Technology Assisted Reading Assessment “Accessible Reading Assessment” and HTML Cara Laitusis Teresa King Elizabeth Ayad Markku Hakkinen
Technology Assisted Reading Assessment Materials 2 test forms (42 items each) Reading passage followed by multiple choice options. Post-test survey
Technology Assisted Reading Assessment Population 49 boys, 44 girls Grades different states
Technology Assisted Reading Assessment Test Forms Form A (Maximum Accessibility) Form B (Business as Usual)
Technology Assisted Reading Assessment Form A (Accessible) Higher interest passages Included “context” sentence Panel of disability experts reviewed items and made suggested revisions (simplified language) Additional level of proofing for braille/large print forms Changes to formatting Two additional choices of test formats (audio, html)
Technology Assisted Reading Assessment Sample by Form Test Form A Test Form B Total BrailleLarge Print Braille Large Print--26 Audio (MP3) HTML516 Audio+Braille Audio+Large Print--44 Total444993
Technology Assisted Reading Assessment
Mean Scores by Format FormatN Form AForm B MeanSDMeanSD Braille Large Print Audio HTML Audio+Braille Audio+Large Print
Technology Assisted Reading Assessment
Student Comments on HTML 5 students reported HTML was better –“because it is easier and faster to navigate (performing the find command made things a lot simpler unlike the braille where I had to keep browsing through many pages and numbered paragraphs)” –“because both reading the passage and answering the questions was a lot easier than the braille. I did not use the audio.” –“I could finish more quickly and understand what I was reading.” –“some was read aloud and if there was a word you could not pronounce it would pronounce it right. It was faster than I could read the braille. 1 student reported HTML was worse –“I couldn’t understand it as well”
Technology Assisted Reading Assessment HTML Version Followed Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) see
Technology Assisted Reading Assessment Limitations Small sample sizes Confounding of other accessibility elements with file format