ABSTRACT
Accessibility is a critical component of test validity and fairness. Impacting all test takers, accessibility considerations are particularly challenging to balance with the construct measured in English language proficiency assessments. This challenge can be magnified when the target test takers include English learners with disabilities. English learners with disabilities represent a wide-range of skills and characteristics. Ensuring the test design, content, and administration are accessible, and that appropriate accommodations are available, yields a complex constellation of factors that must work in concert to ensure that the test experience is equitable for English learners with disabilities. In this chapter, research findings from one state’s development of its English language proficiency assessments and action steps to improvement are shared. These steps are complemented by specific guidance to promote accessible English language proficiency assessments for English learners with disabilities.
