Universal Screening

A systematic assessment process applied to all individuals in a defined population (such as all students in a school) to identify those who may be at risk for a particular condition, regardless of whether they have been referred or show obvious symptoms. In accessibility and education contexts, universal screening for conditions like dyslexia aims to catch learning disabilities early, before children experience school failure, enabling timely intervention. Effective universal screening tools must be brief, affordable, easy to administer at scale, and culturally appropriate, with sufficient accuracy to minimize both false positives and false negatives.