Beyond Accommodations
New Frontiers in Postsecondary Education for Students with Disabilities
- What is Universal Design for Learning?
- Resources for Universal Design for Learning
- What is Universal Design for Instruction?
- Resources for Universal Design for Instruction
What is Universal Design for Learning?
In today’s schools, the mix of students is more diverse than ever. Educators are challenged to teach all kinds of learners to high standards, yet a single classroom may include students who struggle to learn for any number of reasons, such as the following:- Learning disabilities such as dyslexia
- English language barriers
- Emotional, psychological or behavioral problems
- Lack of interest or engagement
- Sensory and physical disabilities
- Cognitive and developmental disabilities
- Socioeconomic class
Teachers want their students to succeed, but a one-size-fits-all approach to education simply does not work. How can teachers respond to individual differences?
More and more educators, advocates and experts such as the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST), based in Wakefield, MA, are proposing a solution called Universal Design for Learning (UDL). CAST’s proposal of UDL provides a blueprint for creating flexible goals, methods, materials, and assessments that accommodate learner differences.
“Universal” does not imply a single optimal solution for everyone. Instead, it is meant to underscore the need for multiple approaches to meet the needs of diverse learners.
UDL mirrors the universal design movement in the built environment and product design. Think of speakerphones, curb cuts, and close-captioned television – all universally designed to accommodate a wide variety of users, including those with disabilities.
Embedded features that help those with disabilities eventually benefit everyone. UDL uses technology’s power and flexibility to make education more inclusive and effective for all.
Recent research in neuroscience shows that each brain processes information differently. The way we learn is as individual as DNA or fingerprints. In its research, CAST has identified three primary brain networks and the roles they play in learning:
Recognition networks
Gathering facts. How we identify and categorize what we see, hear, and read. Identifying letters, words, or an author’s style are recognition tasks – the “what” of learning.Strategic networks
Planning and performing tasks. How we organize and express our ideas. Writing an essay or solving a math problem are strategic tasks – the “how” of learning.Affective networks
How students are engaged and motivated. How they are challenged, excited, or interested. These are affective dimensions – the “why” of learning.UDL principles help educators customize their teaching for individual differences in each of these three brain networks. A universally-designed curriculum offers the following:
- Multiple means of representation to give learners various ways of acquiring information and knowledge
- Multiple means of expression to provide learners alternatives for demonstrating what they know, and
- Multiple means of engagement to tap into learners’ interests, challenge them appropriately, and motivate them to learn
Flexible digital media makes it easier than ever to provide these multiple alternatives and therefore customize teaching and learning.
Imagine that students who have always been left behind finally have the opportunity to learn—and to love learning. Universal Design for Learning is bringing the hopes of tomorrow alive in today’s classrooms.
To learn more about UDL, visit the Teaching Every Student website (www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent).
Source: the Center for Applied Special Technology (www.cast.org)
Note: Universal Design in all its facets, is at the general level and is intended to enhance the experience and performance of all users. Some people will still need Assistive Technology that is tailored to their individual needs.
Resources on Universal Design for Learning
Websites
Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST)
Works to expand learning opportunities for those with disabilities, through the research and development of innovative, technology-based educational resources and strategies.
www.cast.org
Publications from www.amazon.com
A Practical Reader in Universal Design for Learning Edited
by David H. Rose and Anne Meyer. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press, 2006.
The Universally Designed Classroom: Accessible Curriculum and Digital Technologies Edited by David H. Rose, Anne Meyer, and Chuck Hitchcock. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Education Press, 2005.
Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning
by David H. Rose and Anne Meyer. Alexandria, VA: ASCD, 2002.
The following brochures available at: AHEAD Publications ( www.ahead.org/publications.php.
Universal Design in Higher Education
Universal Design: A Guide for Students
Universal Design for Inclusive Lectures and Presentations
What is Universal Design for Instruction?
Universal Design for Instruction, UDI, is an approach to teaching that consists of the proactive design and use of inclusive instructional strategies that benefit a broad range of learners including students with disabilities. The Principles of UDI provide a framework for college faculty to use when designing or revising instruction to be responsive to diverse student learners and to minimize the need for “special” accommodations and retrofitted changes to the learning environment.
Traditional means of meeting the learning needs of students with disabilities have significant limitations. Classroom accommodations, such as extra time on tests or the provision of a notetaker, are typically changes that are retrofitted to a course in order to minimize the impact of the disability. While nondiscriminatory in intent, accommodations are rarely based on teaching methods that concern the best way to promote student learning.
UDI offers a proactive alternative for ensuring access to higher education changes the dialogue surrounding college students with disabilities from a focus on compliance, accommodations, and nondiscrimination to an emphasis on teaching and learning.
Learning environments can never be entirely accessible to all students’ needs since some students will continue to need individualized accommodations. But all learning environments can be made more accessible and inclusive.
Origins
UDI is based on the concept of Universal Design (UD), an idea that originated in the field of architecture to meet the needs of an increasingly diverse public. One of the important aspects of UD is that it anticipates diversity of ability, and the designing with that in mind. Its inclusive elements benefit all users, not just those with disabilities.
Likewise, Universal Design of Instruction benefits all of today’s college student population in its increasingly diverse educational background: age, culture, ability, disability, and primary language. Universal Design for Instruction integrates the “usability” features of Universal Design with research on effective instructional practices to benefit the broad range of learners. This is increasingly important, as the profile of disability changes and non-apparent conditions predominate. UD presumes everyone has access to the UDI practices
The Principles of Universal Design for Instruction
Nine Principles of UDI have been proposed by the Center for Postsecondary Education at the University of Connecticut, for informing college instruction. Though they continue to be refined and validated, they provide a framework for faculty reflection that can be applied to the design of a new course or used to reflect upon practices in an existing class. They can inform a variety of teaching issues and approaches ranging from assessing student learning, to broadening learning experiences, to considering how an inclusive classroom climate can be established.
The following (From Principles of Universal Design for Instruction by Sally Scott, Joan McGuire and Stan Shaw, Center on Postsecondary Education and Disability, University of Connecticut. Copyright 2001) shows the most current research and construct for the nine Principles of UDI.
Principle 1: Equitable use
Instruction is designed to be useful to and accessible by people with diverse abilities. Provide the same means of use for all students; identical whenever possible, equivalent when not.
Principle 2: Flexibility in use
Instruction is designed to accommodate a wide range of individual abilities. Provide choice in methods of use.
Principle 3: Simple and intuitive
Instruction is designed in a straightforward and predictable manner, regardless of the student’s experience, knowledge, language skills, or current concentration level. Eliminate unnecessary complexity.
Principle 4: Perceptible information
Instruction is designed so that necessary information is communicated effectively to the student, regardless of ambient conditions or the student’s sensory abilities.
Principle 5: Tolerance for error
Instruction anticipates variation in individual student learning pace and prerequisite skills.
Principle 6: Low physical effort
Instruction is designed to minimize nonessential physical effort in order to allow maximum attention to learning.
Note: This principle does not apply when physical effort is integral to essential requirements of a course.
Principle 7: Size and space for approach and use
Instruction is designed with consideration for appropriate size and space for approach, reach, manipulations, and use regardless of a student’s body size, posture, mobility, and communication needs.
Principle 8: A community of learners
The instructional environment promotes interaction and communication among students and between students and faculty.
Principle 9: Instructional climate
Instruction is designed to be welcoming and inclusive. High expectations are espoused for all students.
It is important to note that all nine principles will not apply to all aspects of instruction. Nor does Universal Design for Instruction a synonym for “one-size-fits-all” instruction. Instead, when viewing a classroom as a whole, each of the principles will and should come into play.
More information about UDI and the UDI Project at the University of Connecticut’s Center on Postsecondary Education and Disability is available at:
www.facultyware.uconn.edu
Source: Scott, S., McGuire, J.M., & Embry, P. (2002). Universal design for instruction fact sheet. Storrs: University of Connecticut, Center on Postsecondary Education and Disability.
Resources on Universal Design for Instruction
Websites
Center on Postsecondary Education and Students with Disabilities
Educates and supports pre-professionals and professionals in acquiring evidence-based knowledge and skills to provide state-of-the-art practices in services for students with disabilities.
www.cped.uconn.edu
Facultyware: Tools for the Universal Design of Instruction:
A project at the University of Connecticut designed to provide a broad range of information and tools to enhance the design and delivery of instruction for diverse college students.
www.facultyware.uconn.edu/home.cfm
DO-IT
Serves to increase the participation of individuals with disabilities in challenging academic programs and careers by promoting the use of computer and networking technologies.
www.washington.edu/doit
Publications available through www.cped.uconn.edu
Postsecondary Education and Transition for Students with Learning Disabilities by Loring Brinckerhoff, Joan McGuire, and Stan Shaw (2001) www.cped.uconn.edu/book1.htm
Addressing student diversity in the classroom: The approaches of outstanding university professors (Universal Design for Instruction Project Technical Rep. No. 02). Storrs, Madaus, J., Scott, S., & McGuire, J. (2002). CT: Center on Postsecondary Education and Disability.
Facultyware: An On-line Resource on Universal Design for Instruction. e-Learning Dialogue, Madaus, J.W., Scott, S.S., & McGuire, J.M. (2005, January). Available at: Facultyware: An Online Resource on Universal Design for Instruction (www.campustechnology.com/news_article.asp?id=10472&typeid=155).
Universal Design for Instruction: Extending the universal design paradigm to college instruction. McGuire, J.M., & Scott, S.S. (in press). Journal of Postsecondary Education and Disability.
An approach to inclusive college instruction: Universal Design for Instruction. McGuire, J. & Scott, S. (in press). Learning Disabilities: A Multidisciplinary Journal.
