The National Deaf Center on Postsecondary Education and NCEO recently co-published a brief titled, Steps to Equitably Include Deaf Students in Assessments (Brief #25).  It describes three key steps to support deaf students in standardized testing. The Brief provides details about each of the steps and how to accomplish them. The steps are:

1. Understanding the characteristics and needs of deaf students, including their language and communication background and their educational background. This knowledge helps ensure appropriate test and item development.
2. Designing tests with deaf students in mind to ensure deaf professionals are involved at all stages of test design and development, that all test developers know the characteristics of deaf people when developing item templates, and collect information on the accessibility of items and test forms for deaf people during pilot and field testing.
3. Administering tests with accommodations and other accessibility supports that are effective for deaf people.