Nondiscriminatory Assessment of Severely Physically Handicapped Individuals

Taking one step further the courts' determination that standardized tests may be unduly discriminatory because of cultural or racial bias, the authors of this paper argue that tests that require severely physically handicapped individuals to make motor or verbal responses under conditions that have been standardized for learners with no motoric problems are equally discriminatory. Suggestions are presented for modifying existing test instruments to obtain more accurate and valid measures of the functional level of severely physically handicapped learners.