But he tells me that the teachers want it verbatim
Maybe he is misunderstanding? Or perhaps the teacher would be more flexible if you approached her. Has it been determined whether or not it's a physical problem or an "I don't want to do it because it doesn't make sense for me" issue?
If it's a physical difficulty I don't see why the teacher and you couldn't come to an agreement on how to accomplish this in reasonable way, given his situation.
If's purely not wanting to do it and you allow for natural consequences, ie. poor grade, will that be a deterent? Sometimes our view of a consequence isn't seen as a consequence at all by the child.
