The National Federation of the Blind has filed a lawsuit against PARCC claiming the lack of Braille access on the common-core field tests to be given in 18 states and the District of Columbia represents a violation of the Americans With Disabilities Act.
The tests are under development by the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers. In a statement, Marc Maurer, the president of the federation, said that “the lack of accessibility during field-testing will put blind students at a significant disadvantage, because accessibility issues that may arise will not be identified until PARCC’s assessments are being deployed throughout the states in the consortium.”
PARCC has said the test will have several accessibility features built in but not all those features will be available during the field test. It is reviewing the legal action.
