Settlement Will Make K-12 Assessments Accessible to Students Who Are Blind

The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) announced that it has reached a settlement agreement with PARCC (Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers) regarding the accessibility of standardized tests for students who are blind or visually impaired.  The settlement resolves a suit filed in late January by the NFB, its affiliates, and the parents of the student because assessment tests created by PARCC, Inc. that will be field tested at various locations this spring were not accessible to students who are blind.

Under the terms of the settlement, PARCC will make its practice tests accessible to blind students by the time the tests are deployed in Spring 2014, and will consult with the NFB to ensure that all subsequent practice tests and assessments will be available at the time of deployment in accessible formats used by blind test takers, including braille files for embossing in hard-copy Braille or via electronic access methods such as refreshable braille displays and text-to-speech screen reader software. 

Read the full press release.