Building ADA Compliant and Fraud Proof Remote Typing Tests

Recruiters know that a bad typing test can become a hiring lawsuit waiting to happen. It only takes one candidate who could not access the test with assistive technology or one applicant who slipped through with a proxy typist to put your company at risk. The good news: building legally compliant, accessibility-ready, and fraud-resistant typing assessments is completely doable with the right framework.

Below is a step-by-step playbook. Follow it and you will walk away with a testing process that protects candidates, protects your team, and protects every hiring decision that depends on keystrokes per minute.

Start with the Legal Foundations: Employment Law and ADA Compliance

Employment regulations do not only apply to in-person interviews. Online assessments are considered part of the selection procedure, which means they sit under the same umbrella of laws that cover job ads, interview questions, and final offers. That includes:

1. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act—prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.

2. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)—requires reasonable accommodations for qualified applicants with disabilities.

3. The Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures—dictates that any employment test must be job-related and consistent with business necessity.

Neglecting these rules is not theoretical. A 2021 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaint resulted in a midsize medical billing firm paying six figures because its data-entry test locked out applicants who relied on screen readers. That settlement included mandatory policy rewrites and public reporting requirements. Compliance, therefore, always starts with documentation.

Action steps you can take today:

• Map the core job functions. List the exact keyboard tasks the role performs (e.g., transcribing patient notes, coding insurance claims) and tie each task to the typing competencies you are measuring (speed, accuracy, terminology familiarity).

• Create a test purpose statement. In plain English, explain why the test is necessary, how it predicts on-the-job success, and how scores will be used. Keep this statement on file—it becomes your first line of defense if the test is challenged.

• Draft an accommodation protocol. Decide in advance how candidates will request alternative formats or extra time and document the reasoning behind granted or denied requests. The ADA calls this the “interactive process,” and having it written shows good-faith compliance.

• Version-control every test. When managers ask for changes, store the old version and date-stamp the new one. If you are ever required to reproduce the exact test a candidate saw, you will have it.

Concrete takeaway: Compliance is not just a check box. It is a paper trail. Your legal team will thank you when every test item, time limit, and passing score is traceable to a genuine business need.

Designing for True Accessibility: Tech, Text, and Testing Flow

Accessibility is easier when you adopt it early. Retrofitting a test after complaints is expensive and often impossible. Think of accessibility in three buckets: technology, content, and experience.

1. Technology: Compatible by default

• Use semantic HTML for the test interface. <label> tags on input fields, ARIA roles on custom widgets, and proper heading hierarchy let screen readers announce information in the right order.

• Provide resizable text without breaking layout. A good rule of thumb is zoom to 200 percent without horizontal scroll.

• Test with keyboard only. Every interactive element must be reachable with Tab, Shift-Tab, and Enter. If a candidate needs a switch device or sip-and-puff interface, keyboard accessibility is their gateway.

2. Content: Plain, readable, inclusive

• Keep passage text at an 8th-grade reading level. You are testing typing, not comprehension.

• Avoid idioms, slang, or culture-specific references that could confuse non-native speakers.

• Offer a high-contrast theme toggle. Many users with low vision prefer white text on black backgrounds.

3. Experience: Seamless from invitation to results

• Send instructions in HTML emails, not PDFs. Screen-reader users find HTML far simpler to navigate.

• Include a live sample text box before the timed portion begins so candidates can confirm their adaptive tech is working.

• Display scores in multiple formats: WPM, raw keystrokes, percentage accuracy. A candidate with dyslexia might value seeing both rate and quality.

Real-world scenario: A legal transcription company adopted these practices and saw their candidate drop-off rate shrink from 17 percent to 4 percent after switching to a semantic-HTML interface and adding a contrast toggle. The hiring team now gets a larger, more diverse talent pool without extending the recruiting timeline.

Concrete takeaway: Accessibility is not merely compliance insurance. It is also a funnel-widening growth lever. When everyone can take the test, you spend less time sourcing replacements for prevented applicants.

Building Fraud Resistance into Remote Typing Tests

Remote testing removes geographic barriers for candidates and adds fresh ones for recruiters—chief among them is identity fraud. Proxy test takers, copy-paste shortcuts, and screen sharing jeopardize score validity. A hardened test includes layered defenses.

Layer 1: Browser-based security controls

• Auto-detect paste events and invalidate the pasted text. This simple script cuts off the “copy the entire paragraph” trick.

• Monitor window focus. If the candidate tabs out, pause the timer and log the event. A single accidental click is normal, repeated switches can flag suspicious behavior.

Layer 2: Behavioral biometrics

• Record keystroke dynamics—character latency, flight time, and error correction patterns. A proxy typist may match the speed, but rarely the rhythm.

• Build a profile across multiple attempts. If two tests taken under the same email show radically different cadence signatures, schedule a live retake.

Layer 3: Identity verification checkpoints

• Ask for government ID capture at the beginning of the test session.

• Snap a selfie at randomised intervals, matching it to the stored ID using face-match algorithms.

For a fuller breakdown of layered defenses, see Build Secure Remote Typing Assessments Recruiters Can Trust.

Case study: A call-center outsourcer implemented a three-layer approach and compared results across 2,300 test sessions. Fraud indicators dropped by 63 percent while legitimate candidates reported no added friction thanks to a one-minute ID capture wizard.

Concrete takeaway: Fraudsters thrive on single points of failure. Layered checks make cheating so labor-intensive that most will not bother, leaving you with cleaner data and less manual review.

Putting It All Together: A Repeatable Compliance Workflow

A robust typing assessment is not a one-time project. It is an ongoing cycle of design, test, record, and refine. The workflow below stitches together everything you have read:

1. Scoping meeting

   • Stakeholders: hiring manager, HR, legal, IT accessibility lead.

   • Output: documented job requirements and test purpose statement.

2. Prototype build

   • Draft item pool, set timing rules, embed security scripts, and enable accessibility toggles.

   • Run internal pilots with assistive-tech users and power typists.

3. Validation study

   • Correlate pilot scores with supervisor performance ratings or production metrics.

   • Adjust pass thresholds to reflect actual job success rates.

4. Launch with accommodation pipeline

   • Publish public accommodation request form.

   • Train recruiters on response templates to guarantee consistency.

5. Live monitoring

   • Review security logs weekly for anomaly spikes.

   • Audit accessibility tickets monthly to spot recurring pain points.

6. Quarterly audit

   • Archive all test versions and candidate results.

   • Verify that documented business necessity still matches current job functions.

Example timeline: A mid-market legal services firm implemented the entire cycle in six weeks, then cut average time-to-fill by 12 days because recruiters spent less time debating borderline scores. More importantly, they documented every change, giving legal counsel a ready binder if challenges arise.

Concrete takeaway: Repeatable processes remove the fear factor from compliance and security. When the auditor calls, you already have the evidence.

Final Call to Action

Ready to transform your own assessments? Put these steps into practice on your next open requisition. Start by drafting the test purpose statement today, and you will be halfway toward a legally defensible, inclusive, and rock-solid typing test tomorrow.

All images in this article are from Pexels: Photo 1 by Thirdman on Pexels. Thank you to these talented photographers for making their work freely available.