Adapting Training for a Tech Who Struggles With Reading

Why this matters

Most shop training is written: a binder of SOPs, a manufacturer's manual, a quiz at the end. For a tech who reads slowly, whether from dyslexia, a gap in schooling or English as a second language, that format tests their reading and calls it a test of their skill. The result is a tech who can do the work and cannot pass the training, or worse, one who signs the SOP without having taken it in and does the job from what he half-remembers watching someone else do. That second case is where the safety risk is. This article is how to turn written training into something a non-reader can learn from fully, check it to the same standard as everyone else, and get through a license exam with the accommodations that already exist.

Step 1: Find out what is hard, privately, without diagnosing

Start with a private conversation about the task, not about the person. "Some of our SOPs are dense. What works best for you when you're learning a new procedure: reading it, watching it, or doing it with someone?" Most people who struggle with reading have spent years hiding it and will tell you readily once it is clear nobody is going to make a thing of it.

Do not ask whether they have a learning disability, and do not suggest one; that line, and why it matters legally, is covered in the crew card (see related: Neurodiversity on the Crew). What you need to know is which channel works, and the tech can tell you that without any label at all.

What breaks if you skip it: you build a video for someone who would have been fine with a picture card, or a picture card for someone whose real problem is numbers on a meter, and the effort misses.

Step 2: Cut the written SOP down to actions and stop points

A typical shop SOP is paragraphs: reasons, background and the steps all mixed together. A reader has to dig the steps out. A slow reader cannot, at least not standing at the equipment.

Rewrite it as a card:

• One action per line, verb first, under about eight words. "Disconnect off, pull, lock, tag." Not "The technician should ensure that the disconnect has been switched to the off position."
• A photo for every line, taken at real equipment, showing what the step looks like done.
• Stop points in capitals, set apart, saying what to do: "STOP if you read voltage. Call your lead."
• The "why" stays in training, not on the card. The reasons get taught out loud in Step 4, where they stick. The card is for doing.

This is not a dumbed-down SOP. It is a better one, and you will find that most of the crew prefers it.

Step 3: Record the procedure being done, at the equipment

A short video of a senior tech doing the job, narrating as they go, carries most of what a manual does and needs no reading. Keep it under about five minutes, shot on a phone at a real unit, with the narration saying both what and why: "I test my meter on a known live circuit first, because a meter with a blown fuse reads zero and looks exactly like a dead circuit."

Store it where the tech can watch it on their phone in the van, as many times as they want. Repeat viewing is the point; nobody watches a binder twice.

Step 4: Demonstrate, then watch them do it, then have them teach it back

This is the core of the method, and it works for everyone, not just weak readers.

• Demonstrate the procedure at the equipment, explaining each step.
• Watch them do it, with you beside them, prompting only when they are about to get something wrong.
• Teach-back: they then do it again and explain each step to you as if you were the new hire. Teach-back is a technique borrowed from health care, where a patient repeats instructions in their own words so the nurse can check that they were understood. It reveals gaps that "any questions?" never does, because people who have not understood something rarely know what to ask.

When the teach-back misses something, do not correct the words; go back and demonstrate that step again. The gap is in the understanding, and the words follow it.

Step 5: Check understanding out loud, not on paper

Replace the written quiz with an oral check, and make the questions about judgment rather than recall. Recall is "what is step 4?" Judgment is "you open the disconnect, test the unit and read 240 volts. What's going on and what do you do?"

Write down the questions and the answers that pass, so the check is the same for everyone, and so it stands up later if anyone asks whether the tech was trained. The record should read: procedure, date, who checked, the questions asked, and pass or not yet.

Step 6: Hold the sign-off to the same standard as everyone else

The format changes; the bar does not. A reasonable sign-off for any procedure: the tech performs it unassisted correctly on two separate occasions, and can explain each hazard and its control in their own words. The tech who learned from a card and a video meets exactly the same bar as the tech who read the binder.

This protects the tech as much as the shop. "We passed him because he couldn't read the test" is the sentence nobody wants to defend after an incident, and it is unfair to the tech, who is entitled to know he really is qualified.

Step 7: Plan the license exam early, with the accommodations that exist

Trade license and certification exams are mostly written, timed and taken at testing centers, which is the single hardest moment for a tech who struggles with reading. The accommodations already exist; most techs do not know to ask.

Under the federal Americans with Disabilities Act, Title III, entities offering licensing and certification exams must offer them in a way that is accessible to people with disabilities, or offer comparable alternatives (42 U.S.C. 12189, with the Justice Department's rule at 28 CFR 36.309). Accommodations commonly granted include extended time, a separate quiet room, a human reader or audio version, and sometimes a scribe. A few points that decide whether it works:

• The request goes to the state licensing board or its testing contractor, not the shop. The tech makes it; the shop can help with the paperwork.
• Documentation is usually required, typically from a qualified evaluator, and the request should be made weeks before the exam, not days. Some boards have a set lead time.
• Not every barrier is a disability. A tech whose difficulty is English as a second language may not qualify under the ADA, but some boards offer exams in other languages or allow translation dictionaries; ask the board directly.
• Study in the same channels that worked in training: audio versions of the code book where they exist, videos, and practice questions read aloud with a mentor. A local adult education center can also help with reading itself, often at no cost, if the tech wants that.

Worked example: a coil-cleaning procedure, rebuilt

A shop's written SOP for cleaning a condenser coil ran two pages, about 900 words, with 14 steps buried in paragraphs. A two-year tech who reads slowly had signed it, and a lead caught him on a job skipping the meter test after opening the disconnect. Asked about it, he said honestly that he had not followed the written version and had learned the job by watching.

The service manager rebuilt it as nine actions plus one stop point, with a photo for each action:

CONDENSER COIL CLEAN                    card 1 of 1
[photo] 1 Thermostat OFF
[photo] 2 Disconnect OFF, pull, lock, tag
[photo] 3 Meter on known live -> reads OK
[photo] 4 Test at unit, all legs -> 0 volts
[photo] 5 Meter on known live again -> OK
        STOP if step 4 reads voltage. Call lead.
[photo] 6 Top off, fan aside, no pull on wires
[photo] 7 Rinse coil inside to out, low pressure
[photo] 8 Fan back, top on, every screw in
[photo] 9 Clear area, remove lock, power on
SAY BACK: why steps 3 and 5?

The 14 written steps became 9 because 5 of them were explanation or repeats, which moved into the narrated video and the teach-back. Steps 3 to 5 are the live-dead-live check (meter proved on a known live source before and after the test, per NFPA 70E-2021, 120.5, with OSHA's electrical work practices at 29 CFR 1910.333(b)(2)); on the old SOP it was one sentence in paragraph six, which is where he lost it. Step 7's card stays short, but the training covers what goes with it: if the shop uses a chemical coil cleaner rather than water, gloves and eye protection per its safety data sheet, and the spray kept off the electrical compartment. Step 9 comes after the top is back on, so the fan is guarded before power returns, and "clear area" means nobody's hands near the unit when the disconnect closes.

Training ran over one week. He watched the 4-minute video three times in the van. The manager demonstrated at a unit, watched him do it, then had him teach it back. His first teach-back missed why step 5 exists; the manager redid steps 3 to 5, explaining that a meter which fails mid-test reads the same as a dead circuit. His second teach-back got it. The oral check asked three questions, including "step 4 reads 120 on one leg; what now?" (answer: stop, call the lead, something else is feeding the unit). He then did the procedure unassisted on two jobs, observed, and signed off.

What would have changed the answer. If the oral check had shown he did not understand the stop point even after re-demonstration, he would not have been signed off on that procedure yet, however well he performed the steps, because the stop point is the part that keeps him alive on the day the job does not go to plan. And if he were not qualified to work on electrical equipment at all under the shop's program, the card would not make him so; it is a training aid, not a qualification.

How to tell it worked

Watch the job, not the paperwork. A lead riding along a month later should see the same sequence done without the card, and the tech should be able to answer a "what if" question on the spot. And watch whether the rest of the crew starts using the card. When they do, which is common, you have learned that the original SOP was the problem all along.

References

• Americans with Disabilities Act, Title III, 42 U.S.C. 12189; 28 CFR 36.309 (examinations and courses)
• NFPA 70E-2021, 120.5 (verifying absence of voltage); 29 CFR 1910.333(b)(2)
• See related: Neurodiversity on the Crew