Understanding WIDA ACCESS Braille and the New Speaking Domain

By Kimberly Lesage and Hannah Haynes

At WIDA, we consistently strive to make our products and services more accessible. It’s important to ensure all multilingual learners have the opportunity to fully demonstrate their skills. For multilingual learners who are blind or have low vision, this means providing assessments that are not only accessible but also equitable and valid. That’s where WIDA ACCESS Braille comes in.

As part of the WIDA ACCESS suite of assessments, this braille-format test evaluates language proficiency across the four core domains: Listening, Reading, Writing, and, beginning in the 2025-2026 school year, Speaking.

Historically, WIDA ACCESS Braille did not include the Speaking domain due to its reliance on visual cues and prompts. Starting in 2025-2026, students who read braille will be able to complete the Speaking domain, ensuring their test experience is more aligned with that of their sighted peers.

Creating the Braille Speaking Assessment

Creating a braille version of ACCESS Paper was a complex and deeply collaborative process. WIDA undertook a multi-step development effort grounded in principles of universal design, accessibility and measurement validity. Several teams and subject matter experts were involved in the process.

Here’s what the process was like:

1. Review and Redesign

The development process started with the blueprint for ACCESS to ensure the test is aligned. Test items from ACCESS Paper were selected if they were appropriate and would prompt meaningful engagement. Item selection included refining text and incorporating tactile graphics and picture descriptions.

2. Prioritizing Accessibility and Validity

Throughout development, WIDA carefully considered how students would interact with the content and how to address barriers without altering the assessed constructs.

3. Collaboration Across Disciplines

Developing the Braille Speaking assessment was a highly collaborative and specialized process that merged expertise from multiple disciplines.

WIDA collaborated with

• Teachers of Students with Visual Impairments (TVIs)
• Braille specialists
• Content developers
• Psychometricians

Collaborations also included production partners the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL), American Printing House for the Blind (APH) and Data Recognition Corporation (DRC). Each contributor played a role in shaping the assessment to meet accessibility, subject matter and industry standards.

What You Should Know for 2025-2026

The Speaking domain materials are included in the WIDA ACCESS Braille kit, which is ordered from DRC, alongside Listening, Reading and Writing materials.

WIDA has resources to help you prepare. We recommend completing test administrator training through the WIDA Secure Portal. Before completing the WIDA ACCESS Braille Speaking Scoring Training Course, test administrators (TAs) must complete the Paper ACCESS for ELLs: Administration training course. Although this training course focuses on the WIDA ACCESS Paper assessment, the guidance provided is relevant to key expectations, tasks and responsibilities for TAs of the Braille Speaking test. The course covers core principles and strategies to ensure appropriate and secure test administration of all four WIDA ACCESS domains.

We also have sample items available for you to check out. Review sample items found on the WIDA ACCESS Test Practice and Sample Items webpage.

What’s Next for WIDA ACCESS Braille

Looking ahead, the team continues to refine WIDA braille material. Ongoing collaboration with specialists, educators and development partners will be key to maintaining fairness, integrity and quality.

In 2026, WIDA will begin a major update to all four ACCESS Braille domains to align them with the WIDA English Language Development Standards, 2020 Edition.

To support you in this evolving work, WIDA is developing a new training course for the administration of WIDA ACCESS Braille, which will include the Speaking domain. This course is expected to launch in the 2026-2027 school year.