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If a disability, chronic illness, mental health condition or learning difference affects how you sit a test, you can apply for adjusted conditions for LANTITE. This guide is for initial teacher education students preparing to register. It explains what counts as a reasonable adjustment, what you can apply for, the deadline that overrides everything, the evidence ACER expects, the review process, and the First Nations language proficiency alternative.
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A reasonable adjustment is a change to test conditions so a candidate with disability can participate on the same basis as their peers. ACER decides each request individually, based on the supporting documentation you provide, so the same condition can lead to different adjustments for different people.
A reasonable adjustment is not the same as special consideration, which is a post-test review of your results. Special consideration is not available for LANTITE.
A reasonable adjustment is a pre-test change to the conditions you sit under. There is no mechanism to revisit your marks afterwards if something went wrong on the day. Treat the adjustment application as part of registering for the test, not as an optional extra you can sort out later.
Because ACER decides each request on the documentation you provide, the same condition can produce different outcomes for different people, and an adjustment granted to someone else is no guarantee of the same grant for you. Build your application around your own evidence rather than around what a friend or classmate received.
The aim of the process is participation on the same basis as your peers, not an advantage, so the conditions you are granted are matched to the limitation your documentation establishes. If your needs change between one test window and the next, your application can change with them, because each window is assessed on its own merits.
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ACER groups adjustments into four categories. The list below is the published set of examples, but it is non-exhaustive: other adjustments can be granted on a case-by-case basis if your documentation supports them.
| Category | Examples |
|---|---|
| Presentation | Larger fonts, written instructions, screen zoom |
| Response | Text-to-speech software, scribe, reader |
| Setting | Preferential seating, separate room, special lighting, Irlen filters or colour overlays, permission for medication, food or drink, standing breaks |
| Timing | Extended time, rest breaks |
Extended time and a separate room are the most commonly requested adjustments, but you are not limited to the examples in the table. If you need something not listed, describe it in your application and let your documentation justify it. Ask for each adjustment specifically rather than requesting a general allowance, because ACER assesses each one against the evidence of why you need it.
The four categories cover different parts of how the test reaches you and how you respond to it. Presentation changes how the test material is displayed. Response changes how you record your answers. Setting changes the environment you sit in. Timing changes how long you have and when you can pause.
Treat the table as a starting point. Where your documentation supports a need that does not map neatly onto an example, name the specific adjustment and explain, through your practitioner's report, exactly why each one is required.
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Apply online through your ACER candidate account, after you complete your test registration but before the registration closing date for that test window. Supporting documentation is required with every application.
Two things catch people out. First, adjustments and applications do not carry over between test windows. If you were granted extra time last window, that grant does not follow you to the next one. You reapply, with documentation, every single window you sit.
Second, there is no remedy after you sit. Special consideration is not available for LANTITE, so the registration closing date is a hard wall. Miss it and you either sit under standard conditions or wait for the next window.
The closing date is the deadline for your adjustment application, not just your registration. These dates roll over annually, so confirm them on the ACER site for your year before you plan around them.
| 2026 window | Registration closes |
|---|---|
| Window 1 | 20 January |
| Window 2 | 13 April |
| Window 3 | 13 July |
| Window 4 | 5 October |
The closing date governs your adjustment application, not just registration. Submit your documentation alongside registration, well before the date for your window.
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Your documentation should describe three things: the disability or condition, how and to what degree it affects sitting the test under standard conditions, and the need and reason for each specific adjustment you request. For extra time, for example, explain why you need it and how it helps.
Provide the documentation on the practitioner's official letterhead, with the date, the practitioner's title, name, registration number, contact details and signature. It must not be prepared by a practitioner related to you. ACER's preferred documentation also covers the diagnosis and its severity, the date of diagnosis and most recent evaluation, your functional limitations, the impact of any medications, the recommended adjustments with an evidence-based rationale naming Literacy or Numeracy, and a history of prior adjustments.
Mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions have extra criteria. For anxiety, bipolar, depression, ADHD, autism, dyslexia or dyscalculia, reports based only on a single screening test or self-reports may not be accepted. ACER can refer de-identified documents to its own medical panel and seek further evidence.
| Condition type | Currency expected |
|---|---|
| Learning disabilities | A registered health or educational psychologist's report ideally five years old or less. If older, attach a recent letter (one year or less) from a registered psychologist confirming it still applies. |
| Other disability, mental health or health conditions | Documentation ideally less than one year old. Older documentation accepted with a current statement confirming it still applies. |
| Life-long or unchanging conditions | Non-current documentation is accepted; include it and ACER assesses on that basis. |
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If you consider your approved adjustments to be inappropriate, you can request a review in writing to ACER. Lodge the request no later than one week after the registration closing date for the relevant test window. ACER notifies the outcome shortly after, on a date set for that window.
Because the request must be in writing, set out clearly which approved adjustments you consider inappropriate and why, and point back to the documentation you already supplied. The review is keyed to the registration closing date for your test window, so the window's closing date governs both your original application and any review of it.
Turnaround is short and window-specific. For 2026 Window 1, the review outcome was notified on 30 January 2026. That gives a sense of the timing, but it is set per window rather than a fixed number of days.
This is a review of the adjustment decision, made before you sit. It is not a way to challenge your result after the test. If you think the conditions you were granted will not work for you, raise it within that one-week window rather than sitting under conditions you know are not right. Once that window has passed and you have taken the test, the same rule from Section 1 applies: there is no special consideration for LANTITE and no remedy after the fact.
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From 2024, AITSL's Addendum to the Accreditation Standards recognises Australian First Nations language proficiency, verified by the relevant cultural authority, as an acceptable alternative standard to LANTITE. The accreditation wording requires graduates possess literacy and numeracy broadly equivalent to the top 30% of the population "and/or possess high levels of Australian First Nations language proficiency."
As providers operationalise it, the evidence is one of two things: a letter bearing the seal of a Land Council stating the language in which you are proficient, or evidence of completing a formal qualification in an Australian First Nations language. The verification sits with the relevant cultural authority rather than with ACER, and a student initiates it through their initial teacher education provider, not the test registration system. Providers must still support these students to develop their English literacy and numeracy — this is an alternative standard, not an exemption from support.
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