Accessible from the Start: EQAO's Journey to Learner-Centred Assessment

The Future-Ready Assessment Ecosystem: Learners

Assessment should empower every learner to demonstrate what they know and can do. As technology continues to reshape education, organisations have new opportunities to create more personalised, accessible and engaging assessment experiences while maintaining fairness, validity and trust.

This week explores how assessment can better support learners through AI-supported personalisation, inclusive design, accessibility, and improved learner experiences. Join experts from across the assessment community as they examine practical approaches to designing assessments that meet the diverse needs of today’s learners while preparing for the challenges of tomorrow.

About this session

As large-scale assessments continue to evolve, assessment organizations are challenged to design experiences that recognize the diverse needs, strengths and circumstances of today's learners. This session explores how the Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) has reimagined provincial assessment through an accessibility-by-design approach that places learners at the centre of every stage of assessment development and delivery. 

EQAO's transition from paper-based testing to digital assessment created an opportunity to embed universal design principles, accessibility features, assistive technology compatibility and inclusive practices directly into the assessment experience.

Drawing on EQAO's award-winning accessibility work and ongoing research, participants will examine how learner feedback, large-scale assessment data, and Universal Design for Learning principles have shaped a more inclusive assessment experience for hundreds of thousands of students across Ontario. Rather than treating accessibility as a series of accommodations for specific student groups, EQAO has embedded accessibility into platform design, assessment content, administration processes, and educator workflows from the outset.

The session will highlight how universal accessibility tools, cognitive supports, assistive technology compatibility, practice opportunities, and individualized accommodations work together to reduce barriers, increase learner agency, and support students in demonstrating what they know and can do. Participants will also explore how evidence from student questionnaires, stakeholder consultations, classroom observations, and process log data has informed continuous improvements, including enhancements to accessibility features such as split-screen functionality and annotation tools. 

Through the lens of the conference's key question, "How can assessment better respond to the needs, experiences and circumstances of individual learners?", participants will explore practical lessons from Ontario's large-scale assessment program and consider how accessibility, inclusivity and learner experience can strengthen assessment systems for everyone while preserving fairness, validity and reliability.