2026 Accessible Assessment Forum
Description
At our 2025 Accessible Assessment Forum, we asked participants whether they would be interested in a follow-up forum focused on our Steps for Success resource. The response was a resounding ‘YES!’
Well, here it is!
Join the QUT Centre for Inclusive Education for Getting Accessibility Right: Practical Steps for Success, a practical, full-day forum on designing clearer and more accessible assessment.
We will begin with a recap of the fundamentals of accessible assessment design before exploring some of the questions educators most frequently ask:
What is the difference between linguistic and procedural accessibility?
How can we design out visual, linguistic and procedural barriers?
What information belongs in the task description and what should be included in the Steps for Success?
How can Steps for Success support teachers and students?
Drawing on 18 months of work with our partner schools, C4IE researchers will share practical guidance, examples of accessible assessment in practice and what we have learned. This includes our 2025 research with nine Queensland Department of Education primary and secondary schools, where we collaboratively redesigned 78 assessment task sheets across subject areas and task types.
Want to see what accessible assessment looks like in practice? Scroll down to watch our short video and hear directly from our partner schools about their experiences.
The program will also feature three School Showcase sessions, providing an opportunity to hear directly from educators about accessible assessment in practice.
Woodford State School will share its experience of redesigning Mathematics assessment tasks for accessibility, while Southport State High School will discuss its investment in accessible assessment. The day will conclude with a practical Steps for Success workshop.
Whether you are beginning to explore accessible assessment or looking to strengthen your existing practice, this forum will provide practical guidance and strategies for designing clearer and more accessible assessment.
Cost: $350 per person
Catering: Delicious catering by Boheme Events, with vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free options available on request.
Format: In Person Event
Register now to secure your place. Places are limited.
Registration closes 10 October 2026.
Lineup
Professor Linda Graham
Professor Linda Graham is Director of the QUT Centre for Inclusive Education (C4IE). Her research focuses on improving the outcomes of students who experience difficulties in school and with learning. She has published more than 100 books, chapters and journal articles, including the best-selling Inclusive Education in the 21st Century: Theory, policy and practice, and has led several large-scale multidisciplinary projects funded by the Australian Research Council, including the highly impactful Accessible Assessment & Pedagogies program of research. With Professor Jill Willis, she wrote and co-edited Accessible Assessment and Pedagogies: improving student outcomes through inclusive practice.
Dr Haley Tancredi
Dr Haley Tancredi is a Senior Lecturer in the QUT School of Education and a certified practicing speech pathologist. She co-leads C4IE’s Inclusion and Exclusion program and co-authored Accessible Pedagogies. Haley’s doctoral research investigated the impact of Accessible Pedagogies on the experiences and engagement of students with disabilities impacting language and information processing, such as those with ADHD and/or Developmental Language Disorder.
Dr Callula Killingly
Dr Callula Killingly is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in C4IE and a member of the Accessible Assessment ARC Linkage Team. Her research interests include learning and memory processes, language and literacy development, and music cognition. Callula’s doctoral work examined the cognitive processes underpinning involuntary musical memories (‘earworms’). She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and has teaching experience in the areas of cognitive psychology, research design, and statistical analysis.
Video
FAQs
- What is on the agenda for the forum?
You can see our official program via this link or see below for more details:
REGISTRATION & OPENING
8:30 - 8:55 am Registration, Tea & Coffee
8:55-9.00 am Welcome to the Faculty of Creative Industries, Education and Social Justice and QUT’s Centre for Inclusive Education
SESSION 1
9:00 - 9:30 am What is accessibility and why does it matter?
9:30 - 10:00 am Designing Out Visual, Linguistic, and Procedural Barriers to Student Comprehension and Achievement
10:00 – 10:30 am School Showcase
MORNING TEA
10:30 - 11:00 am Morning Tea & Original Poster Walk
SESSION 2
11:00 - 11:40 am What is the difference between linguistic and procedural accessibility?
11:40 - 12:00 pm School Showcase
LUNCH BREAK
12:00 - 12:45 pm Lunch & Redesigned Poster Walk
SESSION 3
12:45 - 1:30 pm What goes into the task description and what goes into the Steps for Success?
1:30 - 1:45 pm School Showcase
1:45 - 2:30 pm What do the Steps for Success do? Aims, affordances for teachers, student feedback, common issues, design principles.
2:30 - 3:00 pm Crafting the Steps for Success
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