Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an educational framework that helps to guide the creation of materials, methods, and assessments for diverse learners, recognizing that “variability [among learners] is the rule, not the exception” (David Rose, from the organization).
With UDL, instructors can work to remove barriers to education and empower students by building in options that allow for increased student autonomy, choice, and motivation.
It is important to recognize that despite its name, UDL can never be truly universal, and students will always have needs for accommodations that expand beyond adjustments you may make to your course using the principles of UDL. This is not a failure of your work or of UDL, but a recognition that, like everything else in education, one model cannot encapsulate the whole of human diversity.
UDL should therefore be thought of as a tool in one’s educational toolbox, best implemented with a “yes, and” OR mindset, rather than an “either or” approach. The principles of UDL are something to supplement accommodation processes and imbue accessibility into courses, rather than to replace accommodations altogether. It may be helpful to focus on the word “design” in the acronym, to see UDL as an active “way to plan, to foresee, to imagine the future.” (Dolmage, 2017, p.119).
The information and resources offered below provide an overview of the key tenets of UDL using ‘plus one’ thinking to give you simple ways to slowly make your course more accessible.
Three Principles of UDL
1. Multiple means of representation
This principle asks you to present and share information in varied ways with your students to address the WHAT of learning.
Learners differ in the ways that they perceive and comprehend the information presented to them. Factors such as sensory or learning disabilities, language barriers, or cultural differences may impact the ways and speed at which students approach content. Ways to present information or to make the information you’re presenting more accessible might include:
- Providing information on key concepts in multiple mediums (e.g., text and video; podcast and reading)
- Captioning videos
- Making sure your PDFs are accessible using or Ally
- Providing Word docs instead of PDFs where possible
- Ensuring that your onQ page is accessible
- Planning ahead to make sure content is available in the necessary accessible formats.
- Including Alt-Text for all graphs and images
- Assigning books that have an audiobook option available
- Including graphics alongside text explanations
- Providing transcripts of lectures
- Using accessible slides for lectures/tutorials/seminars and giving access to slides ahead of time
2. Multiple means of action and expression
This principle asks you to have a variety of ways for students to demonstrate their knowledge and express what they know to address the HOW of learning.
Learners differ the ways that they navigate learning environments, both online and in person, as well as how they express what they know. Disabilities, language barriers, cultural preferences, executive function capacity, and family knowledge of the university system will all impact how students exist in the educational environment. There is not one way to express learning that will suit all learners at all times. Ways that students can show you they are achieving learning outcomes may include:
- Active learning/participate and write about the experience
- A research paper/lab report/analysis
- A narrative piece, positionality reflection, or poem
- Discussion in class, over email, onQ discussion forums, or meeting in person
- A podcast or video
- Concept maps or infographics
- Annotated bibliographies
- An alternate syllabus or reading list for the course
- Written, open-book, asynchronous, unproctored final exams
- In-person or virtual oral exams
- A student-led/chosen art project of another medium
- Other kinds of either
If your course includes participation grades, aim to provide a variety of ways for students to participate that are equally valued, rather than prioritizing speaking-up in class. Discussion boards, weekly reading reflections, and/or small group work can be less intimidating for some students.
An accessibility checklist for some of these can be found on the CTL website.
3. Multiple means of engagement
This principle asks you to use a variety of activities, interactions, and resources for students to engage with to address the WHY of learning.
Learners differ in how they view learning and success, as well as how they can be engaged or motivated to learn. Cultural values, background knowledge, familial expectations, personal relevance, and other factors can all impact how students look to engage in the course material. Some ways that students engage with the course might include:
- Active learning techniques
- Reading and reflecting
- Guided group work
- Small group or breakout group work
- Think, Pair, Share
- Teaching each other
- Creating things (dioramas, maps, etc.)
- Discussions (in person, through forums)
- Chunked lectures
Regardless of method, the important thing to remember is that every student will be motivated to succeed in the course by different things, and their definition of success might look radically different from your own, or the student next to them. Asking students to identify their own goals in the course and encouraging them in their individual pursuits will help to foster collaboration, and sustain effort and persistence.
So, Where Do I Start?
The three principles of UDL have been developed out by CAST into further guidelines and checkpoints. The UDL anti-checklist further outlines these three principles and simple, actionable steps you can take to implement them in your classroom.
Other great places to start include re-evaluating your syllabus and course policies, exploring how language impacts the accessibility of your classroom, and looking into alternative assignments or ungrading.
Further Reading and Resources:
- (Queen’s CTL and QSAS)
- (University of Calgary)
- Accessible Instruction for Educators training (Queen’s HREO)
- Examples of UDL in practice (Queen’s CTL)
- (University of Calgary)
- to guide conceptual UDL discussions (Camosun College)
Dolmage, J. T. (2017). Academic Ableism: Disability and Higher Education. University of Michigan Press.
Katz, J. (2015). Implementing the Three Block Model of Universal Design for Learning: Effects on teachers’ self-efficacy, stress, and job satisfaction in inclusive classrooms K-12. International Journal of Inclusive Education, 19(1), 1–20.
Kieran, L., & Anderson, C. (2019). Connecting Universal Design for Learning With Culturally Responsive Teaching. Education and Urban Society, 51(9), 1202–1216.
Meyer, Rose, D. H., Gordon, D. T., & Rose, D. H. (2014). Universal Design for Learning: Theory and Practice. CAST Professional Publishing, an imprint of CAST, Inc.
O’Neill, J. L. (2021). Accessibility for All Abilities: How Universal Design, Universal Design for Learning, and Inclusive Design Combat Inaccessibility and Ableism. 9(1), 1–15.
Walters, S. (2010). Toward an Accessible Pedagogy: Dis/ability, Multimodality, and Universal Design in the Technical Communication Classroom. Technical Communication Quarterly, 19(4), 427–454.
Womack, A.M. (2017). Teaching Is Accommodation: Universally Designing Composition Classrooms and Syllabi. College Composition and Communication, 68(3), 494–525.
lets others remix, tweak, and build upon our work non-commercially, as long as they credit us and indicate if changes were made. Use this citation format: Accessibility: Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Centre for Teaching and Learning, Queen’s University
