Accessibility of tests for individuals with disabilities within a validity framework

Dyslexic students: from language learning to language testing

“…Such a need has become even stronger considering the important social impact language examinations have, since in Europe they are also used as prerequisites for being admitted to university, graduating, getting a job (Kormos & Smith, 2012). Despite their difficulties, dyslexic students can be helped by adopting some accommodations, which are alterations -previously approved -to the default testing conditions (Hansen, Mislevy, Steinberg, Lee, & Forer, 2005). These modifications are only meant to bridge the gap by removing the barriers encountered during their foreign language learning process and related assessment, since those hurdles are unfair to dyslexic students due to their neurological deficit.…”

“…Accommodations have also represented a very big concern for assessors and language testers, since they might undermine the fairness and validity of assessment and language testing (Hansen et al, 2005). As a matter of fact, accommodations should not give dyslexic students an advantage over their fellow students who are not allowed to use them.…”

“…As a matter of fact, accommodations should not give dyslexic students an advantage over their fellow students who are not allowed to use them. Accommodations should only be a fair opportunity for dyslexic students to show their knowledge and ability (Hansen et al, 2005;Li & Suen, 2012).…”

“…1489 Hansen et al (2005) try to define their target population, since for a validity argument sensitive to test accessibility it is of paramount importance to recognise the many differences which exist within the several populations of test takers. Then, Hansen et al (2005) identify the knowledge, skills, and other attributes (KSAs) they need for their study, making a clear distinction between focal and ancillary KSAs.…”

Advancing Human Assessment: A Synthesis Over Seven Decades

“…For students with disabilities, two research lines dominated, one related to testing and validation concerns that included but went beyond the postsecondary admissions focus of the 1980s and 1990s (Ekstrom and Smith 2002;Laitusis et al 2002), and the second on accessibility (Hansen et al 2004;Hansen and Mislevy 2006;Hansen et al 2005). For English learners, topics covered accessibility (Hansen and Mislevy 2006;Wolf and Leon 2009), accommodations (Young and King 2008), validity frameworks and assessment guidelines (Pitoniak et al 2009;Young 2009), and instrument and item functioning (Martiniello 2009;).…”