Accessibility and Accommodations
WIDA is committed to providing assessments that best measure academic English language proficiency.
WIDA recognizes that all students must be assessed in a valid and reliable manner in order to gain meaningful results from WIDA's English language proficiency assessment suite. This includes, to the extent practicable, students with disabilities.
Our Approach
WIDA's approach to assessment is rooted in the understanding that:
- English learners (ELs) have diverse learning needs and styles
- All ELs are capable of making progress toward English language proficiency
- ELs must acquire discipline-specific language practices that enable them to interpret and produce language to effectively collaborate on content-related, grade-appropriate tasks
WIDA provides guidelines for how to best support students taking WIDA ACCESS through the Accessibility and Accommodations Manual. WIDA developed the manual to help educators understand and use the test administration considerations, universal tools, and accommodations for individual ELs in order to produce valid assessment results.
WIDA guidelines do not replace or amend state specific policies of English language proficiency tests. Please refer to your state’s page for details.
This layered graphic illustrates the point that there are three types of accessibility supports available to all students taking WIDA assessments. The wide base of the graphic is universal design, indicating the foundational idea that all students receive test items that have been developed using universal design principles. The next layer above is administrative considerations, indicating flexibility in the timing, scheduling and setting of the test, if necessary. The layer below the top is universal tools, indicating that tools such as color contrast, highlighter, magnifier and line guides are available to all students taking the test but are generally selected for use by a smaller subset of students. The top layer is accommodations, which are only available to the smallest subset of students – those who have a designated Individual Education Program or 504 Plan.
Accessibility and Accommodations Framework
WIDA designed its accessibility and accommodation framework to ensure:
- Application of effective linguistic scaffolding and Universal Design principals to the development of test items
- Availability of flexible administrative considerations and universal tools for all students
- Purposeful design and delivery of accommodations for students with disabilities
Modifications are not allowed on language proficiency testing, as they change what the test measures.
Related Publications
