When we were kids, our eyes always wandered off to something fluffy, colourful or shiny and as adults, we’re not immune to this… it’s a part of life we can’t outgrow which is partly why picking digital tools is tricky.

We’ve all seen it: a snazzy digital platform proudly boasting a small speaker icon next to a block of text. “Look, it’s accessible!”, said the marketer behind the words, BUT… if you ask any Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO), stressed-out teacher, or neurodivergent student, they will tell you the exact same thing: having a button that reads text aloud is not the same thing as enabling a student to learn.

There is an enormous ravine between access and independence.

As Jason “Jay” Giddens from ReadSpeaker pointed out during a recent webinar Skolon & ReadSpeaker hosted together, schools are often lulled into a false sense of security by these basic features.

“Most schools already have some form of text-to-speech, but learners still struggle with confidence, revision, focus, and independence,” Jay warns.

“Having a button that reads text aloud doesn’t automatically mean a learner can study independently, revise confidently, or cope consistently in exams.”

If we want to truly support neurodivergent learners, we have to move past the bare-minimum “read aloud” button and look at the bigger picture.

The illusion of accessibility: The problem with free and fragmented tools

“The Department of Education mentions free tools a lot right now,” Jason went on to note, “However, free doesn’t always mean low cost; they give you the bare minimum and push the hidden operational costs onto staff setup time, exam preparation, and troubleshooting.”

On paper, free tools tick the compliance box, yet in reality, they create a fragmented, chaotic learning environment.

For instance, looking at a typical school week: a student might use an iPad in one class, a Chromebook in another, a Windows PC in the library, and an old family laptop at home.

If their accessibility tools are tied to the device rather than the learner, their support instantly vanishes the moment the class bell rings at the end of each session.

This fragmentation causes a massive domino effect for all involved in learning:

• For students: It’s more than enough to trigger text overwhelm and anxiety. If they are constantly having to relearn how to activate support on different devices, they’ll end up spending more energy fighting the technology than digesting the curriculum, putting them behind academically and demoralising them mentally.
• For teachers: Teachers are forced to become tech-support troubleshooters instead of educators, eating into valuable teaching time and taking learning away from all in the class.
• For parents: Parents are forced to step in as round-the-clock readers, writers, or scribes, taking teens back to being toddlers by having their parents read to them once more, destroying the natural parent-child dynamic that has matured with their age.

True accessibility shouldn’t feel like hard work. It should reduce friction, feel natural, and crucially, follow the learner wherever they go.

The exam-room breaking point

The ultimate test of any accessibility strategy is exam day. This is where the basic button approach completely falls apart.

Many standard text-to-speech features cannot operate within secure, locked-down exam browsers. When a school relies on these rigid tools, they are often forced to resort to stressful, logistical nightmares: isolating the student in a separate room, flying in remote students, or having an exam invigilator sit uncomfortably close to read the paper aloud.

“Students should not meet their support tool for the first time on exam day; familiarity builds confidence and reduces anxiety,”

Jason explained during the 45 minute session.

When a student uses the exact same cloud-based platform for daily classroom reading, homework, and formal assessments, the tool becomes invisible. This dramatically cuts down on school panic: “We (ReadSpeaker) had one school set up three simultaneous exams in just seven minutes,” Jay shared.
Beyond text-to-speech: The modern support ecosystem

Neurodivergent learners; whether they have dyslexia, ADHD, or processing difficulties, rarely need just one feature. They need a comprehensive ecosystem of tools that adapt to different tasks and formats.

To achieve true independence, a modern student needs a browser-based toolkit that includes:

• Optical character recognition (OCR): The ability to snap a photo of a physical worksheet, a textbook, or a poster on a wall and instantly have it converted into readable, spoken text.
• Dictation (speech-to-text): For students who can articulate brilliant ideas verbally but struggle with the cognitive load of physically typing or writing them down.
• Translation support: Crucial for English as an Additional Language (EAL) learners to bridge the gap between comprehension and expression.
• Revision reinforcement: Tools that allow highlights, notes, and audio files to be saved into a personal digital library, transforming passive listening into active studying.

Normalising the toolkit

Years ago, using a scientific calculator in a math exam was seen as a cheat or a luxury; today, it’s a standard, normalised tool. It’s a given that we need the same cultural shift for cognitive accessibility tools.

When accessibility is built into the browser and follows the student’s login rather than the school’s hardware, the stigma disappears. It becomes just another piece of standard learning equipment.

The goal of educational technology shouldn’t be to simply read a paragraph out loud to a student. As a professor from Bath University recently shared with Jason:

“The best accessibility solutions reduce operational pressure while improving learner independence.”

Ergo, when we shift our focus from access to total independence, we don’t just help students pass – we give them the confidence to thrive.

Keen to not let accessibility stop at a “read aloud” button? Explore what ReadSpeaker have to offer today and to watch the conversation in full, use the button below to catch up on the full webinar recording and hear more of Jason’s insights.