Dyslexia accommodations are changes to how a student accesses information to show what they know. Dyslexia accommodations do not change what a student is expected to learn. Common ones include extended time, audiobooks, text-to-speech, and not penalizing for spelling errors. They are written into a 504 plan or an IEP. They do not give a student an unfair advantage, rather they remove a barrier.
I’ve been in your shoes as a parent, so let’s walk through this together, grade by grade so you can explain why every single accommodation is appropriate.
In a nutshell, accommodations are adjustments to how a student learns or demonstrates learning, without changing what they’re expected to learn. The International Dyslexia Association defines accommodations as changes in the way students access information. They do not change academic expectations.
I like to think of accommodations as removing barriers for students with dyslexia so they can demonstrate their true understanding of the material. The purpose of these supports is to level the playing field.
Let’s start with an example. If a history test is measuring whether your child understood the causes of the Civil War, then providing the text in audio format, or having the questions read aloud, lets them show that knowledge without their reading getting in the way. The test still measures history and their knowledge of the Civil War. It just stops measuring decoding!
This brings us to the question of why dyslexia accommodations matter so much? Dyslexia affects reading and spelling. In school, that’s pretty much every subject. Math word problems. Science Labs. The directions at the top of the sheet.
Processing speed is a big part of this. Depending upon how quickly your child processes information, extra time can be the difference between passing a test and failing. That’s why extra time on tests and assignments is the most requested accommodation. Let’s take another example: allowing a student to use a keyboard instead of writing by hand can turn an hours-long battle with a blank page into a chance to actually demonstrate what they know.
I’m Tracy Young, an ALTA-certified Orton Gillingham educational therapist, and I’m also the mom of a dyslexic daughter. I’ve requested accommodations as a parent and I’ve written them into plans as a professional. Both perspectives teach you something unique.
Too many people think that accommodations give a student an unfair advantage. You may have already experienced this at your child’s school. I certainly did. When I requested timing accommodations for my daughter, the school pointed to the fact that she was passing her NYS exams. Clearly she couldn’t possibly need more time. They skipped over how she was passing them. She only read 3 out of the 4 passages because a student only had to cite from 3 passages to receive full credit. My daughter had found a workaround. But enough about me!
That’s what compensation looks like from the outside. It looks like success. But underneath it, a kid is working 3 times as hard for a third of the result. As they get older, and the stakes get higher, they run out of runway.
Accommodations don’t hand a student an advantage. They remove a roadblock that the rest of the class never had to navigate.
Timing accommodations are not a one size fits all. One student may need 30% additional time while another student may require double the time. Schools may resist offering different levels because because tracking is a hassle. Administrative inconvenience is not a reason to deny a child what they need. Remember, you’re allowed to say so politely in a meeting.
This part is really important and it’s where I see the most damage done.
An accommodation is not instruction. It’s access. A child who cannot read still need to be taught to access the code.
Last year I tutored a student who graduated from high school reading at a third grade level. She knew plenty of sight words but she couldn’t actually read. She had accommodations the whole way through, with every one of them appropriate. Those accommodations were not reading instruction.
Regardless of how old a student is, we have an obligation to teach them to read. Accommodations without intervention is a band-aid where the wound needed stitches. So when you go into that meeting, you’re really asking for two things. Access, so your child can learn everything else while they’re catching up. Plus instruction, so they catch up.
Before we dive into more specifics, I want to take a moment to discuss a common myth that you will hear time and time again from schools: “a 504 plan can only have three accommodations.”
That is incorrect! There’s no limit to the number of accommodations a student can have in a plan. Dare I say it’s a line of BS that parents are fed over and over again. A Section 504 plans can list as many accommodations as needed to support the student. The same goes for an Individualized Education Plan (IEP).
Please, if you remember one thing about dyslexia accommodations, remember if your child needs ten different accommodations, the plan needs to include ten different accommodations. Simply ask the person who said there is a limit to show you the regulations in writing which states there is a limit to the number of accommodations. Trust me, they won’t be able to! It’s worth mentioning that school procedures and policies can’t go against state regulations.
Most parents arrive at this question sideways, usually because someone at the school said something and moved on.
A 504 plan comes from a civil rights law that gives your child accommodations so they can access the same instruction as everyone else. It does not provide specialized instruction.
If what your child mainly needs is extended time, audiobooks, a quiet room for testing, and a teacher who doesn’t take points off for spelling, a 504 is often the right vehicle. It’s also generally faster to put in place.
An IEP comes from IDEA, a different law with a different purpose. An IEP provides specialized instruction and services, in addition to access.
If your child needs actual reading intervention delivered by the school, they will need an IEP. Eligibility is narrower, the evaluation process is longer, and the meetings are more formal. It’s also the only one of the two that obligates the school to teach rather than simply adjust.
Think of it this way:
Put the request in writing. Not a hallway conversation, not a comment at parent conferences. An email (or a letter) sent to your school’s designated special education contact for evaluation requests, with copy to the principal and teacher and saved somewhere you can find it in eight months.
Describe what you’re seeing rather than diagnosing it. “She reads a page out loud correctly and can’t tell me what it said” is more useful than “I think she has dyslexia.”
Ask for the school’s data. What are her benchmark scores? How much progress has she made since fall? What’s the plan if that rate continues?
And if the district declines to evaluate, ask for that decision in writing too. A written refusal is the document that everything after this depends on.
If your child attends a private school, you’ll want to understand whether private schools have to follow 504 plans which you can read by clicking the button.
Walk into the meeting with a handout listing a wide range of accommodations. Use this as a discussion starter, to determine which ones are appropriate for your child.
Download the listMany of us think of elementary school as the place where your child learns to read. That makes sense given that the focus is on learning to read. However, for students with dyslexia, reading becomes a heavy lift. At this age, children with dyslexia might struggle to decode words, read grade-level text, and spell basic words. Without the proper support, they can quickly fall behind in all subjects.
There is a piece that is not explained to parents. The only way that a student can get back to grade level is by making more progress than other students. What do I mean? Let’s take a hypothetical student. Johnny is in the third grade but it reading at a 2nd grade level. Johnny makes progress during the year and by the end of the year has moved to reading at a 3rd grade level. However, all the other students in the third grade also make progress throughout the year. So in order for Johnny to “catch up” he needs to make 2x the progress as the other students. Otherwise, he will always be behind.
This is a really important concept because too often, schools are pleased that Johnny is making progress. But if Johnny is your child, you’ll want to make sure that Johnny is making enough progress to eventually catch up with his peers!
That is part of the reason that accommodations are vital. They help ensure that Johnny is learning all the other elements like vocabulary, background knowledge, and writing structure while he is learning to decode. Dyslexia accommodations help young learners keep up with their peers as they master decoding and fluency.
Text-to-speech technology on a tablet or computer can be a helpful accommodation. The student highlights a sentence and the device reads it. Remember to include the use of headphones as part of the accommodation. This ensures access to material beyond their independent reading level. These alternatives to text accommodations ensure your child isn’t missing out on learning just because the text is hard for them to decode.
If you ever wonder how difficult this can be, try writing a paragraph using your non-dominant hand. You’ll have new appreciation for a student’s struggles. Remember, the key to a written accommodation is to let the young student demonstrate their knowledge in ways other than using pencil-and-paper writing.
Breaking big tasks into smaller chunks can also be helpful. Perhaps the teacher provides one page at a time or even covers parts of the page to reveal a few problems at a time. This can help a dyslexic child not become overwhelmed.
Frequent breaks can be written into the plan. For instance, allowing your child a short stretch or “brain break” after 10-15 minutes of intense reading work to maintain focus.
And my favorite one: never require
a dyslexic student to read out loud in front of peers (unless they volunteer.) Reading in front of the class can be frightening if text is challenging. Too often students are asked to read round-robin style, and many teachers don’t understand what it requires for a struggling reader. Put that dyslexia accommodation in the plan.
These dyslexia accommodations focus on supporting foundational skills and preventing frustration in elementary school. We want our young dyslexic learners to love school and reading, not feel defeated. As a parent, you have the right to request these types of supports. The reality is, you might find yourself explaining dyslexia to your child’s teacher. That’s normal and not a sign to be concerned about. Explain what helps your child and make sure the plan reflects their needs. Your advocacy in these early years will set the stage for your child’s confidence and success.
Everything changes in middle school. One nurturing classroom teacher becomes six teachers, with six sets of expectations, more homework, and a sudden assumption that your child can manage it all independently. Add preteen hormones into the mix and it’s a bumpy ride for the whole family.
Dyslexia doesn’t quietly resolve itself in sixth grade. Extended time, audiobooks, and note-taking support all still matter. But the coursework changes shape, and the accommodations need to change with it.
Assistive technology. Middle school is the right time to introduce tools that build independence. Text-to-speech software and apps can read textbooks and novels aloud. Chrome has a text-to-speech extension can be installed in the browser. Schools often have access to Learning Ally or Bookshare for audiobook versions of textbooks and literature. These tools keep your child in grade-level content, and they prevent the shutdown that happens when a kid opens a two hundred page novel and simply cannot see a way through it.
On the writing side, speech-to-text lets a student dictate and have the computer type the words. Google Docs has voice typing under the Tools menu, but you want the accommodation named specifically in the plan so your child can use it at school, on a school device, without any debate. Word prediction and spell-check belong in the plan too.
One more thing, and it’s the one schools skip. Ask for training on the technology. I’ve seen too many plans list assistive technology that nobody ever taught the student how to use. It’s like riding a bike. The first attempt is wobbly. They get it with practice, but only if someone shows them.
Note-taking and organization. With multiple classes, staying organized becomes genuinely hard. Ask for class notes, outlines, or slide printouts. A history teacher can hand over the day’s outline. The point is that your child shouldn’t miss the lecture because all their attention went into copying from the board. If the school won’t provide notes, ask that your child be allowed to photograph the board or the homework assignment. Many schools are going phone-free, so this needs to be specifically written into the plan for your child to have access to a camera.
Graphic organizers help with writing. Mind maps are a good place to start. Ask for writing templates to take some load off working memory. And request that long projects be broken into checkpoints. If a science project is due in a month, ask for a check-in at the two week mark. That one adjustment prevents many of the Sunday night crises.
Testing and grading. Tests get more frequent and start to carry real weight. Standard accommodations include extended time, oral reading of test questions when decoding is still a barrier, and a separate quiet space so your child isn’t watching everyone else finish long before they will. Not penalizing spelling errors on written work matters here too. A book report should be graded on whether they understood the book rather than if they spelled every word correctly.
Middle school can be rough socially and academically. Bring the dyslexia accommodations checklist to the meeting and use it as a starting point for a conversation rather than a list of demands.
High school is the home stretch, and the demands are real: dense novels, long history readings, a foreign language requirement, state graduation exams, and the SAT or ACT sitting out there on the horizon.
The goal for dyslexia accommodations shifts. You’re still advocating, but you’re also handing over the keys. to your child.
Advanced assistive technology. By now most students with dyslexia are using some form of technology. Audiobooks and text-to-speech remain essential. If the school uses Google Classroom, make sure your teen knows every accessibility feature it has. Speech-to-text matters more than ever for research papers. Some students find larger print or certain fonts easier, whether that’s Arial, Verdana (or a specialized font like Dyslexie). Ask that teachers provide digital versions of materials so the student can adjust the elements to facilitate reading. Smart pens and lecture recording apps let a student capture a lecture and fine-tune their notes afterward.
However, the one rule that governs all of it: if it isn’t in the plan, it doesn’t exist. Everything your teen relies on needs to be included in the plan, because that written record is also what supports the request that come next.
Curriculum and testing. The foreign language requirement trips up a lot of dyslexic students, which makes sense if you remember that dyslexia affects letter-sound patterns and a new language is an entire new set of patterns. You have options. Reduced emphasis on spelling within the foreign language class. American Sign Language instead of Spanish or French. In some districts, a foreign language waiver. Talk with your teen and the school to decide together.
Organization and time management. Multiple classes, activities, sometimes a job. These challenges get labeled as executive function, which is a fancy name for keeping track of your life. Useful accommodations include a digital planner or organizational app and a weekly check-in with a resource room advisor to map out the week.
Self-advocacy is the real work of these four years. Some teens embrace their accommodations. Others start refusing them, because using them in front of peers feels like wearing a sign. That’s a conversation to have directly with your child. More than once.
If college is the goal, start now. In college, the student must request their own accommodations. Nobody calls a meeting for them. Have your teen practice explaining their dyslexia and what helps them. Bring them to part of their own 504 meeting and let them speak to members of the committee. Sitting in that room and saying “I need extra time because it takes me longer to read the passage” is a rehearsal for a conversation they’ll have with a college disability services office in a few years.
This is where a lot of families get caught, and it’s almost always a timing problem rather than an eligibility problem.
Requests for College Board accommodations, which covers the SAT, AP exams, and PSAT, are generally submitted through the Guidance Department. The ACT has its own separate process. Start with the school, not with the testing company.
Two things drive most approvals: documentation of the disability, and evidence that your child receives accommodations at school. That second one is key.
There are two different deadlines to be aware of. One to register for the exam and one to request accommodations. The deadline to request accommodations can be approximately 2 months before the deadline to register for the exam. Many parents and students are not aware of the earlier deadline to request accommodations and are surprised when they try to request accommodations.
A request can be denied. If that happens, know that you can appeal the decision. Frequently, the denials are about missing or unclear documentation rather than about whether your child qualifies. I had one student who was denied because her school sent a password-protected file which couldn’t be opened. She appealed the decision, submitted the paperwork without the password and was approved.
Let’s discuss possible dyslexia accommodations. This list is organized by category so you can scan the sections. Most students do not need every accommodation. Think of it as a menu to discuss at the meeting.
Reading and materials
Audiobooks or text-to-speech for textbooks and novels
Directions read aloud, including on worksheets and tests
Digital versions of printed materials the student can adjust
Larger print, increased spacing, or a preferred font
Colored overlay or line reader to hold the place on the page
Never required to read aloud in front of the class unless volunteering
Writing and spelling
Keyboard or device instead of handwriting
Speech-to-text software
Word prediction and spell-check
Scribe for longer written responses
Spelling and handwriting not graded on content assignments
Graphic organizers and writing templates
Testing
Extended time, with the percentage specified
Separate, quiet testing location
Test questions read aloud
Frequent breaks during long tests
Alternative formats to demonstrate knowledge, such as oral presentation
Answers recorded directly in the test booklet
Organization and executive function
Copy of class notes, outlines, or slides
Long projects broken into checkpoints with teacher check-ins
Assignment planner with teacher verification
Weekly check-in with a resource teacher or advisor
Extended time on homework assignments
Homework list accessible to both student and parent
Assistive technology
Headphones written into the plan
Access to a school device with required software installed
Smart pen or lecture recording permission
Permission to photograph the board or assignments
Training on how to use every tool listed in the plan
Classroom
Preferential seating near the teacher
Quiet signals and prompts rather than public correction
Preview of new vocabulary before a lesson
Reduced volume of reading or writing where appropriate
Advance notice before being called on
Dyslexia accommodations are changes to how a student accesses information or demonstrates learning. This can include extended time on tests, audiobooks, text-to-speech software, a scribe, and not grading spelling on assignments. They are documented in a 504 plan or an IEP.
A 504 plan comes from Section 504 which is a civil rights law. This law provides accommodations so a student can access the same instruction as everyone else.
An IEP comes from IDEA and provides specialized instruction and services, not just access. One way to think about them is a 504 changes the access and an IEP changes the teaching.
No. Accommodations remove a barrier that other students never encountered. Extended time does not supply knowledge. It gives a student who processes language more slowly a fair chance to show what they know. A test still measures the subject rather than measuring reading speed.
There is no cap on the number of accommodations in a 504 plan or an IEP. If a student needs ten accommodations, the plan can list ten. If someone tells you there is a four-accommodation limit, ask them to show you the regulation in writing. If someone says it is school policy to only have four, politely mention that they are violating the law since schools cannot go against state and federal regulations.
A 504 plan that was created at a K-12 school does not automatically transfer to a college. The student is expected to contact the disability services office at the college, provide documentation so that the college can determine the appropriate accommodations.
The 504 protection exists when attending any college which receive federal funding.
Each organization has its own process. College Board handles requests for the SAT, PSAT, and AP exams. Typically, the requests go through your school’s services for students with disabilities (SSD) coordinator. The ACT runs a separate process.
Approval for either generally depends on documentation and evidence the student already uses accommodations at school.
Deadlines can be two months before the exam which is much earlier than many families realize.
Section 504 eligibility is determined by whether a disability substantially limits a major life activity (such as reading). Schools are required to evaluate students themselves and will often consider a private evaluation as part of the process.
As soon as you see a gap between effort and result that doesn’t go away, you need to look into the situation.
Put the request in writing, describe what you are seeing at home, ask for the school to conduct a comprehensive evaluation. You do not have to wait for failing grades, or for the school to raise the issue. Additionally, a student does not need to go through a Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS) before an evaluation can be initiated.
Ask your questions. Bring the checklist. Write down what the school is proposing!
If you’re not sure what to do next, I’m happy to talk through the situation with you. I offer a free 15-minute consultation to help you figure out next steps. Click on the button to schedule some time.
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