Universal Design for Learning
Captions and transcripts are useful for people with hearing difficulties, but also with attention difficulties or ESL students or for people who just prefer to read. Access is a “minimum threshold” - while we make sure all children have access to all materials. But we don’t tend to tailor materials to the needs of each student, which is something that technology, combined with our wealth of digital resources enables us to do. When we make adjustments for students with disabilities, we tend to do it to provide students with disabilities with an “average” classroom experience. As Harvard researcher Todd Rose points out, there is really no such thing as the “average student”:
In the next section, we’ll talk a bit more about accessibility. But let’s look at captions for one example. Captions, by law, are required for students who are d/Deaf or hard of hearing. However, any people use captions at gyms and restaurants, (back when we could all go to those places), to follow along with a TV in a crowded environment. Captions also have tremendous value for students with autism, ADHD, Down’s syndrome, and English learners. The addition of captions makes the video accessible to a group that didn’t have access before, but it also makes the experience better for everyone if students are shown how to leverage these tools. In fact, the majority of Millennials and Gen Z Americans prefer subtitles in their TV viewing.
This is one of the key principles behind Universal Design for Learning - “designing for those on the margins improves the experience for all”.
UDL emerges from principles of Universal Design created by Dr. Ronald Mace at NC State University’s school of Design. The Center for Universal Design which focused on creating physical spaces and designs that were accessable to all. The center has shut down in 2004 due to funding challenges after the passing of Dr. Mace.
Review the Universal Design Guidelines
We know that all students learn differently. Universal Design for Learning, a framework designed by Anne Meyer and David Rose, supports teachers in designing high-quality learning experiences for all learners. While this includes accessible content, it is much more. UDL is designed to support all students, presenting materials in multiple ways, giving students flexibility to interact with the material in the way that works best for them, and provides for different ways for students to express their knowledge. The intent of a UDL classroom is inaccurately summarized as an “IEP for all students”, providing each with the supports and accommodations they need, which can reduce stigma for all students and provide them the tools they need.
UDL is designed to improve teaching and learning for all students based on brain science. The framework is based on the idea that there are three areas of the brain key to learning:
- Affective Networks that govern interest, effort, persistence, and self-regulation.
- Recognition Networks that govern perception, language, and comprehension.
- Strategic Networks that govern physical action, expression, communication, and executive function.
For CTOs and ITFs, UDL is a great framework to use to approach digital tools in the classroom. Individual tools or collections of tools can be used in service of the UDL principles.
The UDL framework recommends providing multiple means of:
- Engagement. Specifically, UDL recommends providing student choice and autonomy in assignments and instructional materials, ensuring that instruction has perceived value and relevance for students and that threats are minimized. UDL also recommends providing options for sustaining student effort including high-salience goals, fostering collaboration and community, and increasing mastery-oriented feedback.
- Representation. In addition to providing accessible content, UDL recommends that content is represented in multiple different means (i.e. video, audio, reading, and graphical), that vocabulary is made clear, that multiple media types are used, and that content is framed in the context of both existing background knowledge and generalizability.
- Action and Expression. In addition to allowing students the flexibility to express their knowledge in different ways, UDL recommends providing students options for fostering executive functioning including supporting goal setting, planning, information management, and progress monitoring.