As many of you will know, the system for allocating and providing student support for students in Higher Education in the UK is currently changing. Most of the substantial changes are happening in the first quarter of 2024. We all know that the previous system was in crisis. Multiple service providers had been forced to compete with each other with the lowest bidder winning the contracts for individual students. This created a race to the bottom and plenty of complaints about inadequate computers for the assistive technology they were intended to run. The minimum criteria for individual software often failed to be capable of running multiple programs, which is exactly what many neurodivergent learners require.
Student Finance England have stated that:
“Capita and Study Tech have each been awarded two geographical lots across the UK. In their respective lot areas, they will be responsible for managing the end-to-end DSA process for needs assessment, the delivery of assistive technology equipment, familiarisation and training, as well as ongoing aftercare.”
It therefore does not seem that Visual Reading will be affected immediately, since it is an approved product. But we don’t know much of the detail about how Visual Reading will be allocated and whether the new organisations will change the protocol.
One of the main barriers to students being awarded Visual Reading is that Assessors of Need, as zero contract workers, were difficult to contact to advise that Visual Reading is a life-changing product that they could award. More often than not, dyslexic learners were awarded screen readers as a solution to poor or slow reading. But this ignores that screen readers are themselves rather slow and most importantly, that most dyslexic learners struggle to listen and pay attention to streams of speech, particularly when the voice lacks sufficient expression.
From our perspective, it would be ideal if Assessors of Need were properly employed by Capita and Study Tech, but we don’t know if they will be. But if they are, it would open the possibility of providing awareness raising about Visual Reading through just 2 organisations which would make a huge difference. But we also don’t know how the drive to reduce costs may affect decision making. These companies make profit on the sale of technology, they do not make a profit from Visual Reading. Will this impact on how it is seen and recommended by the companies? Will the companies have more control over what Assessors of Need award if they are employed directly? We just don’t know at this stage. We remain optimistic that Visual Reading will be increasingly valued as the extraordinary evidence mounts up. Let’s hope we are right.
So far students who have completed Visual Reading after being awarded it through the DSA have increased their median reading speed from 130 words per minute (wpm) to a median reading speed of 429 wpm, while increasing comprehension and recall. Almost all of them are above the ‘average range’ of ‘reading for meaning’ speed of postgraduates (131-248 wpm), and 88% are in the top 1% (314+wpm). These results are truly life-changing, not only in terms of their academic courses, but also in terms of self-confidence and self-esteem. We are keeping our fingers crossed that the new system will strengthen rather than weaken this opportunity to make these differences.
