Assessment is where accessibility barriers become highest-stakes, because a barrier that costs a student a few minutes of extra effort in a lecture can cost them marks, or a degree classification, in an exam. Good assessment design separates what is actually being tested from how it happens to be tested, and treats the second as a design choice rather than a fixed feature of the subject.
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Make assessment instructions clear, and explain marking criteria in writing, well before the assessment itself — ambiguous or verbally-delivered-only criteria disadvantage several categories covered in Part 3 simultaneously, and genuinely help every other student too.
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Provide sufficient notice of assessment dates, formats, and any changes — late notice compounds anxiety and executive-function load in a way that is entirely avoidable.
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Avoid unnecessary time pressure where it is not part of the actual learning outcome being tested. Ask directly: does this task need to be timed to validly assess what it claims to assess, or is the time limit simply administrative convenience?
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Ensure the assessment measures the intended learning outcome, not an unrelated skill — handwriting speed, spoken fluency, or spelling accuracy — unless that unrelated skill is genuinely and explicitly what is being assessed.
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Consider alternative formats where appropriate. The same learning outcome can very often be demonstrated through an essay, a presentation, a portfolio, an annotated diagram, or recorded work — the format is usually a design choice, not something fixed by the subject matter itself.
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Implement approved extra time and rest breaks reliably, and ensure exam materials are themselves produced in an accessible format — an agreed adjustment delivered alongside an inaccessible exam paper is not, in practice, an adjustment at all.
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Avoid penalising disability-related differences that are unrelated to the learning outcome — for example, marking down spelling in a subject where accurate spelling is not itself the skill being tested.
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Communicate any changes to assessment promptly, and check arrangements are genuinely in place before the assessment begins, rather than discovering a gap once a student is already sitting the exam.
Worked example: a learning outcome of 'demonstrate understanding of the theory' can be assessed equally validly through a written essay, a recorded oral explanation, or an annotated diagram — a lecturer choosing between these formats is making a design decision, not applying a fixed rule about how the subject must be assessed. The same principle applies across disciplines: a lab report's learning outcome is usually 'can the student interpret and explain the results', not 'can the student physically write for two hours without a break' — and once that distinction is made explicit, several apparently difficult accommodation requests turn out to be straightforward.