Types of assessment adjustment for disabled students

Your institution probably has a system for determining the assessment adjustments required for individual disabled students, and a procedure for putting these into practice.

It is important that disabled students are able to demonstrate their knowledge, skills and abilities in assessments, so carefully planned adjustments may be necessary in order to produce a more level playing field. A flexible approach is required, but this must be combined with academic rigour so that assessment is equitable and there can be no suggestion of unfair advantage or preferential treatment.

Sheffield Hallam University's Accessible Assessments website defines four possible types of assessment adjustment for disabled students.

1 Change of assessment circumstances

The assessment itself is not changed and the learning outcome and mode of assessment remain the same. However, standard assessment circumstances are amended as many disabled student would otherwise be at a disadvantage, for example

• a visually impaired student who needed to dictate answers to a scribe in a written exam
• a dyslexic student who needed the exam paper in 14-point font on yellow paper, or on audio tape.

2 Assessment modification

Here an aspect of the assessment is amended to meet the needs of a disabled student. The learning outcomes are likely to remain the same, but some of the assessment criteria are modified, as in the following examples.

• A student with a mental health difficulty may not be able to make a presentation to the class: an individual presentation or presentation recorded onto video may provide an accessible modification.

• A blind student is unlikely to be able to derive information from a diagram. If a raised diagram is not available or appropriate, then the information should be described, or an alternative but similar task should be set which does not rely on visual analysis.

3 Alternative assessment

In this type of adjustment an alternative is substituted for the standard assessment mode. The learning outcome is likely to remain the same (providing it has been framed in an inclusive manner) but the assessment criteria may need to be substantially modified, as in this example.

• A student with a substantial manual dexterity difficulty and speech impairment may not be able to take a time-constrained written examination even with changes to assessment circumstances. An alternative form of assessment such as an additional piece of course work could be considered.

4 No change

In exceptional circumstances it may be possible to justify making no adjustment, but this would need to be looked at very carefully on a case-by-case basis. Justification for making no change is usually related to the need to maintain academic standards in, for example, the core learning outcomes of a course or module, or to a requirement to achieve external professional standards.

Whatever adjustments are in place for an individual student, they should be regularly and properly reviewed to ensure that they are meeting that student’s needs and also properly assessing learning outcomes.

1. Inclusive teaching
2. Universal Design for Learning
3. Preparing to teach inclusively
4. Sustaining self-esteem and motivation
5. Barriers to learning
6. Specialist support staff
7. Assistive technologies
8. Learning environments
9. Learning materials
10. Academic assessment
    1. Developing an inclusive assessment strategy
    2. Types of assessment adjustment for disabled students
    3. Written assessment
    4. Practical assessment
    5. Online assessment
    6. Oral assessment
    7. Marking and providing feedback