[gchallen]

Language ability, manner of speaking, physical stature and presentation, reputation from previous interactions with staff, you name it—all worsened by the fact that many of these are probably going to be done by course staff. It's not clear to me that any other form of assessment has as much potential for subconscious bias.

Orchestras started using privacy screens for auditions for a reason. And I'm not familiar with an equivalent for the human voice, particularly for hiding halting, labored, or elliptical speech—possibly by a non-native speaker—that they could straighten out on the page.

[xdennis]

But then why say "equity"? Blind grading can, of course, eliminate bias and achieve equality. But to achieve equity, you need to know the race, sex, religion, etc in order to "positively" discriminate.