Do you use tests and exams within your training program, or to check regulatory compliance for your personnel? If so, it’s important that the tests are fair and inclusive to everyone in your organization — otherwise, they are not doing their job.

This article suggests best 10 practices for creating inclusive training and compliance assessments.

Why Inclusive Assessments Matter

Assessments have a purpose, usually to check learners’ knowledge or skills and to make decisions based on the results. A test or assessment measures a “construct,” which refers to the skills or traits being assessed. For example, a health and safety assessment might measure how well the learner understands and can apply an organization’s safety procedures. Or, a test for engineers might measure how competent the test taker is at diagnosing and fixing faults.

A good test measures the construct and isn’t influenced by other skills not relevant to the construct. Tests can suffer from something called “construct irrelevant variance,” which is when the test score is influenced by something not part of the construct being measured. For example, if your engineering test uses complex language in its questions, a non-native speaker who is strong at diagnosing and fixing faults might struggle with the test and get an inappropriate score. Or, a digital test requiring a lot of typing might not authentically measure the skills of people who don’t need to type in work contexts.

Part of why it’s important to make training assessments inclusive is to reduce such irrelevant variance. Such an assessment is more likely to measure the construct fairly for everyone, including those with accessibility challenges, those who are non-native speakers, and people from different demographics and cultures.

Considering diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in assessment construction will also better support your business purposes. Inclusivity in testing can help your organization take advantage of the widest talent pool available and better develop employees. Additionally, if you don’t put the right steps in place, some team members may feel alienated. This can negatively impact company culture and employees’ acceptance of training. It can also reduce the effectiveness of compliance training and, in extreme cases, leave you open to legal challenges.

How to Create Inclusive Assessments

Every organization is different, but here are 10 suggestions to make corporate training tests and assessments more inclusive.

1. Define clearly the test construct. Make sure you clearly define why the test is used and what construct it measures. It’s helpful to have a formal test “blueprint” to help guide test construction and avoid construct irrelevant variance.
2. Consider relevant dimensions of diversity in your organization. Every organization and test context is different. Consider the possible dimensions of diversity applicable for your organization and assessment, and consider these in test construction. Dimensions might include accessibility challenges, age, race and ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, regional location, employee background, language, test anxiety levels, and culture or religion.
3. Use diverse reviewers. Often, training assessments are written by a small team, but the more you can include diverse perspectives, the more likely you’ll pick up issues which make questions less fair for some minorities. Having a wide review group is usually the most practical way of doing this within a training or compliance team.
4. Use culturally neutral question contexts. Ensure that any context you put your questions in is appropriate for all test takers. Avoid gender or other stereotypes and make scenarios described in questions appropriate for all cultures and locations. Don’t assume that test takers are native to your region or location. For instance, July is not summer in the Southern Hemisphere.
5. Keep questions simple. Ensure that the wording and structure of your questions is accessible to all learners. Simple, short sentences make items easier to understand by neurodiverse and non-native speakers. Consider providing a style guide to question writers.
6. Identify your approach for non-native language speakers. For large scale tests, it can be an option to translate tests, but elsewhere, consider whether non-native test takers can have reasonable accommodations, such as more time. Some test platforms allow an “instant translate” capability which offers test takers instant and in-assessment translation to help them understand questions. In any case, make sure to keep all text clear and unambiguous.
7. Accessibility. Ensure that the test platform you are using is accessible. Consider issues like color blindness and other visual impairments in question design and follow good practice in accessible question design. Be reasonable and generous in offering testing accommodations to those that request them.
8. Consider time limits. Many constructs relate more to skills and competence than being speedy, so consider if your test should have a time limit and if so, set it generously. Time limits can pressure those with test anxiety.
9. Consider approaches to test anxiety. Some highly competent people struggle to perform well on assessments. Some struggle overtly with test anxiety, while others do not do as well on a test as their ability shows they should. Be careful with too strict testing rules, and permit retakes to reduce pressure on test takers. Ultimately, a test score is just one piece of data related to a person’s performance, not the full picture.
10. Continuously improve. DEI is a journey, not a destination. Solicit feedback from test takers and listen to it. Measure the quality of your questions and the pass rate by demographics if you can. Seek to improve testing inclusivity over time.

In Summary

If you are looking for more information, the testing industry ITC/ATP Guidelines for Technology-Based Assessment contain some useful suggestions. And the IT Certification Council has developed a maturity model for DE&I within certification.

Following good inclusivity practices doesn’t just help minority test takers, it can also help your training and compliance tests be more effective for all test takers, and also make them more valuable for your organization.