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“Inclusion is not a strategy. It’s a fundamental way of thinking and being,” said Michelle Soriano, former educator and current Professional Learning and Implementation Specialist at CAST, during an in-depth edLeader Panel, “Building Inclusive Assessments With the Wheel of Inclusion: UDL, Accessibility, and AI.”

Meeting the accessibility baseline is no longer enough—schools must provide high-quality learning experiences that support all learners. As districts evaluate a growing number of AI-enabled instructional and assessment tools, leaders need guidance on what to look for and what matters most.

Leading organizations are investing significant time, expertise, and resources into Universal Design for Learning (UDL), accessibility, and inclusive AI design—and how these efforts aim to improve experiences and outcomes for both students and educators. Soriano explained the Wheel of Inclusion, a collaboration between CAST, the Gates Foundation, and organizations developing the next generation of digital assessment tools. It identifies core components needed to build solutions for real people with variability that scales and “reduces barriers before they ever show up,” she said.

“Accessibility is not going away. It remains an ethical and legal responsibility. Now what is changing is the context we’re operating in,” said Peter Jacobson, an experienced educator and a Product Leader at Khan Academy. He explained that AI offers both exponential opportunities and new challenges for personalizing education for students. Having a deeper understanding of accessibility and building that into the foundation of assessments provides more personalized opportunities for more students to demonstrate knowledge and success.

Tried-and-True Lessons to Know

Jacobson described the process as “more a marathon than a sprint. It takes time,” offering these important tips for educators and developers to keep in mind:

• More options do not equal more engagement. Strive for more intentional options that meet students’ real-world needs.
• Edtech is not inherently accessible. Think about who needs accommodations and what specifically impacts their learning.
• Start with accessibility and usability. Existing solutions may not meet updated guidelines. Soriano added, “It’s costly to purchase what you can’t use and costly to retrofit.”
• Find your own blind spots. Include those who will actually be using the solution so that you plan for “what you’re actually seeing in classrooms with a diverse body of students,” Jacobson said.

Evolving From Add-Ons to Strategic Direction

“When teams build accessibility into the products at the start, it ensures the products meet those high standards, but it also shifts from afterthought to something that drives strategic direction,” Soriano noted.

For example, consider creating an assessment for a specific time block. Accessibility best practices show that timers cause anxiety and put IEP students who move at a slower pace at a disadvantage. Being strategic, leaders and developers can start by asking the hard questions to narrow down content to only the most essential measures that accurately assess student understanding. A higher-quality, abbreviated test ensures all students, including those with an IEP, finish on time. The bonus: Any student with test anxiety (uh, all students!) benefits from a shorter test and no timer.

Awareness Isn’t Enough

You don’t know what you don’t know. Before stakeholders recognize barriers exist, they must be aware of what’s missing. Soriano described three stages in the road to accessible design:

1. Unaware. When accessibility barriers are not well recognized, common practices create barriers. For example, offering inaccessible PDFs, videos without captions, using tools that require a keyboard without a mouse, or tools that have timers.
2. Aware. After some capacity building, teams then recognize common limitations. To reach this stage, teams must undergo accessibility training. Sometimes organizations rely on add-ons or a laundry list of options. But to be effective, understanding of accessibility must lead to intentional action.
3. Accessible Design. The last phase is building accessibility at the beginning. It becomes a shared responsibility across roles, not just a checklist or one person’s role. The focus shifts to the learner, strategic decision making, and intentional inclusion.

Next Steps

What can district leaders look for in assessments and learning products? First and foremost, it should support educators and learners, not replace them. Educators remain the most important influence on student learning. In addition, leaders can look for:

• Built-in accessibility
• Evidence of real user testing
• Support of learner variability
• Responsible and transparent AI
• Alignment with standards and requirements
• Proof of inclusive design maturity, including certification, third-party validations, etc.

Whether you lead curricula, assessment, technology, innovation, or student support initiatives, learn more about equitable AI adoption and future-ready assessment design in this edLeader Panel.

Learn more about this edWeb broadcast, Building Inclusive Assessments With the Wheel of Inclusion: UDL, Accessibility, and AI, sponsored by CAST.

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Article by Suzanne Bell, based on this edLeader Panel