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.

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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!

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This presentation will provide an overview of existing technology-based interventions that support writing instruction for students with high-incidence disabilities. Innovative technology-based graphic organizers (TBGOs) with embedded self-regulated learning strategies and UDL supports will be shared. The results of the TBGOs testing with more than 1,000 3rd-12th grade students including 800 struggling writers with and without high-incidence disabilities and ELLs will be discussed. Students’ and teachers’ perceptions will be shared.

Session Video Recording

The goal of special education is to provide students with disabilities with services and supports, which often leads to a deficit view of disability. What if that narrative of support is actually what is preventing teachers from seeing their students as expert learners? The purpose of this session is to share our vision of an undergraduate special education course in which UDL was both deeply embedded as well as part of the content taught to pre-service teachers. Data showing ways in which pre-service teachers shifted their perspectives about students with disabilities and how they learn will also be shared.

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Children with disabilities are among the world’s most marginalized learners, and are disproportionately affected by the global learning crisis. Over 100 million children with disabilities worldwide are deprived of a meaningful education, leaving them without marketable skills and with little possibility of pursuing further education. Learners with disabilities represent a significant percentage of the 387 million primary-age children around the world who are unable to read, write, or do math. The human and dollar cost of this exclusion is significant. Countries lose billions of dollars of potential income when people with disabilities are not educated or working.

USAID’s Education Policy, and The U.S. Government Strategy on International Basic Education, call for a world where education systems in partner countries enable all individuals to acquire the education and skills needed to be productive members of society. USAID recognizes that, in order to improve learning outcomes worldwide and to expand access to school for the most marginalized, we must prioritize the education of learners with disabilities. At USAID, we understand that disability-inclusive schooling improves educational outcomes for all. We also partner with our fellow U.S. government agencies to promote a holistic approach to education for students with disabilities, so that they can both attend school and learn essential skills for future study and employment.

USAID is firmly committed to ensuring that national governments and their donor and civil society partners, particularly Disabled Persons Organizations (DPOs) and the families of children with disabilities, have the resources they need to enable students with disabilities to learn to read. Reading is the foundational skill necessary for all other academic progress. Sadly, in many contexts, children with disabilities are unlikely to go to school, let alone learn to read. Yet, we know that, through knowledgeable collaboration between education authorities, schools, DPOs, parents, and communities, we can create learning environments where students with disabilities learn to read.

This toolkit is designed to provide educators and their partners with a first-of-its-kind resource to do just that. Readers will find here easy-to-use explanations of the principles of universal design for learning (UDL). UDL is an approach to instruction that prioritizes meeting the needs of learners with disabilities. When UDL is applied to reading instruction, both students with and without disabilities learn how to read and prepare themselves for lifelong success.