Module 1: Designing for Universal Access
Why We Need Universal Design
Michael Nesmith is a creative designer for Amazon. He is deaf, and a native speaker of American Sign language. Listen / watch as he talks about Universal Design and how it's more than just a service for users with disabilities.
Universal Design Benefits Everyone
One size doesn't fit all. Learners--and not just those with disabilities--have a wide range of needs, abilities, and preferences, and increasing the variety of materials and modalities available to them means that more learning can take place.
For this reason, a key principle of Universal Design for Learning is multiplicity:
Multiple means of representation, to give learners various ways of acquiring information and knowledge (WHAT).
Multiple means of expression, to provide learners alternatives for demonstrating what they know (HOW).
Multiple means of engagement, to tap into learners' interests, offer appropriate challenges, and increase motivation. (WHY)
(Source: Harvard Graduate School of Education Links to an external site.)
When learners have many options available to them, they are able to access and process information in the way or ways that work best for them.
More information about the Universal Design for Learning Guidelines Links to an external site.
Don't Wait To Be an Expert
Kyle Redford is a 5th grade teacher at Marin Country Day School, a K-8 school in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is also the education editor for the Yale Center for Dyslexia and Creativity. This is her personal account of her journey toward understanding and implementing principles of Universal Design in her own classroom.
Do any of her insights resonate with you? Have you had similar "teachable moments" in your own educational experience?
The UDL Paradigm Shift
One of the hallmarks of Universal Design is a change in perspective about where the problem lies.
Traditional thinking about accessibility has focused on the disabilities themselves, or on the individuals living with them. For instance, we might see a person in a wheelchair and think, "She isn't able to go to the grocery store by herself."
In contrast, the perspective of Universal Design is to look at the environment (or the building, or the movie, or the website) and evaluate whether it has been built in such a way as to prevent some individuals from having full access to it. In the case above, we would look at the grocery store and think, "That store has a curb that keeps wheelchairs from entering it."
Looking for potential barriers in our materials is a significant shift in viewpoint. It broadens our awareness of others' needs and abilities, and increases our commitment to inclusivity.
When we think about accessibility to web-based materials, many of us focus on visual and auditory issues. We're aware of text-to-speech technology, and we've seen captions on video materials.
But barriers to access have a much wider scope. Disabilities tend to fall across a spectrum, rather than being a yes-or-no proposition. For example, a user may be completely blind, have some residual vision but be legally blind, or have moderate to mild vision loss.
It's also important to remember that a given user may have more than one disability. For example, some users are both deaf and blind; others may have a combination of sensory and motor disabilities.
Removing or mitigating barriers makes our materials more accessible to everyone.
One size doesn't fit all. Learners--and not just those with disabilities--have a wide range of needs, abilities, and preferences, and increasing the variety of materials and modalities available to them means that more learning can take place.
When learners have many options available to them, they are able to access and process information in the way or ways that work best for them.
CAST is a nonprofit education research and development organization that works to expand learning opportunities for all individuals through Universal Design for Learning. They have an excellent set of concise guidelines for Universal Design Links to an external site. on their website.