I love universal design for learning and here's why (plus one micro gripe)

Aster Cosmos (P. Abramson)

If you've spoken to me for more than fifteen minutes there's a very good chance we'll start talking about accessible design practices — or more accurately I'll monologue while you become my captive audience for the next hour! 🤣

So I thought I'd take the time to explain some ideas in the inclusive and equitable education space as well as my own particular love for universal design for learning (UDL). I also have one little gripe but it's less about any given accessible design framework and more systemic. Stay tuned till the end for that one!

Inclusive education practices: why do they matter?

One of the most important things to understand is that students are not done homogenous collective, they aren't input output machines where one singular approach will land the same way for everyone.

In fact there is an incredibly diversity of need, interests, backgrounds and experiences students carry with them into the classroom. So why do we expect everyone to fit into the same 1.5m cutout of a student?

Let’s examine some of the keywords that might come up in inclusive education as I think this makes the importance more obvious.

• Inclusive

• Equitable

• Accessible

So if one builds something that is not engaging in any such practices, perhaps it makes sense for us to consider the antonyms to these words:

• Exclusionary

• Inequitable

• Inaccessible

Allow me to direct you dear reader to this point within the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (article 26 (1) and (2)):

1. Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.

2. Education shall be directed to the full development of the human personality and to the strengthening of respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It shall promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial or religious groups, and shall further the activities of the United Nations for the maintenance of peace.

And perhaps also, look at this point within the Australian Disability Discrimination Act (1992)

(2A) It is unlawful for an education provider to discriminate against a person on the ground of the person’s disability:

(a) by developing curricula or training courses having a content that will either exclude the person from participation, or subject the person to any other detriment; or

(b) by accrediting curricula or training courses having such a content.

Inclusive education practices: what are they?

At the most basic, this is about considering deeply the assessment, classroom approaches, content and concepts within a subject, course, etc. Who is included and who is excluded? Understanding that it is not helpful to say “I treat every student the same” or “I don’t see colour” when in fact the differences between students, be they sociological, cultural, physical, innate, acquired, etc. create radically different ways of experiencing the world and education itself.

Consider for example the assessment practice of examination/testing. One might on paper argue this is the most fair way to assess with every student marked consistently, performing it at the same time, with the same constraints, and with equal uncertainty as to exactly what will be covered. Let’s not leave this without unpacking the many ways the heterogeneous nature of a cohort creates differences in outcomes which do not necessarily represent actual differences in ability or capability — that which we might call ‘construct irrelevant variance’ in the literature.

Test conditions can be particularly stressful for some students even in the absence of formal diagnoses of mental health conditions and when taking those into account this becomes amplified with that peak stress level compromising student ability to perform their best. The need to stay in a singular spot for a long period of time may be challenging for other medical conditions but also when taking into account sensory processing issues (even being in the presence of a considerable crowd). Even Socio-Economic-Status can influence the experience with some students (but not others) having access to private tutors, quiet places to study, perhaps extra practice test environments through their prior studies. The same point around having access to quiet spaces and time to prepare for a test may also go out the window for parents and those with caring responsibilities. These are all but a few examples of how the multitude of backgrounds, identities and contexts can affect performance in a single assessment item.

While I have not deep dived into every single inclusive education framework available, they will all in some way be identifying approaches to target the diverse challenges and strengths that can arise within a cohort of students.

So tell me about UDL

excitedly claps hands Okay! So there are a lot of things I really love about UDL (Universal Design for Learning), one aspect is the way it remains a living framework that continues to be updated with time. In my work, I worked with a colleague to put together some thinking prompts as cards to help people design with UDL in mind — not long after we had printed off a good dozen or more sets, the guidelines had changed 😂

Another key element I love about UDL is the proactive nature, it’s about designing things to reduce the likelihood that someone will need to ask for adjustments or support (it can’t completely eliminate but does reduce) which is good as many people might not even realise they are having to work harder than others due to the design of the learning experience — even if they did they might not think to (or feel comfortable to) ask for support!

Universal Design for Learning captures a diversity across:

• mobility and sensory spaces

  • e.g. ensuring that materials are provided in multiple formats such as written/audio/video, interactions are available through multiple forms such as keyboard vs mouse, etc.

• cultural diversity

  • e.g. ways of knowing, sharing knowledge, communication practices, representation, etc.

• needs for agency and motivation

  • e.g. thinking about might inspire students by aligning tasks to relevant societal challenges, showcasing the connection of what they are learning to real-world context, allowing students to self-select how they are assessed, topics they focus on, etc.

• The need for scaffolding and guidance in both technical knowledge/skills but also broader ‘study skills’ contextualised to the learning

  • e.g. suggested timelines and ways to breakdown large projects, guidelines and checklists for processes they are internalising, etc.

• and many others

The entire breadth of UDL is well beyond what I can cover in (what I planned to be) a relatively brief commentary but you can get at the live version on the cast website:

• https://udlguidelines.cast.org/

One little example…

Just to give one specific example to show case how UDL might apply to a single context. Imagine at first students are provided with a 2 hour video from a lecture about some topic of interest, let’s say… the design of a good pun. We can assume students might have taken this subject as they wish to make people laugh, that’s a motivating aspect one can connect with by inviting them to consider a pun that made them laugh as this could form part of the narrative through the sequence of learning. At each stage the relevance is kept strong by asking students to reflect on how the principles apply to that pun they enjoyed, meanwhile they start to get ideas for a pun of their own.

With an understanding of cognitive load and that students might need to go back and forth through different parts, the video would be broken up into segments with clear names and descriptions to allow students to move back and forth with the parts that need their focus (especially as they engage in activities at each stage that require them to practice and apply their learnings and discover some of the pitfalls that can arise).

In understanding that video is not an accessible format for everyone, a transcript is provided and the audio describes any on-screen features in the video. To focus attention, each segment has guidance around strategies students can employ to learn from the video as well as definitions for key terms that will come up within the materials.

I could continue to go on about more and more changes to transform the 2 hour lecture video into a structured, carefully sequenced set of multimodal learning opportunities, but I think you get the idea now! One of the nice things is that every change has value, even if one is not in a position to implement everything, overall the result is more accessible than it was before.

But… isn't that just good teaching practice?

Yes.

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I really wanted to just leave this as a snarky yes but looks like I'm gonna say more. It’s too easy for folks to see “inclusive design” as an optional extra that can be done once the product is “complete”, that it’s for ‘diverse’* students

*note that a singular person cannot be ‘diverse’, diversity is something held by a group and when you identify one or more people as ‘diverse’ in comparison to some ‘normal’ group, one is simply engaging in an act of othering that reproduces the same structural issues that make systems exclusionary in the first place.

Really though, it’s about how we ensure all of our students can be successful in their learning, it’s as simple as that, and if we don’t do it we’re actually setting them up to fail. Taking an equity and accessibility lens upon one’s teaching will make that teaching practice better and allow more students to participate meaningfully and engage. Even if one doesn’t do this explicitly, by regularly reflecting on and improving teaching practice based on what one sees in working with their students, it’s likely that at least some elements of inclusive practice will find their way in (for instance, taking the time to connect and build rapport with students, coming up with a variety of examples to motivate students, provide multiple formats for material, etc.). This is something I notice in my work with really engaging, effective educators, they have (often unknowingly) built in elements of inclusive teaching practice into what they do, because… it simply works! It helps their students!

Okay that all sounds great mate, please spill the tea, what's your gripe and why should we care?

A small but significant issue

So this is where I have to take a step back from the direct teacher-student interface. Again, I love these lenses and guidelines to how we do teaching but there is a critical element that I have never seen directly presented within these.

What teachers do for students is only part of the context. We could extend these to look at systems involved such as how administrative processes, IT artefacts, etc. play into things, but I want to examine instead the teachers themselves. It’s amazing to have so many dedicated teachers putting the work into creating really nurturing, motivating and accessible learning experiences for students but they too exist within a system, a workplace; shouldn't accessible practice apply to them?

In airplane safety demonstrations, we are always told to put our own oxygen mask on before helping someone else with theirs. This applies easily in any space we are broadly supporting others (whether with wellbeing or otherwise). We can’t help someone else if we aren’t looking after ourselves, and equally organisations need to support their staff for their staff to do their jobs effectively.

If teachers are to help students thrive, they themselves need to be able to. This is the part I always feel is lacking, that these kinds of guidelines typically just speak to how students experience their learning but this is only part of the story as we need staff to have their wellbeing supported, to have accessible workplaces and systems, etc. so that they have the cognitive real estate available to do more than simply get to the end of the day.

This to me is particularly salient as I think of any number of change management frameworks which speak of things like “early adopters” vs “late” or perhaps the latter might be labelled as “recalcitrant”. This is in part me speaking to my own philosophy but I truly believe that most people want to do the right thing, most of the time, but are simply doing the best they can with what they have and sometimes, doing the right thing is actually made harder by the structures we occupy.

So yes, let’s make sure we remove barriers to student success and engagement, but let’s also make sure to remove the barriers that arise for staff who support those students. A truly whole-of-organisation approach is what I’m calling for.

Thanks for reading Liberate Learning! I love universal design for learning and here's why (plus one micro gripe)