Plum continues to search for better cognitive assessment methods. Everyone should have the right to complete the assessment on their own without the need for an accommodation. Until the time that technology becomes available to make this possible, Plum will gladly support any and all accommodation requests. Here below you will find more information on the elements that may impact your need for an accommodation:
Color and Contrast
The Plum Discovery Survey uses optimized color and maximum contrast. The assessment does not require 20/20 vision to complete and the colors of the Plum Discovery Survey were chosen to maximize the contrast. Despite the use of color in the first section of the assessment composed of Problem-Solving questions, colors were specifically selected to be easily distinguishable across 8 of the most common forms of color blindness. The remainder of the assessment is not color dependent.
Pattern recognition
Plum researched the best methods for assessing cognitive ability, including verbal comprehension, vocabulary tests, spatial relations, quantitative reasoning, and general knowledge tests. Plum specifically selected Raven’s Progressive Matrices because they are well documented in the psychometric literature as the best method for limiting adverse impact on protected groups and people, based on gender, age, language, ethnicity, cultural background, and education level.
Plum recognizes that the Raven’s Progressive Matrices in the first section of the Discovery Survey poses a challenge for blind and/or visually impaired individuals. Although the rest of the Discovery Survey is text-based, section 1 relies on pattern recognition with images. While transferring these same evaluation methods into mediums that are not inherently visual would increase accessibility compliance, it would skew the results, provide inaccurate data, and negatively impact individuals with visual impairments.
Text-to-Speech software
The second, third, and fourth sections of the Plum Discovery Survey are readable by Text-to-Speech software. Despite the support of text-to-speech or screen reader software, we are aware of the difficulty of navigating the ipsative questions for individuals with certain levels of visual disability. Section 1 of the assessment cannot successfully be completed with a text reader or text-to-speech software. We are happy to provide an accommodation to the individuals that require it.
If you require an accommodation, we invite you to follow our Accommodation Request Process.
