Journal of Writing Assessment

This article explores the limitations of current writing assessment models through a crip lens, critiquing the ableist assumptions embedded in traditional and alternative systems, such as labor-based and engagement-based grading. Drawing on Inoue’s (2024) concept of crip labor and the author’s own Engagement-Based Grading Contract (EBGC), the article examines how these models, while attempting to increase equity, still operate within the ableist structures of higher education. The author argues that true equity in assessment requires radical transformation, centered on the dynamic, diverse, and often unpredictable ways students engage with learning. The article introduces a crip assessment ecology that values radical flexibility, relationality, and disclosure, emphasizing the importance of embracing the varying forms of engagement that emerge in the classroom. By engaging with critical disability theory and praxis, this article advocates for rethinking assessment as a process that disrupts normative ideals and promotes inclusive, accessible, and transformative educational practices.