Dyslexia and civil service online tests

Bookowl

General_Grant said:

Bookowl said:

Dyslexia affects people in different ways. For me it’s short term memory processing, understanding what I’ve just read and decoding words. In the context of long, dense texts and academic texts. A reasonable adjustment would be assistive technology which would read out to me the passages of text reducing my resources of short term memory etc and more time to complete this exercise. 
for words that are similar in meaning. In the work place I would have technology that would dictionaries and thesaurus etc that would assist in me identifying words that are similar. In an online test situation I wouldn’t have this and it would put me at a disadvantage to non dyslexic peers. As it’s testing my issues with dyslexia.

To further my own learning -
Do you wear headphones for this?
Is there such technology to cope with printed or handwritten hard copy (as opposed to on-screen)?

Yes , it’s a bit software in the computer and then I wear headphones to listen to it. 

For hand written / printed documents, which are few and far between these days.  I can scan these in and get the technology to read it. Or there’s a reader scanner pen to read printed documents. 

cr1mson

My brother is dyslexic and when he has had to do these sort of tests as part of recruitment process he has been offered a variety of adjustments. Sometimes it has been extra time, others he has been offered an audio version and also a lower pass mark. In some cases been offered a combination or all 3. He has never been offered not to do the test.
Perhaps it would be worth asking for one or all of these as a reasonable adjustment rather than asking not to do the test?

lincroft1710

Bookowl said:

The competition that I am going for welcomes applications from disabled applicants yet it makes the recruitment process difficult and deters people from applying.

Box ticking. Think about the actual words they use, no guarantee of anything. But .non dyslexic disabled applicants may not agree that the process difficult 

Mrs_Ryan

I have dyscalculia and I managed to pass, but only for a very low level job. I didn’t get anywhere near for the graduate level jobs I went for. 

Floop

I’m not impressed they won’t offer adjustments - usually it’s extra time allowed, and actually a lot of the tests are not timed at all. I do think it’s a problem if the test design/presentation doesn’t allow you to use your assistive technology to complete it, as then you are being put at a disadvantage. 

I recruit a lot in CS and I’ve used those tests occasionally where it really matters (verbal reasoning for a complex correspondence  role) but otherwise I don’t think  they add much to the process except for keeping the numbers of applications we have to sift down.
Most CS jobs don’t require the tests - they aren’t standard but are an option the hiring manager can choose - so I suggest you look at more vacancies if you strongly feel the test is a real hindrance to you. At interview you can ask for extra time.

I have both dyslexia and dyscalculia and have passed the tests for senior CS roles so they aren’t an absolute barrier. I’ve also interviewed/hired plenty of dyslexic candidates who have completed the tests successfully. 

[Deleted User]

 I've an email trail of dismissive replies, an apology and promises to look into it. Now radio silence.
 Their test caused a seizure, there was no seizure warning before completing it. And seems to be no chance of doing the same test on paper, verbally or any other way. 

 Solicitor who the Equality Advisory Service directed me to have taken it on. They are both quite clear it is discriminatory and that they have broken the Law given the size of the organisation and their ability to make adjustments. 

Emmia

Floop said:

I’m not impressed they won’t offer adjustments - usually it’s extra time allowed, and actually a lot of the tests are not timed at all. I do think it’s a problem if the test design/presentation doesn’t allow you to use your assistive technology to complete it, as then you are being put at a disadvantage. 

I recruit a lot in CS and I’ve used those tests occasionally where it really matters (verbal reasoning for a complex correspondence  role) but otherwise I don’t think  they add much to the process except for keeping the numbers of applications we have to sift down.
Most CS jobs don’t require the tests - they aren’t standard but are an option the hiring manager can choose - so I suggest you look at more vacancies if you strongly feel the test is a real hindrance to you. At interview you can ask for extra time.

I have both dyslexia and dyscalculia and have passed the tests for senior CS roles so they aren’t an absolute barrier. I’ve also interviewed/hired plenty of dyslexic candidates who have completed the tests successfully. 

My experience is that the use of these tests is being widened, and I think the use will eventually become a standard approach - for external candidates and existing CS who are applying for roles on level transfer or promotion.

Savvy_Sue

_shel said:

 I've an email trail of dismissive replies, an apology and promises to look into it. Now radio silence.
 Their test caused a seizure, there was no seizure warning before completing it. And seems to be no chance of doing the same test on paper, verbally or any other way. 

 Solicitor who the Equality Advisory Service directed me to have taken it on. They are both quite clear it is discriminatory and that they have broken the Law given the size of the organisation and their ability to make adjustments. 

Keep us posted on this one, of course it's possible no-one realised there was a risk of seizure, and you're the first, but still the dismissive response is poor!

epm-84

Floop said:

I’m not impressed they won’t offer adjustments - usually it’s extra time allowed, and actually a lot of the tests are not timed at all. 

It needs a human to manually review the scores for those who specify learning difficulties.  I did a Civil Service application, mentioned a learning difficulty and found my application was rejected because my application answers didn't score highly enough, despite being in the top 1% of applicants on the Maths test that was also part of the same application.  The role wasn't a sales or report writing one so I find it interesting that 99% of applicants scored worse than me in the relevant Maths test but some of those are probably good at talking about themselves, so they got invited to interviews.

Bookowl

Floop said:

I’m not impressed they won’t offer adjustments - usually it’s extra time allowed, and actually a lot of the tests are not timed at all. I do think it’s a problem if the test design/presentation doesn’t allow you to use your assistive technology to complete it, as then you are being put at a disadvantage. 

I recruit a lot in CS and I’ve used those tests occasionally where it really matters (verbal reasoning for a complex correspondence  role) but otherwise I don’t think  they add much to the process except for keeping the numbers of applications we have to sift down.
Most CS jobs don’t require the tests - they aren’t standard but are an option the hiring manager can choose - so I suggest you look at more vacancies if you strongly feel the test is a real hindrance to you. At interview you can ask for extra time.

I have both dyslexia and dyscalculia and have passed the tests for senior CS roles so they aren’t an absolute barrier. I’ve also interviewed/hired plenty of dyslexic candidates who have completed the tests successfully. 

I’ve an update to the online I will service tests. They will allow 100% extra time and breaks between each section. 

Picking out two words from a list of six that are similar-the practice tests seem okay. For example, draw and tie were similar words. The second part of the critical reasoning is reading a piece of text and then figuring out what is true or false. These tests seem okay to.

The only thing that I struggle with is the management decisions. It’s not in relation to my disability.  It’s  that for management decisions in real life you may choose to do one or two different things with an employee. In these test you have to take each possible scenario in isolation. Everyone has different ways of looking at things.I think these online test for management decisions want a standardised response which isn’t realistic.