ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some ideas about assessment in relation to learners with multiple disabilities and vision impairment, and examines assessment of learning through touch. It provides some resources that might help educators to gather and provide information about learners. The chapter describes ‘sensory function’ as being concerned with how a learner receives, interprets and consequently acts upon different types of sensory information in the course of a given task. Assessments of sensory function often attempt to make clear distinctions between the input of the various senses, but in practice it is often difficult for the observer to work out what degree of sensory input each receptor is providing. Accurate visual information allows us to interpret events in the world, to link cause and effect and, crucially, vision enables us to anticipate what is about to happen next and take action as appropriate. There are a variety of assessment resources available for educators of learners with multiple disabilities and vision impairment.
