In Addition to Live Readers, Blind Test Takers Can Now Take GMAT With Text-to-Speech Technology

Business school applicants with visual impairments can now take the Graduate Management Admission Test® exam with text-to-speech assistive technology that allows them to take the exam without a human reader. The GMAT exam is the first standardized test delivered worldwide with highly visual content to be fully accessible with JAWS® (Job Access with Speech) computer technology, the Graduate Management Admission Council announced today.

“Test takers with visual impairments utilize assistive technology in their everyday lives, and we are pleased to now offer the same capability to test takers of the GMAT exam,” said Kendra Johnson, GMAC director of disability policy and services. “Providing and improving access to our test, and, through the GMAT, to the benefits of management education, is critical to our mission of connecting talent and aspiration with opportunity and to helping to create a more diverse and representative candidate pool.”

The GMAT exam is the standardized test used in admissions by more than 6,100 graduate business and management programs worldwide and delivered exclusively by computer in more than 110 countries worldwide. It is administered by the Graduate Management Admission Council, a worldwide association of business schools.

The JAWS technology is one of several recent enhancements GMAC has made to provide better access to the exam for test takers with disabilities. In October 2013, the GMAT was enhanced with ZoomText®, a screen enlargement for use by test takers with low vision. Previous enhancements include the addition of embedded reader guidelines for the exam’s Integrated Reasoning section, and the availability of the Official Guide for GMAT® Review in a digital talking book format.

The addition of a JAWS delivery enables candidates to listen to the exam content independently, thus eliminating the need for a human reader. The technology not only reads the written text, but also provides descriptions of graphics and other visual content, including spreadsheet-like sortable tables. Raised line drawings will accompany the images found in the Quantitative and Integrated Reasoning sections of the exam.

Today’s announcement is the result of months of development work by both ACT, Inc. and Pearson VUE, feedback from test takers with visual impairments, Freedom Scientific, the makers of JAWS®, and the American Printing House for the Blind, Inc.