Evaluation of the Accessibility of Engineering Vocabulary

Do engineering instructional materials at the university level contain identifiable barriers to success unrelated to course objectives?This is a growing concern as the population of students becomes more diverse.And if there are barriers, how prevalent is this issue and can these barriers be characterized in a way that allows the instructor to easily identify and remove or mitigate them?In response to these questions, a research study is being conducted to at the University of Toronto to look at the accessibility of the language used on assessment instruments, specifically final exams.40 student volunteers were involved in the study.The preliminary data suggests that one of the obstacles to mitigating barriers based on language will be the student's own assessment of their language proficiency.