This session provides an opportunity to learn about and explore the accessibility features of Apple devices. This session is for all teachers who are interested in better serving all students, especially students with IEPs, 504 plans, and English Language Learners. This workshop builds on the foundations of Universal Design for Learning and includes dynamic ways to use Apple devices to meet all students’ needs.

Goals:

Participants will:

• Become familiar with the Accessibility features built into the iOS ecosystem.
• Experience Accessibility features hands-on.  
• Consider how students will utilize Accessibility features.
• Explore options for introducing Accessibility features to students and reinforcing its use after the initial introduction.

Session Video Recording

Session Resources:

• Google Slideshow
• Accessibility Stations
• Accessibility Posters

Apply Your Learning

Call to Action

• What is your “Monday” goal?
• What is your “Sunday” goal?

Remote teaching and learning might appear to be a bumpy road-but it doesn’t have to be! UDL rockstars, start your engines! With UDL as a design roadmap, we can create environments that are accessible, engaging, and supportive of learner variability. In this session, we’ll examine ways to use the UDL guidelines to design virtual (and hybrid) learning environments, as well as design tips that are transferable to in-person environment design. We’ll explore strategies, tips, and exemplars to boost student engagement in virtual or hybrid environments, improve the accessibility of online content, and optimize choice in digital spaces. By the end of the session, participants will have concrete strategies for creating universally designed virtual environments to capture, boost, and sustain student engagement.

Goals:

By the end of the session, attendees will be able to:

• Evaluate my virtual learning environment
• Identify best practices for universally designed digital environments
• Practice using tech tools to boost engagement, foster collaboration, reflection
• Plan to use 3+ strategies or tools to support learner engagement

Build Background and Reflect

Consider the following questions. Collect your responses on a document – written or typed. 

• Consider your digital learning environment. What tools or options are provided to get learners excited, motivated to learn?
• What resources are provided to help learners understand content?
• What tools or options are provided for learners to show what they know?
• Are there high tech, low tech, no tech options available?

Session Video Recording

Session Resource:

• Slide Deck

Apply Your Learning

• Share your ideas from the session on our group idea board (Padlet)
• Reflect upon the learning environment you used in our introduction activity. Consider 2 strategies or tools from this session you could apply to further implement UDL in that learning environment moving forward. 
• Additional reading and resources:
  • 6 UDL Practices for Online Learning
  • Creating an Inclusive Virtual Classroom
  • Fresh BCSC Tech (UDL + edTech Blog)

The implementation of UDL in higher education provides students in all areas of study engaging, accessible, and flexible learning. This breaks the mold of how higher education has traditionally looked. Moreover, teacher preparation programs have the additional responsibility to equip their graduates with the appropriate knowledge and practices to go into the profession and provide accessible and engaging instruction for all students in K-12. This session will share the vision of one college in threading UDL throughout the entire teacher preparation program. Explicitly teaching and modeling of the UDL principles, guidelines, and checkpoints for conceptual understanding to develop skill acquisition. Additionally, providing multiple opportunities for students to apply the knowledge when they are conducting field work in local schools. Through this process, we pass on the torch of UDL practices used in college classes to K-12 classrooms.

Session Video Recording
Interactive Notes Document

Legislation and policy are shaping the development of all facets of Irish education. Underlining many of these developments are issues embedded in inclusive practice and rights-based approaches to education. This presentation discusses the implications of these approaches with an emphasis on the impact for higher education. Furthermore, the presentation explores accessible practice and current trends around creating accessible educational material as part of an overarching Universal Design for Learning (UDL) approach in one higher education institution in Ireland. The presentation additionally focuses on an accessibility practitioner’s involvement in the development of a Community of Practice (CoP) on campus that would influence and drive more inclusive educational practice. The presentation also discusses the close relationship between UDL, accessibility and technology and the impact that can have on higher education institutions. The presentation concludes with practical tips on developing accessible practice and discuss the inherent benefits of utilizing communities of practice.

Session Video Recording
Slide Deck
Padlet

Convenience and accessibility have instigated strong growth in the deployment of computer facilitated learning, but the wide variations in design approaches seen today indicates the value of promulgating research-based guidelines for these courses. This session examines recent developments in instructional design theories that impact how we prepare and present online content. Special emphasis will be given to the relationship between UDL and the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning, especially how Mayer’s recent research on boundary conditions can support the tenets of UDL for learners of all abilities. Examples of accessible multimedia instruction will be shown, as well as empirical data on the efficacy of various presentation styles. 

Session Video Recording
Slide Deck
Interactive Notes Document

The host of Trending Education, Mike Palmer, facilitates a discussion between Dr. Eric Moore and Dr. Dawn DiPeri. Dr. Eric Moore, an internationally recognized Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Accessibility consultant, specializes in the theory and practice of UDL, especially in the context of higher education. Dr. Dawn DiPeri is a Learning Designer at Harvard University. In this podcast, the three of them discuss UDL and its impact on Instructional Design. Together they explore the deep connections between UDL, access, the Digital Divide, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) in the podcast, Exploring Universal Design for Learning with Dr. Eric Moore.