For online assessment candidates using reasonable adjustments and accommodations.
Introduction
This guide provides reasonable adjustment and accommodations information for the College of Policing online assessments for initial recruitment. It is relevant to those applying for police constable, special constable, police community support officer roles and the detective constable degree-holder entry programme (DHEP).
The guidance contains information on reasonable adjustments and accommodations for candidates undergoing the:
You may be entitled to reasonable adjustments should you have any condition, temporary or otherwise, that might cause you to be disadvantaged during the assessment. These include pregnancy, injury and disability, including neurodiverse conditions.
If you have not already, we recommend that you read the national sift candidate guidance and online assessments candidate guide first. This provides information about what the online assessments involve.
Reasonable adjustments
Reasonable adjustments are changes that employers must make to ensure that disabled people, and people with physical and mental health conditions, are not disadvantaged. If you are not sure whether your condition is defined as a disability, please contact your recruiting force for guidance.
Accommodations
Accommodations are for those candidates who have a condition that is not defined as a disability, under the Equality Act 2010, but may still be eligible to receive support. These may be conditions that are short-term, and/or do not have a substantial adverse effect on the candidate's day-to-day activities.
Most accommodations can be implemented independently by candidates and do not require approval from the College or your recruiting force to action.
How do I receive reasonable adjustments or accommodations?
If you believe you may be disadvantaged during the assessments due to a disability, pregnancy or condition, please inform your chosen force in your application. They can advise you on your application for accommodations or reasonable adjustments.
Any reasonable adjustment granted for the assessment will be based on the supporting evidence provided to your recruiting force. Supporting information provides details regarding your disability or condition and the challenges you experience.
The most effective and reliable supporting information is an assessment conducted by a professional specialist using appropriate and valid tests that makes clear recommendations. In most cases, this will be a report that outlines a formal assessment of an individual’s condition.
Please refer to the reasonable adjustments and accommodations policy for further guidance on supporting information, why it is needed and what to do if you do not have supporting information.
Reasonable adjustments available
Here are examples of the most common adjustments awarded. Please note that this is not exhaustive. Each reasonable adjustment request will be reviewed on an individual basis with the aim of supporting candidates.
Extra time
The reasonable adjustments that can support you with the online assessment process include extra time in assessments. This can range from:
- 15% extra time
- 25% extra time
- 30% extra time
- 33% extra time
- 40% extra time
- 50% extra time
Please note that where candidates undertake the national sift, no extra time will be awarded as a reasonable adjustment as the exercises are untimed.
Appendix: extra time contains information on what these reasonable adjustments can involve for each exercise of the online assessment process and more information on the national sift.
Assistive software
Candidates may use assistive software in both the national sift and online assessment process.
Text-to-speech software
Text-to-speech software can be used by candidates to read aloud any written exercise instructions and materials. The College has tested and recommends several free text-to-speech software providers. You can use these without seeking permission from the College or your recruiting force.
Please refer to the section on Accommodations available for more information.
If you have access to your own assistive software, you do not need to seek permission from the College or your recruiting force to use this.
If you would like to use text-to-speech software that you do not currently have access to, you will need to contact your recruiting force to discuss this.
Speech-to-text software
Speech-to-text software can be used by candidates to dictate and play back their response to the written exercise. The College is unable to test or recommend any free speech-to-text software providers. However, if you have access to your own speech-to-text assistive software, you do not need to seek permission from the College or your recruiting force to use this.
If you would like to use speech-to-text software that you do not have access to currently, you will need to contact your recruiting force to discuss this.
Accommodations available
This section covers the most common accommodations that can be applied. Please refer to individual sections on the national sift, where applicable, and online assessment process to see which accommodations are offered for the respective assessments.
You do not need to seek permission from the College or your recruiting force before applying any of the following accommodations.
National sift
Where candidates undertake the national sift, accommodations may include giving them the option to:
- Zoom in up to 300%.
- Use text-to-speech software. The recommended software is NonVisual Desktop Access (NVDA), which is free to download. This works best on Firefox browsers.
- Navigate most of the website using just a keyboard.
- Take self-facilitated breaks between the questions and the exercises. However, please note, the home screen itself will time out following 20 minutes of inactivity.
Visual stress
Candidates experiencing visual stress may find it helpful to:
- Change the colours, contrast levels and fonts of the text on the screen.
- Use a coloured overlay and place it over your device’s screen. You will be required to provide your own coloured overlay to make sure the colour is suitable for you.
- Use coloured lenses or glasses. You will be required to provide your own lenses or glasses to make sure they are suitable for you.
Online assessment process
For the online assessment process, some candidates may find it useful to:
- Blur video when recording responses for the briefing exercise and competency-based interview. You may wish to use this option if you find it distracting to see yourself on camera when recording your responses. Please note, your video will not be blurred when submitted for assessment.
- Taking self-facilitated breaks between the exercises.
Visual stress
Candidates experiencing visual stress may find it helpful to:
- Use a coloured overlay and place it over your device’s screen. You will be required to provide your own coloured overlay to make sure the colour is suitable for you.
- Use coloured lenses or glasses. You will be required to provide your own lenses or glasses to make sure they are suitable for you.
- Change the background colour of your device. To do this, you can:
- change the preferences on your browser
- download an app from your device’s app store that allows you to customise the device background
Recite Me
For the online assessment process, the College offers the software ‘Recite Me’ to all candidates. This is an accessibility toolbar that will be available for you to apply to your assessments should you choose to. The functions that are available include:
- text-to-speech – play button to read text aloud
- rewind – when playing text aloud, rewind to previous paragraph of text
- forward – when playing text aloud, skip to the next paragraph of text
- select font – change font of text displayed on screen
- increase font size
- decrease font size
- focus text
- colour theme – change colour of background and text
- reading ruler
- screen mask – focused view of a section on the page
- magnifier glass – magnify text on the screen
If you intend to use any of the above features during your assessment, it is recommended that you test them on the assessment platform dashboard. It is important to make sure that you are comfortable with using Recite Me and its features before starting your assessments.
To practise using the features and to apply the toolbar in your assessment, click on the ‘Accessibility’ button at the bottom of your page on the assessment platform. If you want to practise using the features before you receive access to the assessment platform, you can access Recite Me's Accessibility software and solutions. When practising using Recite Me, please note the ‘dictionary’ and ‘change language’ features are not available on the online assessment platform.
You do not require permission from the College to use Recite Me during the online assessment process.
Alternative software
If you prefer to use an alternative text-to-speech software and magnifiers, the following have been tested and approved for the assessment platform:
- NonVisual Desktop Access (NVDA) – desktop screen reader
- Narrator – desktop screen reader
- Windows Magnifier
- Apple Zoom – screen magnifier
- Android TalkBack – mobile screen reader
- iOS VoiceOver – mobile screen reader
- Job Access With Speech (JAWS) – desktop screen reader
- Dragon – speech recognition
Please make sure you are comfortable using your chosen software and its features before starting your assessment. If you are using Dragon text-to-speech software for the written exercise, please make sure you dictate your response directly into the assessment platform response box and not into the Dragon software itself.
Please also note that text-to-speech and speech-to-text software are not necessary for the briefing exercise and competency-based interview. This is because assessors will read questions aloud and candidates must respond verbally with their answers.
If you currently do not have access to any of this software, and require access for your assessments, please contact your recruiting force to discuss this. Depending on the circumstances, requests to access software may be treated as reasonable adjustment requests.
Contact details
In the first instance, contact your force police recruitment team.
If you require further guidance, please contact the College directly at recruit@college.police.uk
Appendix: extra time
Depending on the force you apply to, you may be required to complete either an in-force sift or the national sift. If you are completing the in-force sift, your recruiting force will be able to provide you with more details on the reasonable adjustments and accommodations available.
National sift
Please note that for the national sift (if applicable), no extra time will be awarded as a reasonable adjustment because the exercises are untimed. The approximate time it will take to complete the exercises is 50 minutes overall. This will consist of approximately 20 minutes to complete the situational judgment test (SJT) and 30 minutes to complete the behavioural styles questionnaire (BSQ).
Online assessment process
The approximate extra time awarded for each exercise, depending on the reasonable adjustment granted, can be found below. Please note that the times stated in these tables indicate the total time candidates with extra time adjustments will have for the exercises. They are calculated by adding together the standard time and the extra time. Please also note that none of the exercise instructions are timed. Therefore, no extra time is provided for receiving instructions during assessments.
15% extra time reasonable adjustment
| Exercise | Completion times |
|---|---|
| Competency-based interview (CBI) | Approximate time to complete is 42 minutes. For each question, you will be given 1 minute 9 seconds (69 seconds) 'thinking time' to consider the question and prepare your answer. After this you will have 5 minutes (300 seconds) to record your answer. |
| Written exercise | Approximate time to complete is 46 minutes, but please note there is a time restriction of 2 hours (120 minutes) for the exercise for all candidates. |
| Briefing exercise | Approximate time to complete is 70 minutes. For preparation time, you should independently read the preparation materials and consider your response to part 1 of the scenarios. This initial preparation stage for part 1 is not timed, but is likely to take approximately 11 minutes 30 seconds. This preparation stage is not assessed. After the initial preparation time, you will have approximately another further 52 minutes in which you will be given 12 questions to answer. This will be split into three parts with four questions in each. For parts 1, 2 and 3, you will be given 1 minute 9 seconds (69 seconds) ‘thinking time’ to prepare your response to each question. You will then have 3 minutes (180 seconds) to provide your response to the question. Parts 2 and 3 include developments of the scenario presented in part 1. |
25% extra time reasonable adjustment
| Exercise | Completion times |
|---|---|
| CBI | Approximate time to complete is 44 minutes. For each question, you will be given 1 minute 15 seconds (75 seconds) 'thinking time' to consider the question and prepare your answer. After this you will have 5 minutes (300 seconds) to record your answer. |
| Written exercise | Approximate time to complete is 50 minutes, but please note there is a time restriction of 2 hours (120 minutes) for the exercise for all candidates. |
| Briefing exercise | Approximate time to complete is 72 minutes. For preparation time, you should independently read the preparation materials and consider your response to part 1 of the scenarios. This initial preparation stage for part 1 is not timed, but is likely to take approximately 12 minutes 30 seconds. This preparation stage is not assessed. After the initial preparation time, you will have approximately another further 53 minutes in which you will be given 12 questions to answer. This will be split into three parts with four questions in each. For parts 1, 2 and 3, you will be given 1 minute 15 seconds (75 seconds) ‘thinking time’ to prepare your response to each question. You will then have 3 minutes (180 seconds) to provide your response to the question. Parts 2 and 3 include developments of the scenario presented in part 1. |
30% extra time reasonable adjustment
| Exercise | Completion times |
|---|---|
| CBI | Approximate time to complete is 44 minutes. For each question, you will be given 1 minute 18 seconds (78 seconds) 'thinking time' to consider the question and prepare your answer. After this you will have 5 minutes (300 seconds) to record your answer. |
| Written exercise | Approximate time to complete is 52 minutes, but please note there is a time restriction of 2 hours (120 minutes) for the exercise for all candidates. |
| Briefing exercise | Approximate time to complete is 74 minutes. For preparation time, you should independently read the preparation materials and consider your response to part 1 of the scenarios. This initial preparation stage for part 1 is not timed, but is likely to take approximately 13 minutes. This preparation stage is not assessed. After the initial preparation time, you will have approximately another further 54 minutes in which you will be given 12 questions to answer. This will be split into three parts with four questions in each. For parts 1, 2 and 3, you will be given 1 minute 18 seconds (78 seconds) ‘thinking time’ to prepare your response to each question. You will then have 3 minutes (180 seconds) to provide your response to the question. Parts 2 and 3 include developments of the scenario presented in part 1. |
33% extra time reasonable adjustment
| Exercise | Completion times |
|---|---|
| CBI | Approximate time to complete is 45 minutes. For each question, you will be given 1 minute 20 seconds (80 seconds) 'thinking time' to consider the question and prepare your answer. After this you will have 5 minutes (300 seconds) to record your answer. |
| Written exercise | Approximate time to complete is 53 minutes, but please note there is a time restriction of 2 hours (120 minutes) for the exercise for all candidates. |
| Briefing exercise | Approximate time to complete is 75 minutes. For preparation time, you should independently read the preparation materials and consider your response to part 1 of the scenarios. This initial preparation stage for part 1 is not timed, but is likely to take approximately 13 minutes 30 seconds. This preparation stage is not assessed. After the initial preparation time, you will have approximately another further 54 minutes in which you will be given 12 questions to answer. This will be split into three parts with four questions in each. For parts 1, 2 and 3, you will be given 1 minute 20 seconds (80 seconds) ‘thinking time’ to prepare your response to each question. You will then have 3 minutes (180 seconds) to provide your response to the question. Parts 2 and 3 include developments of the scenario presented in part 1. |
40% extra time reasonable adjustment
| Exercise | Completion times |
|---|---|
| CBI | Approximate time to complete is 46 minutes. For each question, you will be given 1 minute 24 seconds (84 seconds) 'thinking time' to consider the question and prepare your answer. After this you will have 5 minutes (300 seconds) to record your answer. |
| Written exercise | Approximate time to complete is 56 minutes, but please note there is a time restriction of 2 hours (120 minutes) for the exercise for all candidates. |
| Briefing exercise | Approximate time to complete is 76 minutes. For preparation time, you should independently read the preparation materials and consider your response to part 1 of the scenarios. This initial preparation stage for part 1 is not timed, but is likely to take approximately 14 minutes. This preparation stage is not assessed. After the initial preparation time, you will have approximately another further 55 minutes in which you will be given 12 questions to answer. This will be split into three parts with four questions in each. For parts 1, 2 and 3, you will be given 1 minute 24 seconds (84 seconds) ‘thinking time’ to prepare your response to each question. You will then have 3 minutes (180 seconds) to provide your response to the question. Parts 2 and 3 include developments of the scenario presented in part 1. |
50% extra time reasonable adjustment
| Exercise | Completion times |
|---|---|
| CBI | Approximate time to complete is 47 minutes. For each question, you will be given 1 minute 30 seconds (90 seconds) 'thinking time' to consider the question and prepare your answer. After this you will have 5 minutes (300 seconds) to record your answer. |
| Written exercise | Approximate time to complete is 60 minutes, but please note there is a time restriction of 2 hours (120 minutes) for the exercise for all candidates. |
| Briefing exercise | Approximate time to complete is 79 minutes. For preparation time, you should independently read the preparation materials and consider your response to part 1 of the scenarios. This initial preparation stage for part 1 is not timed, but is likely to take approximately 15 minutes. This preparation stage is not assessed. After the initial preparation time, you will have approximately another further 56 minutes in which you will be given 12 questions to answer. This will be split into three parts with four questions in each. For parts 1, 2 and 3, you will be given 1 minute 30 seconds (90 seconds) ‘thinking time’ to prepare your response to each question. You will then have 3 minutes (180 seconds) to provide your response to the question. Parts 2 and 3 include developments of the scenario presented in part 1. |