Research and Development of Guidelines for ASL Translation of Education Assessments

This chapter draws from the Guidelines for Accessible Assessment Project (GAAP), a federally funded research project to create and evaluate guidelines for developing American Sign Language versions of standardized test items. The chapter begins with a brief discussion of national education policy that provides the context for GAAP and the need for evidence-based guidelines, followed by an overview of the project. The third section describes lessons learned regarding fostering effective communication and collaboration among a deaf and hearing team. The fourth section describes important considerations for researchers related to sampling, recruitment, study design, data collection, analysis, and reporting. The chapter concludes with a summary of key learnings and critical questions that researchers should consider before embarking on research in deaf education.