Welcome to the online home for information and training opportunities relating to Adapted Digital Exams.
SQA publish guidance for schools to help them to choose and use the most appropriate assessment arrangements, and a key part of this is ensuring that schools meet duties under equality legislation including the Disability Discrimination Act.
Adapted Digital Papers are digital versions of SQA Standard, Intermediate and Higher exam papers. They are designed for students with disabilities or additional support needs who have difficulty using the ordinary exam papers. This web site has information about the papers, how they can be used, and about the pilot projects where the papers were developed and tested in schools.
After you have browsed the site you may want to arrange training or Continuing Professional Development from CALL in the use of the adapted digital papers.
>> LATEST NEWS
2008 Adapted Digital Past Papers now available
The 2008 Adapted Digital Past Papers that were used earlier this year are now available on SQA’s web site. You can download a wide range of papers from 2008 and also 2007 for practice and revision.
(Posted: 10th November 2008)
Acrobat Reader 9
Adobe have released a new version of Acrobat Reader. We recommend you stick with Adobe Reader 8.1 which you can download from the Adob website. This is because Browsealoud 4 doesn't work with Reader 9 (see below) and if you have PDFaloud on your computer, it won't work either. (Texthelp do have a new version of PDFaloud which does work with Reader 9: contact TextHelp direct for the new version.)
(Posted: 19th August 2008)
Don't use Browsealoud 5 to read Adapted Digital Papers
The latest version 5 of Browsealoud can't read digital papers from a CD (Browsealoud 5 can only read PDFs when viewed from a web site). Also, Browsealoud 5 doesn't work with Heather (see June 17th post below). We have discussed these issues with TextHelp and we are disappointed that they are not going to address them, so for the time being you should continue to use Browsealoud 4 rather than Browsealoud 5 (or buy PDFaloud from LTS, or some other text reader like ClaroRead). You can download Browsealoud 4 from the Texthelp site.
(Posted: 19th August 2008)
Browsealoud 5 doesn't read with Heather
For reasons that are unclear, the new Browsealoud 5 can't use Heather, the new high quality Scottish computer voice that is now available free of charge to Scottish schools and pupils from CALL's web site at http://www.theScottishVoice.org.uk. We have told TextHelp and we hope that they will fix it and we will post information here when we get a response from TextHelp.
(Posted: 17th June 2008)
PDFaloud now available from Learning and Teaching Scotland
If you want digital exam papers to be read out by the computer, we recommend TextHelp's PDFaloud program and we're pleased to announce that PDFaloud is now available under a special licence to schools in Scotland, from LTS. PDFaloud costs £295 for a school site licence, which we think is good value. PDFaloud can read the text from any PDF file - such as prelim papers, NABs, documents from the web etc, whereas Browsealoud can only read 'speech enabled' PDFs. So if you are serious about making PDFs accessible in your school, buy PDFaloud from LTS. (Tel. 08700 100 297, enquiries@LTScotland.org.uk, http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/aboutlts/resources/software/index.asp). (PS PDFaloud does work with Heather).
(Posted: 17th June 2008)
TextHelp released Browsealoud Version 5 on 29th May 2008
It is slightly different from the previous version 4 and we will be updating the installation and user guides over the next few weeks with the details about the new version.
(Posted: 2nd June 2008)
Adobe Case Study: Edinburgh University Communication Aids for Language and Learning
Case study from the Adobe website about adapted digital exams.
(Posted: 27th May 2008)
Scotsman: Hugh Reilly - The days of holding support staff hostage may be numbered
Article from the 'Scotsman' website.
(Posted: 13th May 2008)
TES: Exam papers go digital
Article from the 'Times Educational Supplement' website.
(Posted: 7th May 2008)
Connected Live: The right support
Article from the 'Learning and Teaching Scotland' website.
(Posted: 30th April 2008)
Writing in maths or science symbols to the Adapted Digital Paper
This isn't a final solution but find out more.
(Posted: 29th April 2008)
New Training Date: Using ICT to sit SQA Exams and Assessments, 18th June 2008
Limited places available. So, book your place now.
(Posted: 18th April 2008)
ICT and Inclusion 2008: SQA Adapted Digital Question Papers Presentation
(Posted: 17th March 2008)
2007 Adapted Digital Exam Papers available
You can now download the 2007 Adapted Digital Exam Papers for revision or practice. They can be obtained from the SQA website.
(Posted: 7th Feburary 2008)
Have you heard about the 'Books For All' project?
The CALL Centre has been funded by the Scottish Government Schools Directorate to investigate the need for textbooks, worksheets, assessments, and other learning materials in accessible form. More information can be found at the 'Books4All' project website.
(Posted: 1st December 2007)
