Accommodations and Assistive Technology

All Bluebook™ exams are configured to work for students who test with accommodations or assistive technology. Students should open Bluebook on the type of device they’ll test with and try a test preview or full-length practice test to see how their accommodations and assistive technology will work on test day.

Digital Exam Accommodations

Some accommodations are administered differently on digital exams than on paper and pencil exams. For example, a student who is approved to use a human reader on paper and pencil exams may use a screen reader for digital exams. Also, some accommodations may not be needed for a digital exam. For example, a student who is approved for large print may use the zoom tool that's available to all test takers.

The accommodations listed in this table will be available for 2023-24 test administrations and students approved for these accommodations can use assistive technology (AT).

Accommodations with Approved AT Devices

Approved Accommodation

Examples of Approved AT Devices

Human Reader

Screen Reader or Text-to-Speech

Writer/Scribe to Record Responses

Speech-to-Text, Braille Display

Prerecorded Audio (MP3 via Streaming)

Screen Reader or Text-to-Speech

Braille with Raised Line Drawings, Contracted

Screen Reader, Braille Display, etc.

Raised Line Drawings

Screen Reader

 

Braille Writer

Braille Display, Voice Recognition (Speech-to-Text), Screen Reader

 

Assistive Technology

Screen Reader, Speech-to-Text, Text-to-Speech, Braille Display, Other Approved AT Devices

Assistive Technology–Compatible Test Form

Screen Reader or Text-to-Speech

If there are questions about the accommodations a student is approved for, the Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) coordinator can look up the student’s accommodations in SSD Online or contact the College Board SSD Office.

Assistive Technology

Any approved assistive technology a student uses when they’re online should still work during the digital exam. If a student uses assistive technology, such as a screen reader (e.g., JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, or ChromeVox), magnification software (e.g., ZoomText Fusion), or dictation software (e.g., Dragon NaturallySpeaking) to interact with a standard web browser, the same commands can be used to navigate through content in the digital exam. The exception to this would be if a student uses web-based assistive technology or a browser extension (e.g., add-ons, plug-ins, etc.) as they are not supported for use with the Bluebook application.

Configuring and Using Assistive Technology

Configuration steps need to be taken each time a student uses Bluebook, both for answering preview questions and for exam day. In some cases, your school’s technology staff may need to complete the configuration steps on the student’s testing device (for instance, if the device is school managed and settings cannot be adjusted by the student).

If any settings need to be adjusted on exam day, configuration steps should be completed before beginning the check-in process in Bluebook. Once a student enters the start code at the end of the check-in process, they won’t be able to adjust settings because Bluebook locks their device.

Important: Chromebook Kiosk Accessibility

For Students Who Need Accessibility Features 

Because Bluebook is a kiosk app, the floating accessibility menu is not available by default. Use your Admin console to change this device setting for students approved to use accessibility features during the test.  

Go to Devices > Chrome > Settings > Device Settings > Kiosk floating accessibility menu and select the configuration option to show the menu in kiosk mode.

Annotations

The annotation tool in Bluebook contains features to enable students with disabilities to use screen reader software and/or a keyboard only to highlight text from a question or leave themselves a note. This guide provides detailed steps for using the annotation tool on all operating systems.