The human resources department of a large corporation has decided to put special emphasis on recruiting job applicants who have motor impairment. The applicants will be asked to take a battery of employment tests to determine whether they qualify to be hired. What ethical responsibilities does the human resource staff have when testing these applicants? What actions should the staff take, and why, to be sure that the applicants receive ethical treatment during the testing process?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Ans:
• Various laws protect persons who are physically or mentally challenged (e.g., the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which was amended in 1978, 1986, and 1987; the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990; and the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1990).
• In addition, the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (AERA, APA, & NCME, 2014) address testing individuals with disabilities. According to the Standards, test users should ensure that test outcomes indicate the intended skills or attributes accurately and that the test scores.
• To abide by laws and standards, individuals who have minority status in terms of disabilities, such as a motor impairment, might need special accommodations when testing so that they can perform to the best of their abilities and ensure their test scores are accurate and not altered due to the motor impairment. An individual’s impairment must not influence the test outcome when the test is measuring a concept unrelated to the disability.
• One thing the human resources department can do is to ensure they do not rely solely on job applicants’ test scores, rather she should consider other sources of information, such as interviews and behavioral measures, in addition to test scores.
• Also, the human resources department should modify the testing format and the test interpretation process to accurately reflect the skill or attribute that the psychological test measures. The modifications that a test developer or user makes depend on the specific disability.
• For motor impairments, test administrators should select tests that do not need to be modified because of the test taker’s motor impairment or that require very little modification. The test administrator should have a writer available to enter responses on paper-and-pencil tasks that require fine motor coordination.
• Not all psychological tests can be appropriately modified. Therefore, the human resources department might look for alternative tests that might exist for individuals with disabilities.
Learning Objective: 3-5: Explain the issues associated with testing special populations.
Cognitive Domain: Application
Answer Location: Testing Special Populations
Difficulty Level: Medium