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AARA

Eligibility and possible AARA

Eligibility

AARA are provided to minimise barriers for a student whose disability, impairment, medical condition or other circumstances affect their ability to read, respond to or participate in assessment.

These barriers fall into broad categories:

  • Long-term and chronic conditions
  • Mental health conditions, such as anxiety and depression
  • Short-term conditions and temporary injuries
  • Illness and misadventure.

The definition of ‘disability’ used in the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 is broad. The QCAA uses broad disability categories for AARA applications.

Eligible Not Eligible
Disability:
  • cognitive
  • physical
  • sensory
  • social/emotional
Plus:
  • illness
  • misadventure (unforeseen circumstances that are outside of the student's control, e.g. accident, death of a family member)
  • unfamiliarity with the English language
  • teacher absence or other teacher-related difficulties
  • matters that the student could have avoided, e.g. misreading an examination timetable, misreading instructions in examinations
  • timetable clashes
  • matters of the student’s or parent’s/carer’s own choosing, e.g. family holidays, sporting events
  • matters that the school could have avoided, e.g. incorrect enrolment in a subject

The application of AARA to student assessment is based on the functional impact/s of the condition for which AARA are sought. Students with the same condition may experience highly varied impacts on their education, and their ability to demonstrate their learning, knowledge and skill in assessments. Functional impact/s of the condition may also vary from subject to subject for an individual student.

More information

See Section 6.2 of the QCE and QCIA policy and procedures handbook for more information about AARA eligibility.

Possible AARA

The types of AARA possible depend on a student’s individual circumstances and the assessment task.

For students undertaking summative assessment in Units 3 and 4, AARA are either:

Some common AARA include:

  • alternative exam conditions, e.g. extra time, rest breaks and/or separate seating
  • alternative-format papers, e.g. A4 to A3 enlargement, black-and-white materials
  • assistive technology, e.g. screen reader, speech recognition, magnification
  • a reader and/or scribe
  • extensions to due dates
  • the opportunity to undertake a comparable assessment for internal examinations missed due to short-term sickness or misadventure.

Schools must apply to the QCAA for the following adjustments.

Type of assessment (Units 3 and 4)

Adjustment

Summative assessment — internal examination

  • extra time
  • rest breaks
Summative assessment — common internal assessment (CIA) in Applied (Essential) subjects
  • extra time
  • rest breaks
  • alternative format papers
  • assistive technology
  • computer

Summative external assessment and Senior External Examination (SEE)

  • extra time
  • rest breaks
  • alternative format papers
  • assistance
  • assistive technology
  • computer
  • reader
  • scribe
  • variation to venue. See Section 10.4.1: Variations to venue of the QCE and QCIA policy and procedures handbook
  • any adjustments not identified as principal-reported in the table in Section 6.4.4: Possible AARA of the QCE and QCIA policy and procedures handbook.

More information

See Section 6.4.4 of the QCE and QCIA policy and procedures handbook for more information about possible AARA.

Last reviewed:
22 September 2023
Last updated:
4 June 2020

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)

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