Computer Assisted Assessment and Disabilities

During the preparation of this paper the authors received the comment “It’s very interesting but what’s Computer Based Assessment got to do with disabilities?” In short, the answer is that in the development of any learning and teaching material, accessibility is important for several reasons, not least of which is the legislative and quality standards that are now imposed on academic and academic support staff across the UK. Guidelines to promote accessibility to online learning have been produced by several projects including the Web Accessibility Initiative (http://www.w3c.org/WAI/). This article will discuss the provision of Computer Assisted Assessment (CAA) in relation to disabilities in higher education. Rather than provide a series of ‘do’ and ‘do not’ statements, the importance of usability, good design and use of existing resources has been stressed, indeed it should be part of good practice for all students not just those with disabilities.