On the morning of his final NCEA exams, while most students flick straight to page one and start scribbling, Year 13 Hutt Valley High School student Toby Ireland begins by feeling the test.
His right hand hovers over rows of tiny raised dots; his left flies across a compact keyboard-like device. It’s a rhythm he’ll maintain for six hours —three for accounting, three for statistics — reading each question in Braille and typing his answers into a word processor and spreadsheet. When asked to ‘draw’ diagrams, he uses Braille Lego to create tactile versions, which are photographed and added to his answer sheet.
Every printed page of questions usually becomes three in Braille. Fixing a mistake or going back to check an answer means retracing every line on his device.
Toby Ireland can use Braille Lego to create tactile versions of diagrams.
Supplied / Robin Schofield
By the time Toby finishes, he is shattered.
“I was pretty much exhausted with my feet up,” the 17-year-old says of that last day. “I’m really happy that school’s over. Not that I didn’t like school, but I’m just happy that I don’t have to deal anymore with the stress of the textbooks not coming in time or the extra study I had to do and stuff like that.”
This year, Toby was one of only seven students nationwide sitting NCEA exams in Braille. The support falls under NZQA’s Special Assessment Conditions (SAC), which include reader-writers, rest breaks and separate accommodation.
Before his first Level 1 exam, they had to verify he couldn’t use pen and paper, his mother, Nikki Topp, recalls. Toby was born without sight and at most can see shades of light and dark.
If you only attempt one paper under SAC — as Toby chose to do — extra time isn’t permitted in externals. So he leans heavily on more flexible internal assessments to secure credits.
Robin Schofield (left) has been working alongside Toby Ireland (right) as Resource Vision Teacher for the past six years.
Supplied / Robin Schofield
Time management, he says, is non-negotiable. “I don’t know how much time I need to study. So I need to be organised. Otherwise, it could well eat into my whole week’s breaks or my holidays.”
Missing a single hour of class can mean three to four hours of catch-up. If in-class support is weak, that deficit can turn into 40 hours over a holiday. And yet, throughout exam season, Toby keeps up his rowing training — his goal is the 2028 Paralympics.
“Exercise is my way to burn off stress,” he says. “A good quote from a good rower called Finn Hamill, who’s the son of the Olympic rower Rob Hamill, is ‘When your body is tired, work your mind. When your mind is tired, work your body’.”
Toby Ireland rowing on Halberg Foundation Lyall Bay Surf Day in Wellington on 14 March, 2025.
Photosport / Marty Melville
Preparation
Toby’s school year is woven together from a patchwork of sources: a teacher aide, classroom teachers, his resource teacher, his mother, and textbooks using his Braille display.
“It’s good to have them both there,” he says of his device and Braille printouts, “but I prefer reading off the paper and marking on the Braille machine — that would be a dream come true.”
To make sure he can sit the exams, a request must be made about four months in advance. Studying from past papers is only possible if a blind student has taken that subject before. If Toby needs a paper that hasn’t been embossed into Braille before, there’s no guarantee it’ll arrive on time — and he must rely on others to fill the gaps.
Elements like graphs (as shown in this NCEA level 3 calculus exam) can end up taking more space on the page when being transcribed.
Supplied / Blind Low Vision NZ
“Toby has been the first Braille student, I believe, to take accounting at [NCEA] Level 1, 2, 3. So there was nothing there [in terms of past papers in Braille],” Topp says. “[It was] mainly Toby’s accounting teacher in year 12 and 13, she put those papers into accessible format for Toby. Other times, I’ve literally just gone online and been reading them out for other subjects.”
NZQA confirmed that no Braille papers were requested for accounting in the two years before Toby began taking it, and none for Level 3 statistics in the three years prior.
The Braille display
Toby’s ‘refreshable Braille display’ allows him to create documents, browse the internet and work through spreadsheets. It can be plugged into a screen so Toby’s Resource Vision Teacher of six years, Robin Schofield, can see any issues that pop up and moderators keep an eye on what is being used during exams.
But it has its limitations. Revision and correcting early mistakes is time consuming, and one mis-entered symbol can wipe a page, he says.
The Braille Sense 6 is a portable keyboard-like device that includes pin characters on the bottom row and navigation buttons.
Pacific Vision
When some websites wouldn’t load for a three-week research assessment, Toby had to send questions to his mother and teacher. Topp copied entire webpages into documents and printed copies for his reader-writer.
“So he could have 10 pages there of research to go through. Very, very long and drawn-out process.”
Still, Schofield says accessibility has come a long way in his 14 years with Blind and Low Vision Education Network NZ (BLENNZ).
Not all subjects translate easily, though. Toby left science this year — despite strong chemistry marks — because adapting materials was a mammoth task. Topp says blind and low vision students often end up in English-heavy pathways because they’re more accessible.
Te reo Māori also had to go. Getting from one end of the campus to the other meant he was always late. Toby usually spends months “mapping out” a school campus so he can get around independently — sometimes during his school study period, the time he’s left aside to catch up on coursework.
Toby spends a few months mapping out his navigation route to classes in school.
Supplied / Nikki Topp
Teachers make or break a year
Teacher cooperation becomes crucial, Topp and Toby say.
“At primary school or intermediate, if I had a bad teacher, I’d have to put up with them all year for five-six hours a day,” he says. “But for high school, if I’ve got a bad teacher, I’d need to put up with them for one hour [a day].”
Nikki recalls a moment that illustrated the difference a teacher can make.
“I’ve had conversations, at the same time, with two separate teachers,” she says. One responded defensively, while the other said, “‘Oh, that’s no good. What can I do to help?’ … Toby went from struggling in that class to doing really, really well.”
Toby Ireland, who sits on the Halberg Youth Council, has taken been advocating for himself at school for the past few years, his mother, Nikki Topp, says.
Supplied / Nikki Topp
Most teachers, she says, genuinely try — and some have told her they’ve become better educators after learning to accommodate non-visual learners.
Toby agrees this year was one of his best because he had the same teachers as last year, and they already knew what he needed.
How Braille exams are made
Blind Low Vision NZ produces Braille transcriptions for NZQA. Accessible formats manager David Davenport says specialists must be able to render everything from text to diagrams, charts and other languages.
Visual components like diagrams can inflate page counts, but Davenport says they work with NZQA to create a “create a digestible transcription, without the loss of critical details”. Although it’s rare anything would be dropped or altered.
The NCEA level 3 calculus exam papers show a graph and Braille transcription.
Supplied / Blind Low Vision NZ
About 20 different papers are transcribed for Term 4. Producing a Braille exam costs about $3000. BLENNZ and Blind Low Vision NZ members can get resources for free, he says.
“But if it is through a third party or if it’s a lot of work, then we take a look at who would be charged for what.”
Topp says it would help to have blind or low vision people test the papers too. She remembers a pilot exam question about building a rabbit hutch.
“How on earth is a person who’s never seen a rabbit hutch going to figure that? They just basically raised the edge of the picture … I’m sure the reader-writer did a lot of that backfilling, but in order for Toby to understand that, he pretty much had to have seen or felt it first.”
Davenport says they create notes that a reader assistant can use to guide the student through points which may require sight. NZQA adds students with concerns about exams can contact them directly or through their school or groups like Blind Low Vision NZ.
Blind Low Vision NZ also provides the notes for an amanuensis (or reader-writer),
Supplied / Blind Low Vision NZ
What comes next
Paralympian and friend of Toby, Mary Fisher, once told his primary school classmates not to put life all into one box.
He’s taken that to heart. He became the first para athlete in New Zealand to compete at the Coastal Rowing Nationals, plays piano, is an inclusion advocate, travelled for NASA’s space camp under a scholarship and has about “200 personal goals”.
“Broadcasting school as well is another big possibility of mine, and I want to host a game show one day.”
Toby Ireland, who has been on the NASA space camp, says he has about “200 personal goals” including heading to the 2028 Paralympics and possibly broadcasting school.
Supplied / Nikki Topp
But Toby, who advocates for himself at school, is not fishing for sympathy over his exams or compliments. He doesn’t wish to be the target of “inspiration porn” – a phrase coined by Australian disability advocate Stella Young to describe objectification of people with a disability as models of inspiration.
Instead, Toby feels “super happy” when his achievements are acknowledged for what they are — not because of his disability.
– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand