Ability Testing of Handicapped People: Dilemma for Government, Science, and the Public

摘要

The report deals in depth with the legal and psychometric issues relating to the testing of people with handicapping conditions and to the testing requirements of the regulations implementing Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The report concludes that current psychometric theory and practice do not allow full compliance with the regulations as currently drafted. The report recommends that the Office for Civil Rights require that postsecondary educational institutions subject to Section 504, in their role as members of the corporations that sponsor the large testing programs instruct the testing companies to develop modified tests to meet the needs of people with sensory and motor handicaps and to perform predictive validation studies on these tests. The report recommends that, in the period before the validation studies have been completed, the locus of control over the flagging of scores to be used for educational admissions should be shifted from the test developer to the handicapped person. The report recommends other actions to improve the administration and use of tests for people with handicapping conditions, such as modification of tests, dissemination of information regarding the availability of modified forms of tests, and finding solutions to known problems with specific tests or types of tests.