Consultation outcome

Guidance on designing and developing accessible assessments: summary

Updated 12 May 2022

Designing accessible assessments

Ofqual’s guidance is to help awarding organisations meet our rules when they are developing assessments. The guidance is about making assessments as accessible as possible for students by avoiding unnecessary obstacles. The guidance has a focus on exams and other written assessments.

Avoiding unnecessary obstacles does not mean that an assessment will be less rigorous. Quite the opposite – it means that the assessment will be stronger, as it will be a more valid measurement of a student’s knowledge, skills and understanding. It also means that the assessment will be fairer, as it will give Learners a true opportunity to demonstrate their ability.

The guidance is made up of the following principles covering different features of assessment. The guidance also covers alternative formats, assistive technology and awarding organisations’ processes.

The overarching principle – validity

An assessment task should only measure what it is intended to measure – this is known as the assessment construct. The guidance should help awarding organisations recognise and avoid irrelevant features in their assessments that could unfairly disadvantage some students or stop them from showing what they know, understand and can do in the assessment.

Assessment structure

Assessment structure should not create unnecessary barriers for particular students. For example, less able or anxious students might perform less well across the whole exam if the first questions in the paper are the most challenging; a well-designed paper is more likely to start with the least demanding questions.

Assessment instructions

Assessment instructions should be clear and unambiguous, so students are clear what they have to do.

Language

Language should be appropriate for the assessment level and construct and should not present unnecessary barriers to students. For example, a maths exam should not include unnecessarily long or difficult language that could stop a student whose maths is strong but whose reading is weak from being able to show their understanding of maths.

Sentence structures

Sentence structures should be clear. Dyslexic students, or students whose first language is not English, are among those who might otherwise be disadvantaged.

Source text or materials

Source text or materials should be of appropriate complexity, format and length. It may be helpful to include line numbers, paragraph numbers or section headings, and explain how materials should be used in a task.

Context

Context should support the measurement of the assessment construct. Questions set in a context that is unfamiliar to some students, for example because of where they live or the limited opportunities they have had to travel, can prevent them showing the subject knowledge and skills they do have in the subject.

Images

Images should only be used in an assessment where they support the measurement of the assessment construct. Where images are used, they should be clear for students. Some students become distracted by images that are incidental to the question and spend time trying to work out how the image relates to the question. Some students will have difficulty seeing an image.

Colour

Assessment tasks should only require students to distinguish between colours where this is central to the measurement of the assessment construct. Colour blind students could otherwise be disadvantaged.

Layout

Layout should be clear and consistent and not create an unnecessary barrier for students. For example, a question should not be split between pages as this can make it more difficult for some students to follow.

Accessible assessment design is not always straightforward. The guidance asks awarding organisations to think carefully about assessment features and their potential impact on learners.

Sometimes the features of an assessment might make it more difficult for some students to access a task, but this is necessary if it is part of what the assessment is designed to test. For example, if the assessment is testing a candidate’s understanding of complex technical language the assessment must use such language.

While awarding organisations should have immediate regard to the guidance, we will expect this to be reflected in any assessments they commission 6 months or more after the guidance is published.

Awarding organisations welcome feedback about their assessments. If you are a student taking an Ofqual-regulated qualification and you have suggestions about how assessments could be made more accessible, you could share your thoughts with your teacher. If you are a teacher and think that an awarding organisation’s assessments include unnecessary barriers for some learners, you could feed this back with the awarding organisation. Receiving feedback about particular assessments should help awarding organisations to continue to improve the accessibility of future assessments.