The QCAA recognises that some students may have disability, impairment and/or medical conditions or experience other circumstances that may affect their ability to read, respond to and participate in assessment. Access arrangements and reasonable adjustments (AARA) are designed to assist these students.
Access arrangements are action/s taken by the school so that a student with an eligible impairment that may not be covered by the definition of disability can access assessment.
Reasonable adjustments are action/s taken by the school so that a student with an eligible impairment as a result of a disability and/or medical condition and experiencing other circumstances creating a barrier to the completion of assessment can be assessed on the same basis as other students.
EligibilityAARA are provided to minimise barriers for a student whose disability, impairment, medical condition or other circumstances affect their ability to read, respond to or participate in assessment.
These barriers fall into broad categories:
- Long-term and chronic conditions
- Mental health conditions, such as anxiety and depression
- Short-term conditions and temporary injuries
- Illness and misadventure.
Eligible
| Not Eligible |
|---|
Disability:- cognitive
- physical
- sensory
- social/emotional
Plus:- illness
- misadventure (unforeseen circumstances that are outside of the student's control, e.g. accident, death of a family member)
| - unfamiliarity with the English language
- teacher absence or other teacher-related difficulties
- matters that the student could have avoided, e.g. misreading an examination timetable, misreading instructions in examinations
- timetable clashes
- matters of the student’s or parent’s/carer’s own choosing, e.g. family holidays, sporting events
- matters that the school could have avoided, e.g. incorrect enrolment in a subject
|
- alternative exam conditions, e.g. extra time, rest breaks and/or separate seating
- alternative-format papers, e.g. A4 to A3 enlargement, black-and-white materials
- assistive technology, e.g. screen reader, speech recognition, magnification
- a reader and/or scribe
- extensions to due dates
- the opportunity to undertake a comparable assessment for internal examinations missed due to short-term sickness or misadventure.