红桃影视

Anti-hacking measures to protect exams left additional-needs students potentially unable to use screen-reading software, it has emerged.

added password protection to digital papers this year to 鈥減rotect the integrity of exams鈥� following cyber-attack data breaches at three exam boards last year.

But when exams began last week, schools and education technology companies realised the software which reads out exam papers did not work.

Schools only receive the papers an hour beforehand 鈥� and say they were given hardly any notice about the password changes. No testing was done with technology companies prior to roll out.

Last year, 121,300 access arrangements for a computer reader or human reader were approved across all exam boards.

‘It removed the accessibility’

Paddy McGrath, head of education strategy at TextHelp which runs two reader products, said AQA had 鈥渞emoved the accessibility of the paper鈥� and 鈥渨hen you click anywhere on the page, nothing works鈥�.

He said AQA had since provided a “workaround”, but it required “significant work” by the exams officer.

Each paper also has a different password, meaning IT administrators must type in an alternative password at each computer, he added.

AQA said it was not aware of any student who had been unable to sit an exam as a result of the issue. But it could face special consideration requests if there were cases where students taking exams had been delayed.

Michael Turner, AQA executive director of customer and product, apologised for the disruption caused to students and 鈥渁dditional pressure this places on exams officers鈥�.

Schools are encouraged to contact AQA if they believe a student鈥檚 exam performance has been affected. The board is expected to announce a solution today where password protection can be removed.

‘Small number of schools affected’

The exam board added it was aware “that a small number of schools are experiencing difficulties uploading question papers to certain assistive technology solutions.鈥�

It said TextHelp鈥檚 ClaroRead was the only software with a 鈥渃ompatibility issue鈥�, but there have been some 鈥渕inor speed issues with some other applications鈥�.

AQA added: 鈥淔or the moment, any school that has issues can get in touch and we will provide them with papers in a form they can use.鈥�

But McGrath said the issue impacted all reader tools. He said three main companies provided the technology and TextHelp offers two of them.

A multi-academy trust senior leader said this 鈥渃reates an unacceptable situation where some of the most vulnerable learners are disadvantaged as their exam accessibility arrangements are compromised with little time for the centre to react鈥�.

They added AQA鈥檚 response was 鈥渃ompletely inadequate and they have failed to address the obvious Equality Act implications鈥�.

‘Very disappointed’

AQA said it only gave notice at the start of May to 鈥渢o minimise the time during which hostile actors might try to circumvent our improved security systems鈥�.

McGrath also said he was 鈥渧ery disappointed鈥� AQA did not test its security measures but said the board was 鈥渕oving very fast to resolve this鈥�.

In response, AQA said it tested changes thoroughly but 鈥渨e don鈥檛 have a direct relationship with every tech provider and every piece of software they provide to schools鈥�.

Exams regulator Ofqual asked exam boards to introduce new security measures earlier this year.

Two police investigations into the cyber attack at AQA, OCR and Pearson have gone cold. A 16-year-old boy received a caution, while two other people arrested were stood down from bail.