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)

Earlywood Educational Services and Goalbook partnered to explore how perceptions of educators’ self-efficacy influence educator practice in applying UDL strategies to support specially designed instruction (SDI) and foster collaboration with general educators in supporting ALL students with MTSS-appropriate tier 1 best practices. 

This interactive session will dive into the findings from years 1 and 2 of this mixed-methods inquiry. The successes, challenges, and findings of UDL strategy implementation by special education personnel provide valuable insights into the connection between special educator efficacy as an “expert learning specialist” to the utilization of UDL strategies as a co-contributor to teaching and learning in the general education classroom to address learner needs.

Session Video Recording
Padlet

The CAPMSE design team worked collaboratively to build a K-8 math and science lesson repository. The design team vetted lessons based on the Universal Design for Learning framework. The intention of the repository was to have ready-to-use k-8 math and science lessons that were accessible in a distance learning environment, a digital environment, and/or an in-person classroom setting. 

Analyzing lessons and recognizing barriers, the need for UDL was critical to optimize learning for all students, especially in the mist of the pandemic. Utilizing the UDL framework, lessons were redesigned and became the skeletal frame to guide the learning in the lessons. 

Session Video Recording
Slide Deck
California Partnership for Math and Science Education Framework
Infographic
CAMPSE Math and Science Repository

This session is supported by current research and will provide attendees with strong evidence related to the outcomes of UDL implementation. We employed resources to work with and support staff across a Higher Education Institute to build greater capacity to curriculum design and teaching practices to ensure a positive student experience with robust academic standards which contributes significantly to increasing retention. Establishing a strategic UDL work plan that includes a collaborative and interdisciplinary project with key initiative activities, ensures the findings add to the theoretical discourse of how accessibility can be facilitated through UDL.

Session Video Recording

How do we utilize UDL as a tool for systemic change – and in a way that deliberately addresses equity for all learners? Join us to for a conversation and learn more about how Teach For America has worked to embed learner variability, UDL, and our ability to dismantle ableism as it intersects with other forms of oppression in throughout our model – our teacher training, ongoing teacher support, structures for adult learners, and more. We’ll spotlight some key moments that have led to this change and what we’re planning to do next.

Session Video Recording
Slide Deck
Reflection and Planning Sheet

50% of K-12 students struggle with their communication skills, and 86% of students with SpLDs experience communication anxiety. An effective tool that supports these concerns is essential for the classroom, higher education, and the workplace. Present Pal is a UDL implementation tool that supports users to build their communication skills and confidence through interactive and accessible flashcards. This session will demonstrate the Present Pal app and how it grows and supports UDL teaching and learning. Innovative research will also be presented, discussing the challenges faced by students when communicating and presenting remotely.

Before You Begin

Please complete our collaborative “Introduce Yourself” Google Slides deck. The idea behind this being getting the conversation started around our session and getting connected before we dive into content!

Session Video Recording
Slide Deck
Session Handout

Teachers and practitioners who are involved in the ongoing “emergency” remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic are being faced with common barriers as they navigate the online learning “landscape”. This session will provide a map of four of the biggest issues facing online instruction. Concrete solutions for each of these issues utilizing Universal Design for Learning will be brainstormed with the session participants.

Session Video Recording
Padlet
Page of Everything
Slide Deck

Distance learning has been a challenge for many educators, families, and students, including the millions of students who learn and think differently. Students who struggle academically or who typically receive individual  support in school are more likely to fall behind during distance learning. Research shows that students who also come from other underserved communities, including students of color and emergent bilinguals, have been particularly affected. This toolkit—created in partnership with the National Center for Learning Disabilities—is intended to help classroom teachers meet the needs of all students at this critical moment.

u.org/DistanceLearning
Session Video Recording

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