I have to say what I loved this afternoon was watching the students, the faces, the sheer excitement that they have about having something they can use. J & L are two of our most severe Dyslexic students. Both are statemented and find it really hard to access material and have done so throughout their whole time here. J just said "I can read this" and it was wonderful. To find a child who really does experience difficulty across the curriculum to find something that allows success is great.
SENCO

A photo of a pile of text books with a red apple resting on the top

Welcome to the Accessible Resources Pilot Project

We are the Dolphin Inclusive Consortium. We ran this exciting pilot project on behalf of the DCSF (Department for Children, Schools and Families, now the DfE, Department for education). Our trial provided pupils who find reading standard textbooks and other school materials difficult with electronic versions of the books so that they could read them in a way that suits their particular needs. You can find out more general information about the project using the links on this page.

This video shows the response from one of the SENCOs involved in the project and really helps to sum it up, reminding us of why this work is so valuable >

Latest news:

01/02/2011: This project has now ended and a final report has been issued to the DfE. You can download the report and see a summary of the results on this site. The project confirms that making teaching materials available to print and visually impaired pupils in an appropriate electronic form along with access technologies to read them can make a significant difference to their reading, writing, confidence, development and inclusion. The same electronic materials can also provide substantial productivity savings for staff in schools and local authorities who support, in particular, visually impaired pupils.

The project recommends that the majority of English School curriculum materials are made available for print impaired pupils in a cost effective and sustainable way, and that schools receive the guidance and support from technology and service providers to enable their print impaired pupils to fully utilise these resources. This will require a coordinated cross industry effort from a range of stakeholder organisations - schools, local authorities, charitable organisations, publishers, technology and service providers, professionals and government.

15/07/10: Over 100 electronic textbooks available for print-impaired learners from September 2010. Read more...

03/11/09: The pilot project was mentioned in the House of Commons this week when the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport was asked about the availability of books in alternative formats.

01/10/09: Contracts are signed and the project is underway! 9 schools and the target number of 40 pupils have been signed up and plans are being finalised for the start of trials in schools during the Autumn Term 2009. A mini-trial has been successfully completed to test out the approach prior to the full trials.