Eric G. Hansen

There is considerable interest in determining whether high-quality American Sign Language videos can be used as an accommodation in tests of mathematics at both K-12 and postsecondary levels; and in learning more about the usability (e.g., comprehensibility) of ASL videos with two different types of signers - avatar (animated figure) and human. The...

The work described in this report is the first phase of a project to provide easy-to-use tools for authoring and rendering secondary-school algebra-level math expressions in synthesized speech that is useful for students with blindness or low vision. This report describes the initial development, software implementation, and evaluation of the Clear...

Educational assessment represents a huge challenge for accessibility, and the use of highly visual assessment tasks that rely on idiosyncratic interactions that may be unfamiliar to test takers further increases that challenge. The authors describe a prototype innovative mathematics item and an initial evaluation of its usability for diverse audien...

Hansen, E. G., Laitusis, C. C., Frankel, L., & King, T. (2012). Designing accessible technology-enabled reading assessments: Recommendations from teachers of students with visual impairments. Journal of Blindness Innovation Research, 2(2). Retrieved from http://www.nfb-jbir.org/index.php/JBIR

Critical to the development of any assessment is the ability to make claims about what students know and can do. The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortia has made considerable progress in developing content specifications that include accommodation considerations, but policy decisions should be informed not only by content specifications but also...

This paper reviews the research literature on the relationship between parental involvement (PI) and academic achievement, with special focus on the secondary school (middle and high school) level. The results first present how individual PI variables correlate with academic achievement and then move to more complex analyses of multiple variables o...

This article represents one outcome from the Invitational Research Symposium on Technology-Enabled and Universally Designed Assessments, which examined technology-enabled assessments (TEA) and universal design (UD) as they relate to students with disabilities (SWD). It was developed to stimulate research into TEAs designed to better understand the...

This study examined the usability of an assessment-for-learning (AfL) system that provides audio-tactile graphics for algebra content (geometric sequences) for individuals with visual impairments-two who are blind and two with low vision. It found that the system is generally usable as a mathematics AfL system.

The idea that parental involvement engenders students' academic achievement is so intuitively appealing that society in general, and educators in particular, have considered parental involvement an important ingredient for the remedy of many ills in education today. In the 1980s and early 1990s, a number of studies were published that suggested the...

This paper illustrates how Evidence Centered Design (ECD) can be used to design and develop high-quality learning-centered assessments that have qualities such as: (1) learning-effectiveness and efficiency, (2) validity of assessment results, (3) accessibility for students with special needs, and (4) student engagement. This paper draws on Cognitiv...

This paper illustrates how Evidence Centered Design (ECD) can be used to address the accessibility of learning-centered assessments, and how such efforts lay a critical foundation for improvements in other aspects of quality, particularly learning efficiency. Specifically, it illustrates how the same basic strategies used to ensure accessibility ca...

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Abstract This paper describes an approach to analyzing the educational potential of existing games and adapting existing games for educational purposes that makes use of Evidence Centered Design (ECD) principles and Cognitive Task Analysis (CTA) techniques. The main outcome,of this approach is the development of arguments for the quality of educati...

Accommodations play a key role in enabling individuals with disabilities to participate in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and other large-scale assessments. However, it can be difficult to know how accommodations affect the validity of results, thus making it difficult to determine which accommodations should be allowed. Thi...

There is a great need to help test designers determine how to make tests that are accessible to individuals with disabilities. This report takes design patterns, which were developed at SRI for assessment design, and uses them to clarify issues related to accessibility features for individuals with disabilities—such as low-vision and blindness—taki...

The purpose of the study described in this paper was to evaluate the efficacy of an assessment for learning system named ACED (Adaptive Content with Evidence-based Diagnosis). We used an evidencecentered design approach to create an adaptive, diagnostic assessment system which includes five main models: competency, evidence, task, presentation, and...

There is a great need for designers of computer-based tests and testing systems to build accessibility into their designs from the earliest stages, thereby overcoming barriers faced by individuals with disabilities and English language learners. Some important potential accessibility features include text-to-speech, font enlargement and screen magn...

This paper reports on a 3-year, NSF-funded research and development project called ACED: Adaptive Content with Evidence-based Diagnosis. The purpose of the project was to design, develop, and evaluate an assessment for learning (AfL) system for diverse students, using Algebra I content related to geometric sequences (i.e., successive numbers linked...

Research efforts focused on developing "active reports" are currently underway. Active reports are designed to foster communication among teachers, students, and parents by listening to all stakeholders, using assessment information to guide teaching and learning, and to reconcile potential conflicts. Open student models can handle different views...

This paper reports on the evaluation of a program named ACED (Adaptive Content with Evidence-based Diagnosis)---an assessment for learning system using Algebra I content related to the topic of geometric sequences. We used an evidence-centered design (ECD) approach [1] to create the system which includes three main models: proficiency, evidence, an...

This report summarizes the design and development of an adaptive e-learning prototype for middle school mathematics for use with both sighted and visually disabled students. Adaptation refers to the system's ability to adjust itself to suit particular characteristics of the learner. The main parts of the report describe the system's theoretical fou...

There is a great need for designers of computer-based tests and testing systems to build accessibility into their designs from the earliest stages, thereby overcoming barriers faced by individuals with disabilities and English language learners. Some important potential accessibility features include text-to-speech, font enlargement and screen magn...

There is a great need for designers of computer-based tests and testing systems to build accessibility into their designs from the earliest stages, thereby overcoming barriers faced by individuals with disabilities and English language learners. Some important potential accessibility features include text-to-speech, font enlargement and screen magn...

There is a great need to ensure that language tests are accessible to individuals with disabilities. Yet accessibility features can sometimes conflict with the validity of test scores. In some cases the nature of the conflict seems obvious, yet in other cases there is controversy, such as that concerning the use of a “readaloud” accessibility featu...

There is a great need to explore approaches for developing computer-based testing systems that are more accessible for people with disabilities. This report explores three prototype test delivery approaches, describing their development and formative evaluations. Fifteen adults, 2 to 4 from each of the six disability statuses—blindness, low vision,...

This document provides techniques for satisfying the checkpoints defined in "User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0" [UAAG10] . These techniques address key aspects of the accessibility of user interfaces, content rendering, application programming interfaces (APIs), and languages such as the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Cascading Style Sheet...

This document provides guidelines for designing user agents that lower barriers to Web accessibility for people with disabilities (visual, hearing, physical, and cognitive). User agents include HTML browsers and other types of software that retrieve and render Web content . A user agent that conforms to these guidelines will promote accessibility t...

This document provides guidelines for designing user agents that lower barriers to Web accessibility for people with disabilities. User agents include HTML browsers and other software that retrieves and renders Web content . A user agent that conforms to these guidelines will promote accessibility through its own user interface and through other in...

Abstract This document,is an appendix,to "User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0" [UAAG10] . It provides a list of all checkpoints from the User Agent Accessibility Guidelines 1.0, organized by concept, as a checklist for user agent developers. Please refer to the Guidelines document for introductory information, information about related document...