Data Informed Accessibility - Making Optimal Needs-based Decisions (DIAMOND): Background
Accommodations have improved educational outcomes for students with disabilities and English learners for many years. More recently, educators have recognized the need for improved access for some students who do not have disabilities and who are not English learners. New tools called accessibility features level the playing field for these students, giving them full access to instruction and assessments.
Accessibility features and accommodations are more widely available to students than ever before, in part because of new assessments that include tiers of access. This increased availability places a greater burden on teachers and administrators, who need to know how to effectively select accessibility features and accommodations for each student.
The Data Informed Accessibility - Making Optimal Needs-based Decisions (DIAMOND) project aims to create a set of guidelines for educators to make informed decisions about accessibility features and accommodations for students. The materials created will help train teachers and administrators on how to use classroom and test data to select and implement the accessibility features and accommodations that will yield valid results for students.
Note: Accessibility features and accommodations sometimes vary by state and by test.
Examples of Accessibility Features
- Answer masking
- Color contrast
- Text-to-speech
- Bilingual dictionary
- Human reader
- Native language translation of directions
- Zoom
Examples of Accommodations
- ASL video
- Adaptive keyboards
- Braille
- Extended time
- Human scribe
More Information about Accessibility Features and Accommodations:
Find out more about accessibility features and accommodations from the six federally funded assessment consortia:
Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers
Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium
English Language Proficiency Assessment for the 21st Century
National Consortium and State Collaborative / Multi-State Alternate Assessment