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Most groups in educational institutions, workplaces, and other settings are diverse with respect to background, cultural and gender identity, first language, socioeconomic status, age, abilities, learning preferences, and myriad other characteristics. All people have an intersecting identity made up of a variety of these unique facets. Some of us have characteristics considered by many to be “disabilities,” including people who are blind, are deaf or hard of hearing, are on the autism spectrum, and have mobility impairments, attention deficits, learning disabilities, and health impairments. How can educators design instruction to maximize the learning of all students? How can employers create environments to maximize productivity of all employees? How can IT professionals procure and develop products that are accessible to and useable by everyone? How can student services make their offerings inclusive of everyone? A number of proactive approaches discussed in the literature consider a broad audience in design practices. They include universal design, accessible design, barrier-free design, usable design, inclusive design, and design for all. Of the proactive design approaches, there is no approach that addresses greater user diversity than universal design (UD).
Although UD has its roots in the design field of architecture and commercial products and information technology (IT), applications in education are growing in number. UD can provide a philosophical framework for the design of all products and environments at all education levels—including technology, teaching and learning activities, academic spaces, student services and professional meetings. The paragraphs that follow flesh out the Framework for applying UD in education (UDE). Important aspects to address include the scope of the application area, definition, principles, guidelines, exemplary practices, and process. What is the scope of your application?The scope of applications of UD in Higher Education (UDHE) includes all products and environments that directly or indirectly support teaching and learning in higher education. Examples of more narrowly defined scopes are applications of UD to online learning, informal science learning, student services, IT, or physical spaces. What is the definition of UD?
According to the Center for Universal Design, UD is "the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design." To narrow the scope, this definition can be modified. For example, to apply UD to teaching and learning activities, this basic definition can be modified to "the design of teaching and learning products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design." Characteristics of any UD product or environment are that it is accessible, usable, and inclusive. What are principles and guidelines relevant to UDE?Three sets of principles provide guidance for applying universal design regardless of the scope. 1. Principles of UDThe seven principles of universal design established by the Center for Universal Design at North Carolina State were developed to guide the design of any product, service, or environment. They follow along with an example of the application of each.
It’s important to integrate relevant disability, accessibility, and universal design content into engineering courses to increase knowledge and skills among future professionals. This will lead to a workforce that is aware of and more capable of addressing accessibility barriers. Find curriculum around universal design on our website. 2. Principles of UDLUniversal design principles can be applied to many environments, products, and services, including learning environments, resources, and methods of instruction. Three principles have been established for the universal design of teaching and learning materials and activities that makes the learning goals achievable by individuals with diverse characteristics, including wide differences in abilities to see, hear, speak, move, read, write, understand English, attend, organize, engage, and remember. Universal design for learning (UDL) is achieved by means of flexible curricular materials and activities that provide alternatives for students with differing abilities. These alternatives are built into the instructional design and operating systems of educational materials-they are not added on after-the-fact. The Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) created a set of three principles with roots in cognitive neuroscience to underpin practices and curriculum for teaching and learning. The UDL principles are listed below.
3. Principles for the UD OF ITThe third set of principles to support the UD Framework provide guidance to the design of IT used in many products and environments. In the early years of the Internet, UD practices began to be applied to the design of hardware and software to ensure accessibility to individuals with disabilities, English language learners, and other groups. These efforts led to the Web Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and related practices are underpinned by four guiding principles. Together, they require IT components to be these four qualities:
How the three sets of principles and guidelines work together in a specific application
The combination of the principles discussed above can be used to universally design almost any product or environment. In higher education, for example the combined set can be applied to make more inclusive physical spaces, instruction, and online resources. Rather than memorize the fourteen principles that underpin universal design in education (UDE), however, practitioners work toward compliance with them by following three simple guidelines:
One of the challenges in the current state of applications of UD, UDL, UD of IT, is the three different communities engaged in most efforts in each category rarely talk to one another. UD advocates have made strides in the movement to design living spaces that are are usable by people with disabilities or as they age, but not so much in the design of labs and other academic facilities; UDL advocates sometimes apply the three principles but use inaccessible IT in doing so; and UD of IT advocates often look at the design of technology used b educational settings, but not how it interacts with the pedagogy used to deliver instruction. A great example of how these three sets of principles can be integrated together is when designing a class. Whether the class is in-person or online, the design of the class should strive to be inclusive to all students, including those with disabilities, and allow all students to access the content of the course and fully participate in class activities. Universal design principles can apply to lectures, classroom discussions, group work, handouts, web-based instruction, fieldwork, and other academic activities. The 7 Principles of UD are particularly helpful when designing instructional facilities like computer labs; the 3 Principles of UDL guide the development of teaching curriculum and pedagogy; and the 4 Principles for the UD of IT that underpin the WCAG guide the creation and use of IT used in any application to ensure that it is accessible to, usable by, and inclusive of everyone, including those with disabilities. The following examples for the Universal Design of Instruction that employ all three sets of UD principles were developed by the AccessCollege project of the DO-IT Center with input from a nationwide collaborative team. There are eight areas of application.
Although applying universal design of instruction (UDI) does not eliminate the need for special accommodations—e.g., a sign language interpreter for a deaf student—it does ensure full access to the content for most students. By applying UDI in courses as they are created, educators minimize the need to make accommodations later. For example, letting all students have access to your class notes and assignments on an accessible website can eliminate the need for providing materials in alternate formats. For more information on accommodations and examples of what to plan for, visit our Accommodations pages. What are UD practices associated with application areas?The UD Framework can be further fleshed out by developing examples of practices that can be employed by individuals who wish to apply it to a particular application. For example, in the publication Equal Access: Universal Design of Instruction you will find a comprehensive list of examples, each explicitly linked to one or more of the principles of UD, UDL, and IT.” The AccessCollege collaborative team helped develop lists of examples for the UD of practices that are reported in The Center for Universal Design in Education. There you will find practices aligned with the UD of The following table provides examples of practices that build upon each of the items in the four sets of principles that underpin the UD Framework.
Source: Burgstahler, S. (2020). Creating inclusive learning opportunities in higher education: A universal design toolkit. Harvard Education Press, p. 45. What is the process for applying UD?
Process is the last item in the UD Framework. The following list provides an example of a process for applying universal design in higher education (UDHE). It can be adapted to any application of UD.
Source: Burgstahler, S. (2020). Creating inclusive learning opportunities in higher education: A universal design toolkit. Harvard Education Press, p. 47–8. For Further Study of the UD FrameworkFind further details and more examples about the UD Framework in the book Creating Inclusive Learning Opportunities in Higher Education: A Universal Design Toolkit and at the Center for the Universal Design in Education. About DO-ITDO-IT (Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and Technology) serves to increase the successful participation of individuals with disabilities in challenging academic programs such as those in science, engineering, mathematics, and technology. Primary funding for DO-IT is provided by the National Science Foundation, the State of Washington, and the U.S. Department of Education. DO-IT is a collaboration of UW Information Technology and the Colleges of Engineering and Education at the University of Washington. Grants and gifts fund DO-IT publications, videos, and programs to support the academic and career success of people with disabilities. Contribute today by sending a check to DO-IT, Box 354842, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195-4842. Your gift is tax deductible as specified in IRS regulations. Pursuant to RCW 19.09, the University of Washington is registered as a charitable organization with the Secretary of State, state of Washington. For more information call the Office of the Secretary of State, 1-800-322-4483. To order free publications or newsletters use the DO-IT Publications Order Form; to order videos and training materials use the Videos, Books and Comprehensive Training Materials Order Form. For further information, to be placed on the DO-IT mailing list, request materials in an alternate format, or to make comments or suggestions about DO-IT publications or web pages contact: DO-IT University of Washington Box 354842 Seattle, WA 98195-4842
509-328-9331 (voice/TTY) Spokane Founder and Director: Sheryl Burgstahler, Ph.D. DO-IT Funding and Partners AcknowledgmentThis publication is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Education. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the federal government. Copyright © 2021, 2015, 2012, 2009, 2008, 2006, 2005, 2004, University of Washington. Permission is granted to copy these materials for educational, noncommercial purposes provided the source is acknowledged. |