Universal Design




Link to Language Magazine

Smart form the Start
The Promise of Universal Design for Learning

This article describes the difficulties encountered in education and learning when space and materials are not accessible for all students, including those with disabilities. Over the years, thanks to initiatives such as the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, the physical space of buildings and classrooms have gained more attention. A more universal design needed to be developed and found to be most cost effective if addressed at the onset of building plans, rather than as an afterthought.

Universal design can also be applied to curricula, materials, and methods. As the development of better, faster technology continues to hit the market, materials and tools such as eBooks, with “read-out-loud”, translators, visual aids, provide for faster more challenging and effective differentiation. Traditional tools and methods are proving suboptimal for teaching in today’s Information Age.

The push for more universal designs is backed by research and pedagogical reasoning such as Vygotsky’s belief that learning can only take place once certain aspects have been addressed, namely the learner’s ability to recognize patterns in sensory data, have one or more strategies for operating on perceived patterns and be engaged by both the strategy and the sensory data in which they are being applied.  These conditions can be met by providing more access to braille, read out loud texts, translations for emergent bilinguals, and more accessible differentiation for the learning impaired.  

This platform changes the teacher’s role in the classroom in that it provides teachers with a more enhanced ability to manipulate the presentation of the information as well as the way it is assessed.  A study/project was conducted using the E-Textbook with high school students and it resulted in an improved understanding of UDL as well as a set of guidelines for publishers that want to incorporate UDL in technology-based products. This may lead to an influence in national and international standards for electronic educational curricula and materials by informing state and national efforts.

Comments

  1. ellenMarch 17, 2018 at 5:06 PM

    Greetings Bridgette,
    You offer an excellent overview of the concepts, benefits, and ideal materialization of universal design. I'm intrigued by the idea of universal design in relation to the article I read, “Dis/ability Critical Race Studies: Theorizing at the intersections of Race + Dis/ability” by Subini Annamma, David Connor, and Beth Ferri. The theorists and authors of this "Dis/ability Critical Race Studies" challenge notions of "normalcy" in relation to race and dis/ability, concepts that cannot be extrapolated from each other. By definition, the push for universal design includes other groups of people who have been marginalized in society, and consequently educational institutions. Indeed, universal design promotes accessibility for the material components of education, such as desks, walkways, entrances, computers, writing instruments, etc.; yet, diverse racial representation in education also encompass material components, such as books, posters, computers, writing instruments, etc. I wonder how we as educators could contribute to a dialogue and potential policy reformation that challenges "racist and ableist" views by promoting universal design in infrastructure, curriculum, and teacher representation?

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Critical Pedagogy

Image
Franchesca Ramsey and Paulo Freire both touch upon a very important point. It is important to walk the walk. Franchesca says that in fact, among her tips for being a good ally, the most important one is using “Ally” as a verb. It is pointless to say that you are going to help the marginalized if you don’t actually get up and try to make an impact. The same sentiment is expressed and demonstrated by the way Paulo led his life. He was committed to changing the status quo by pursuing a less dehumanizing, more humane world for all. According to him, educators play a huge role in this and they need to recognize their power as a source of political awareness.             As someone who grew up in a family where politics were not discussed, because “beggars cannot be choosers”, it has been a huge learning curve for me, particularly over the past few years with all of the attention received by our last president and constant t...
Read more

Deconstructing Disability

Ways To Reteach Disability ·       Teach “difference”- differences are viewed subjectively. Compare and contrast how the non-disabled and the disabled view “disability”. Use documentary video and films to demonstrate perspectives. ·       Discuss disability-related language- avoid putting down disability by using phrases such as “That’s retarded”, “are you deaf?”. ·       Contemplate disability as a minority label ·       Study the meaning of the words “able” and “disabled”. ·       Teach the history of people with disabilities, including the disability rights movement ·       Analyze stereotypes of “good guys” and “bad guys”-portraying certain disabilities as indicators. ·       Critique representations of disability in films, literature and cartoons ·     ...
Read more

Care

Image
              In “Nice is not Enough. Defining Caring for Students of Color”, Sonia Nieto attempts to describe what real “care” should look like in a classroom composed of students of color. She mentions Rosalie Rolòn-Do’s perspective which calls for a “response to students’ actual personal  ives and to the institutional barriers they encounter as members of racialized groups. Teachers must understand individual students within their concrete sociopolitical contexts and devise specific pedagogical and curricular strategies to help them navigate those contexts successfully.” I agree whole heartedly with what she is saying but it also fills me with anxiety because I wish I could spend a whole day and school year getting to know my class. Some students are only with me for a semester and making time to get to know them can easily be misconstrued as targeting them.   However, my best friend in this endeavor continues to be my beginni...
Read more