Accessible Adaptive Testing for Students With Disabilities: A Framework for Accommodation and Assistive Technology in CAT and MST

Computerized adaptive testing (CAT) and multistage testing (MST) can shorten assessment and improve targeting, but adaptivity does not itself make a test accessible. This critical integrative review examines how accessibility supports interact with construct representation, item eligibility, routing, stopping, burden, and score interpretation. Fifty-two sources from the original synthesis were reassessed, and a reproducible ERIC update plus targeted searches produced a 58-source revised set. Results are organized through an author-developed six-domain framework: construct access, accessible bank coverage, item and interface compatibility, accommodation-routing interaction, burden and timing, and interpretive validity. Across domains, benefits available to all examinees must be distinguished from disability-related access requirements and from mechanisms unique to CAT/MST. Adaptive delivery is defensible only when the intended construct permits adaptation and evidence supports routes under actual access conditions; otherwise, MST, hybrid, or fixed forms may be preferable.