Kim, J. S. (2012). The effect of “read-aloud” as a test accommodation for students with visual impairments in South Korea . Journal of Visual Impairment & Blindness , 106 (6), 356–361. https://doi.org/10.1177/0145482X1210600605

The accommodation under investigation was read-aloud, which was either not provided or provided, along with other accommodations that were commonly used by students with visual impairments: large print, braille, and extended-time.

Ten (10) students from across middle school grades who had visual impairments and total blindness and were in a special school setting were matched with 10 students without disabilities in a regular education setting in South Korea.

Student scores on 20 items drawn from the 2003 National Assessment of Educational Achievement in Korean reading comprehension were compared in this study. Students also provided interview data about their experiences with the assessment.

Students with visual impairments scored significantly better when using the read-aloud accommodation along with other accommodations than when using other accommodations alone. These students also expressed a preference for using read-aloud, noting that they moved more slowly through the test items when using either braille or magnification alone, and that they had difficulties with reading long text passages. Students without disabilities scored lower when using read-aloud accommodations than when not doing so, although this difference did not reach statistical significance. Almost all of these students reported that they were more comfortable not using read-aloud accommodations, noting that their reading speed was faster than the rate of read-aloud accommodation. Limitations of the study were reported, and future research directions were suggested.