Ridmi Handapangoda, who graduated in 2024, was one of two runners-up for the Caroline Clapham IELTS Masters Award for 2025, announced in December. Ridmi researched and wrote her dissertation as a student on the MA in Language and Linguistics (MALL) programme. Her project was supervised by Professor Judit Kormos. The dissertation, with the title “Scene behind the unseen: Special adjustments for visually impaired students at L2 English reading tests in the Sri Lankan university context”, was commended by the panel of judges as “a persuasive, well-referenced piece foregrounding fairness and accessibility”. The judges valued the lived-experience perspective of the dissertation and the practical implications provided by its author for inclusive test design.

Ridmi now works as a lecturer in language and linguistics at the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, and is an accessibility advocate. Earlier in 2025, Ridmi’s dissertation was also awarded a commendation in the British Council ELT Master’s Dissertation Awards for 2024-25.

The Caroline Clapham IELTS Masters Award is an annual award from the IELTS founders (British Council, IDP IELTS, and Cambridge English) to celebrate the Master's-level thesis making the most significant contribution to the field of language testing. The British Council ELT Master’s Dissertation Award, open to students who studied on UK Master’s programmes, is also awarded annually, focussing on outstanding Master’s dissertations that have high potential for impact on policies and practice in the field of English language teaching.