Course Participants’ Conceptions of Accessibility in Assessment: Transformations Resulting from a Continuing Education Program in Distance Education

Abstract

This article analyzes transformations in course participants’ conceptions regarding accessibility in the assessment of specific learning needs, based on a continuing education program offered through Distance Education. This is a qualitative study developed through a comparative and interpretative analysis of the responses provided by fifty-eight participants who completed a 180-hour extension course organized through synchronous and asynchronous activities. The analysis focused on responses to the same guiding question administered before and after the training program. The data suggest that, although the initial responses already involved notions such as continuity, individualization, and adaptation of assessment practices, these understandings became conceptually and pedagogically broader after the course. Accessibility in assessment came to be more systematically associated with equity, barrier removal, diversification of strategies, recognition of students’ potentialities, continuous monitoring of learning, and Accessibility Planning in Assessment. It is concluded that the training contributed to reshaping participants’ conceptions, shifting them from a perspective predominantly centered on subsequent adaptations toward a broader, process-oriented, planned, and equitable understanding of assessment.

Keywords: Inclusive education. Learning assessment. Accessibility in assessment. Continuing education. Distance education.