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Reaching All Students with Universal Design for Learning

Universal Design for Learning guides the design of learning experiences with the goal of ensuring all learners reach their potential.

In this article

What is Universal Design?

The term “Universal Design” was originally defined in 1988 at NC State University by Ron Mace and colleagues, who defined it as “usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design”. Universal Design recognizes the variability in the human population along many spectra and due to many different circumstances (situational or permanent), and aims for full use and enjoyment of products by as many people as possible. Simply put, many design decisions take the approach of “necessary for some, beneficial for all.” To learn more, visit the RL Mace Universal Design Institute webpage, including a summary of Universal Design principles.

/Mark Wilson (2018) offers a great example of Universal Design in the form of the OXO Good Grips vegetable peeler in a 2018 article from Fast Company.

According to Wilson, in 1990 Sam Farber designed a new vegetable peeler that “…had to work for people with arthritis, but it had to work for everybody. This was a hard and fast rule. We couldn’t design something for people just with special needs, because it would have to be in a special catalog, and no one is able to have access to those products. It had to work for everybody, so it could be at a decent price for everyone… …With inclusive design, you never know when you might have the need for a product like this. You could injure your hand playing sports, or your grandmother could be dropping in for a visit. Just this idea of making a product that was better for anybody, and be for everybody!”

OXO Good Grips vegetable peeler

What is Universal Design for Learning (UDL)?

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) takes the principles of Universal Design into an educational setting, striving to design learning experiences that are flexible and adaptable to a multitude of learners.

Many aspects of digital accessibility are included in part of the UDL guidelines, for example offering content in multiple formats, providing captions and transcripts, and ensuring learners have control over speed of videos and the ability to zoom into images. Designing with UDL builds accessibility features into a course from the start, preventing extensive remediation work in the future.

Other aspects of the UDL guidelines consider learner interests, sense of self, personal connections, community and collaboration, all of which influence learners’ sense of agency and ownership over their own educational journey.

How can you apply the UDL guidelines?

CAST.org, one of the main proponents of Universal Design for Learning, has developed UDL guidelines which build on principles of equitable, flexible, simple and intuitive use and perceptible information. Each guideline targets different aspects of learning.

UDL Guidelines

Guideline 1: Design for multiple means of engagement

This guideline targets the “Why” of learning. It recognizes that different students are motivated to engage by different things. To applying this principle, add flexibility and choice for students, particularly if you find that there is content your students are showing less engagement and motivation for.

Ask yourself the following questions:

  • Can every learner, regardless of disability or cognitive difference, fully do what you are asking them to do?
  • Can learners see the relevance of this content or task to their lives and goals?
  • Can learners to bring their own perspectives, ideas and experiences to the course?
  • Does your content represents a wide range of perspectives on a topic?
  • Are you offering learners choice and opportunities for agency?
  • Are you using strategies to encourage collaboration?

Visit the Teaching Resources Page on Boosting Motivation with UDL to learn more about providing multiple means of engagement and boosting learner motivation.

Guideline 2: Design for multiple means of representation

This guidelines targets the “What” of learning, focusing on designing multiple means of representation of content. This principle ensures that all students have the opportunity to interact with and comprehend your course content in the most effective way.

To identify aspects of your course that might benefit from this guideline, identify content that learners seem to struggle with or have more questions about. Are there any pieces that just seem hard for your learners to comprehend, or places where they seem to get overwhelmed more than others?

As yourself the following questions:

  • Is the content available in more than one format (audio, text, video, etc.)?
  • Do learners have options or choices for how they access that content?
  • Would providing optional background information for students to reference help?
  • Can you highlight patterns, critical features, big ideas and relationships more clearly?
  • Can you simplify language and wording of the material for clarity?

Visit the Teaching Resources Page on Elevating Your Content with UDL to learn more about widening the path to perception and comprehension of instructional materials.

Guideline 3: Design for multiple means of action and expression

This guidelines targets the “How” of learning by designing multiple means of action and expression. This principle ensures that learners can express their thoughts, communicate their knowledge and perform in a way that accurately demonstrates their learning and their facilitates their success in a course.

To identify aspects of your course that might benefit from this guideline, identify assessments or activities that some students seem to struggle with, particularly if you or they are surprised that their performance was not better.

Ask yourself the following questions:

  • Are there multiple ways learners can demonstrate their achievement of the learning objective?
  • Can you provide more time or more flexible timing for an assessment?
  • Can you allow learners choose some aspects of how they communicate or interact?
  • Might your assessments somehow disadvantage students who come from a different geographical region, have a different first language, or don’t have the same cultural knowledge as others?

Visit the Teaching Resources Page on Optimizing Student Performance with UDL to learn more about providing multiple means of expression and thus optimizing student performance.

Workshop Information

Applying Universal Design Principles to Teaching

If no workshops are available, you can request an instructional consultation(opens in new window)   from LearnTech about this topic.

Resources

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