Only about ten percent of K-12, college, and university courses utilize any form of inclusive design (Lombardi, Murray, & Gerdes, 2011, p. 255). Campus leaders often see Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as a) benefitting only a small segment of learners; b) requiring a significant outlay of time, people, and work; and c) having a limited impact on learner outcomes. This white paper from the author of Reach Everyone, Teach Everyone: UDL in Higher Education(2018) provides use-them-tomorrow strategies to get buy-in, advocacy, and support for UDL adoption from your president, provost, principal, school board, and other institutional leaders.

The explosion of Accessible Educational Materials (AEM) made possible by technologies, materials and manipulatives creates a UDL pathway to using multiple representations of the same object to meet the needs of varying student populations and learning preferences for different attributes; possibly at the same time. Educators have become aware that they can cross over exceptionalities to use materials, manipulatives, and technologies to meet the needs of general education, special education, gifted, sighted, and visually impaired students, etc. In this resource, a modified version of Jerome Bruner’s mathematical Concrete to Abstract theory is used as a mnemonic device to provide an organizational structure for a variety of science materials. This concrete pictorial abstract (CPA) model can be generalized to other subject areas.

The explosion of Accessible Educational Materials (AEM) made possible by technologies, materials, and manipulatives creates a UDL pathway to using multiple representations of the same object to meet the needs of varying student populations and learning preferences at the same time. Educators have become aware that they can cross over exceptionalities to use materials, manipulatives, and technologies to meet the needs of general education, special education, gifted, sighted, visually impaired students, etc. In this resource, a modified version of Jerome Bruner’s mathematical Concrete to Abstract theory is used as a mnemonic device to provide an organizational structure for a variety of science materials. 

Educational materials, one of the four components of a UDL curriculum, must be accessible to students with disabilities if every learner is expected to make progress in the general curriculum. Successful provision of accessible educational materials (AEM) requires comprehensive and collaborative processes for purchasing, selecting, and creating commercial, open, and educator created materials for learning. Key factors can guide educators in setting up such a system, including compliance, timely delivery, written guidelines, professional learning opportunities, data collection, data use, and allocation of resources. This resource explores the Quality Indicators for the Provision of AEM, including a tool that curriculum and procurement teams can use for continuous self-assessment and progress monitoring.

The social-emotional needs of students are a crucial component when designing an accessible, flexible, barrier-free environment. Within the realm of social-emotional needs are the experiences of introverts and extroverts. Understanding the recognized traits, along with myths and facts, can better prepare educators as they design their lessons and environments.

As presented in the UDL Guidelines, teachers can optimize access to learning by providing learners with options for both perceiving information and for physically interacting with curriculum materials. Designing for accessibility is foundational to meeting these UDL checkpoints. The POUR (Perceivable, Operable, Understandable, Robust) accessibility principles from the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) are outlined in this resource, serving as a guide for helping teachers create educational materials that follow accessibility best practices in order to remove barriers to learning.

Supporting every student means celebrating strengths and ensuring the curriculum is accessible to all students. This document summaries a session delivered at the UDL-IRN Summit, focusing on sharing on sharing the learning of the opportunities and challenges associated with advancing educator practice in Universal Design for Learning in a district where full inclusion is the standard within all 38 schools: elementary and secondary. It will share the story of how a variety of organizational barriers had to be removed in order to create fertile ground to advance student-centered pedagogy. The strategic moves that were made as a district have energized its system and are supporting the goal of creating expert learners, young and old!

Oconomowoc Area School District, Oconomowoc, WI, is in its 5t​h year of UDL Implementation. Consuming and interpreting data has helped it become more streamlined and focused when implementing UDL district wide. From the district level, to classrooms, to students, data and UDL help teachers address learner variability more strategically. A common, shared vision among stakeholders is important throughout implementation. This paper focuses on how data and UDL are interwoven in our District Strategic Direction, Building level Goals, School Wide Learning Outcomes/Professional Growth Plans, and Student-Centered planning.

Following directions, beginning an assignment, knowing how to respond to open-ended questions or prompts, managing time and materials, making a plan, and prioritizing what is most important rely on the brain’s most complex systems. When such demands outweigh a learner's capacities, educators may observe disengagement, anxiety/irritability, or other task-avoidant behaviors (e.g., impulsivity, procrastination). What do these behaviors signal and how do we best support all learners proactively in order to promote and build the most efficient expert learning skills and strategies? Across contexts, educators can foster executive function (EF) skill development. Doing so starts with an accurate assessment of a learner’s EF functioning, as well as their ability to enact or perform tasks that require EF skills. Next, educators can proactively design and plan curricula to support EF skill acquisition and performance in learning environments, which can have a positive effect on learners. The principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) can assist to integrate resources, provide explicit exposure to, and establish supports in the environment to shape experiences and behaviors to improve expert learning.

Academic Resources at Chattanooga State Community College, in the past few years, has adopted Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles into their course design process for developing successful and engaging online courses. In their research on accessibility and UDL, they have collaborated campuswide as well as with other colleges and universities across their state.

This paper summarizes the Course Design for Student Success in Higher Education session that  wasoffered at UDL-IRN 2018. It will provide Learning Management System (LMS) tools, software, and pedagogy currently used in their course design process that promotes UDL and how their process is tied to the UDL principles. They will also provide recent course examples. This will include recent examples of STEM, Nursing, General Education, and Tennessee Center of Advanced Technology courses. In addition, it will provide resources solutions to common problems that occur during course design/re-design, including common LMS tips and tricks.