Daisy readers
Some text to speech
programs
Program
PDFaloud (£295
school licence)
Adobe
Reader
Books
for All
Microsoft
Word
Open
Office
Web
browsers



Read and Write Gold
(£320)



ClaroRead
(£49 - £159)




Natural Reader (free)




WordTalk (free)
WordTalk
Books
for All
WordTalk is an awardwinning FREE text reader
for Microsoft Word,
developed by Rod
Macaulay at TASSCC in
Aberdeen.
 Download it free from
CALL’s web site at
www.wordtalk.org.uk

The Scottish Voice
http://www.TheScottishVoice.org.uk
Books
for All
Books
for All
Can’t buy it or find it?
Make your own!
CLA Scottish Schools
Scanning/Photocopying Licence 2009
Books
for All
“where an Authorised Person is visually impaired or
otherwise disabled and by reason of such visual
impairment or disability is unable to read or
access a Licensed Copy...”
the Licensee (the local authority or employee
of the authority) may make a copy:
“in any alternative format that is more
accessible…whether in digital or audio format,
large or small print copies…or in other formats”
http://www.cla.co.uk/Schools_licences.php
Who are “Visually Impaired
Persons”?

Taken to include:
Books
for All
blind and partially sighted people
 those whose sight cannot be improved by the
use of corrective lenses
 those who are unable through physical difficulty
to hold or manipulate books
 those who are unable through physical difficulty
to focus or move their eyes
 Or who are physically unable to use published
formats”

“or otherwise disabled”
Books
for All
“a person has a disability for the purposes
of this Act if he has a physical or
mental impairment which has a
substantial and long-term adverse
effect on his ability to carry out normal
day-to-day activities”
s1, DDA 1995
Making accessible copies of books
and other curriculum materials:






Books
for All
First, check the book isn’t on the CLA ‘list of
excluded works’
The school must own an original copy of the book
If an accessible copy is commercially available,
you must buy it – you can’t make your own
You do not need permission from the publisher or
rightsholder
You must include a copyright statement.
You may add digital facilities for navigation and to
enable access
Books for All

www.books4all.org.uk

www.adapteddigitalexams.org.uk

www.wordtalk.org.uk

www.thescottishvoice.org.uk

www.callscotland.org.uk
Books
for All