For DSA Needs Assessors

Helping students stay with the research they need to read.

Fidget Focus pairs the audio of an academic paper with a simple, optional on-screen activity, like popping bubbles, that gives restless attention somewhere to go, so students can stay with what they're listening to.

Get in touch → See how it works

Live in the app now · Patent pending

◎ ADHD friendly

✦ Pop the bubbles

The barrier

Access isn't the same as attention.

Many students you assess can reach text and audio, but can't hold attention on dense academic material long enough to get through it. Restlessness, the need to move, and drifting focus turn a 20-page paper into an impossible task. Text-to-speech removes the reading barrier, but not the attention barrier.

Functional impact: “Difficulty sustaining attention on extended academic reading and listening tasks.”

How it works

Fidget Focus, step by step

The part that's genuinely new, described here in plain, functional language.

Listen to the paper

Audemic reads the research paper aloud as high-quality audio, with read-along highlighting and jump-to-audio so the student can follow along.

Add a fidget activity

The student picks a light activity, Pop the bubbles or Odd shapes, and plays it on screen while the audio keeps going.

Stay focused, longer

The activity gives restless attention an outlet without pulling focus from the content, so the student stays with the reading across a longer stretch.

Who it's for

Mapped to the needs you'll recognise

ADHD

Sustained attention and restlessness during extended study.

Autism

Focuses better with regulated movement or stimulation.

Anxiety

High cognitive load and disengagement from long tasks.

Attention profile

Any student whose functional difficulty is attention on extended reading, regardless of label.

Fidget Focus supports attention. It isn't a treatment and makes no clinical claims.

Evidence & accessibility

Grounded in how attention works

Fidget Focus was built inclusively with accessibility experts and students with disabilities. Its core principle, that active engagement can help sustain attention, is supported by independent research.

The research

Physical activity and movement are linked to improved sustained attention and response inhibition in ADHD (Gawrilow et al., 2014). Students with ADHD have designed personalised fidgets to help themselves focus in class (Hansen et al., 2017).

Accessibility features

Dyslexia-friendly fonts, adjustable font size, line spacing and background colours, read-along highlighting, and variable playback speed reduce strain and support focus.

Platform

Runs in the browser as a web app (audemic.app). The student listens and fidgets right on screen, with nothing to install. Mobile is on the roadmap.

Try it before you recommend it

The fastest way to judge Fidget Focus is to put the live feature in front of a student. Assessor access is free.

Email us and we'll set you up with a free account, no time limit.
Ask for a guided walkthrough and assessor training from the Audemic team.
We support you and your student throughout, and share sample papers in both original and Audemic audio format.

Request assessor access →

Recommending & procurement

Everything you need to write us in

›DSA funding & supply: DSA-approved and available only through approved DSA resellers. Registered under the DSA scheme (not currently Access to Work).
›Onboarding & support: Free walkthroughs and assessor training from the Audemic team, plus student resources: product demo, testimonials, and sample papers in both formats.
›Compatibility: Runs in the browser as a web app. The student just needs a modern browser, nothing to install.

📋 Copy-ready NAR justification · aligned to NAR 2024 (C-2-1)

“USER_NAME experiences difficulties sustaining attention on large volumes of academic reading due to [condition]. Audemic Scholar's Fidget Focus feature is recommended as it delivers research papers as high-quality audio and lets them pair that audio with a simple on-screen activity that occupies restless attention, enabling them to hold focus across longer study sessions, reduce cognitive load, and access core reading independently. This reduces reliance on one-to-one support and supports the reading and comprehension demands of their course.”