A.+Introduction+to+Project

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=Increasing Accessibility of Assessments: Incorporating UDL into Assessment= Although our culture has made great strides in redesigning school buildings so that they provide alternative means of physical navigation - stairs, ramps, elevators - for students with and without physical disabilities, it has not made comparable gains in redesigning learning materials and methods so that they provide accessible alternatives for students with disabilities. Most schools depend on a single medium - text - for the majority of learning and evaluation. As important to our culture as this medium is, it is not equally accessible to all students.

The Value of UDL in Assessment
According to the CAST website on Universal Design for Learning, "Embedded, flexible, ongoing assessments have the potential to resolve many of the problems with standardized, paper-and-pencil tests, particularly as tools for guiding teaching. It is true that standardized tests can yield valuable information, especially if one is evaluating trends and information about groups, but as accurate assessments of individual students' skills, knowledge, and learning, these assessment tools are severely flawed. The obvious value of embedded, flexible UDL assessment is its ability to adjust to many individual differences and focus the questions on exactly what teachers are trying to find out. With flexibility in presentation, expression, supports, and engagement, we can reduce the common errors introduced by single-mode fixed assessments. Further, that same flexibility allows teachers to align assessment more closely with teaching goals and methods and thus, to assess students more accurately " (CAST, Chapter 7).