# data[].attributes.headline
Welcome to my digital resource about UDL and Assistive Technology!

# data[].attributes.subject
Welcome to my digital resource about UDL and Assistive Technology!

# data[].attributes.body
As advocates of inclusive education, special educators often look for ways to remove barriers and build bridges that give every child a chance to access their education and live full, meaningful lives. Both Universal Design for Learning and Assistive Technology provide tools that help teachers create cohesive learning experiences that include every learner, regardless of abilities or preferences.

This page is a collection of resources that can be used to help any educator, parent, advocate or learner as they continue on their journey in inclusive education.

Included in this resource are overviews of the components of UDL, areas where Assistive Technology can fill gaps, as well as multiple digital resources for further reading.

# data[].attributes.body
Until the decade when I was born (the 1970s), schools could choose to refuse to educate students who had mental or physical disabilities. Considering that access to a free and appropriate education is a right that is only 50 years old, it's not surprising that we're still learning how to meet the needs of learners who don't fit in easy boxes.

Universal Design for Learning is an education framework that puts the work of removing barriers on the educator, not the learner. UDL says that strong teachers can design lessons that anticipate the variability of learners while acknowledging their strengths, preferences, and the neuroplasticity of their brains. Practitioners of UDL believe they can strengthen the neural pathways of every learner by offering options in three areas: engagement, representation and action and expression.

Multiple Means of Engagement means that the teacher creates avenues to connect with the interest areas of their learners, that they provide options for sustaining effort and that they provide opportunities for increasing self-regulation. These checkpoints will help the student find their motivation to be purposeful learners.

Multiple Means of Representation means that the teacher provides choices in perception, or what students see as material is presented, as well as options in comprehension and supports in language and symbols. With these checkpoints, students can learn that they are resourceful and knowledgeable learners.

Finally, through Multiple Means of Action and Expression, teachers allow their students to choose from multiple options to navigate the material, to express and communicate what they know, and to support their own executive functioning skills.

# data[].attributes.headline
Multiple Means of Action and Expression - The "How" of Learning 

# data[].attributes.subject
Multiple Means of Action and Expression - The "How" of Learning 

# data[].attributes.body
Every learner comes to the classroom with different physical, cognitive, and emotional capabilities. For most of history, educators, policy makers and curriculum companies have tailored instruction to the "average" learner. By recognizing the strengths of students on the margins, teachers can create learning experiences that meet every need.

Provide Options for Physical Action

Vary methods for response and navigation by offering tools like Bookshare, a free tool that offers over a million ebooks with audio reading, highlighted text, braille, large font and other formats. The innovators of UDL, CAST, also have a digital inclusive reading platform called Clusive. Optimize access to assistive technologies by becoming familiar and comfortable with Google's Accessibility features for Android, Chromebook and apps like Google Calendar, Gmail and Google docs. Did you know Google can display Braille?

Provide Options for Expression & Communication

Voicethread is a tool that allows creators to compose and collaborate orally. Another valuable tool for composition and construction is Flipboard, a video app that targets the Tiktok/Youtube generation. Build fluencies with graduated levels of support with a tool like Edpuzzle, an interactive video platform that provides data to teachers on their students' performance so they can immediately differentiate lessons.

Provide Options for Executive Functions

Help students develop goal setting skills with Kid Rewards, an online sticker chart. Support planning and strategy development as well as management of information with a tool like Popplet, a digital, kid-friendly mind-mapping tool. Nurture your students' ability to monitor progress by letting them practice giving feedback through a tool like Peergrade, an app that lets students review each others' work and provide feedback to each other.

# data[].attributes.headline
Multiple Means of Engagement - The "Why" of Learning

# data[].attributes.subject
Multiple Means of Engagement - The "Why" of Learning

# data[].attributes.body
Why should your learner care about what you're teaching? Unless they can attach meaning to your material, you might as well be teaching into a void, especially if your students have more developmental or cognitive barriers than their peers.

UDL addresses the critical role of engagement through three guidelines: recruiting interest, providing options for sustaining effort and perseverance, and providing options for self regulation. Within these guidelines are checkpoints that can point you into the right direction and give you ideas on how to connect your material to your students.

Provide Options for Recruiting Interest

Optimize choices and autonomy for students through survey tools as simple as Google Forms. Optimize relevance to their lives by finding videos that feature children their age engaging with the material on Youtube. Minimize student distraction by creating simple interactive checklists on Google Keep.

Provide Options for Sustaining Effort & Persistence

Classdojo uses points to encourage positive behavior and provides immediate feedback to students when they succeed. Vary demands and resources to optimize challenges by "gamifying" material through Kahoot, the game-based learning platform that teachers can utilize with students throughout the day. Foster collaboration and community by allowing students to collaborate with each other through platforms like Padlet, Trello, and collaborative tools in the Google Suite.

Provide options for Self Regulation

Use a simple Smart Goals Template to help students create realistic, achievable goals. GoNoodle is a video channel on Youtube that includes meditation and mindfulness videos for elementary aged children. This article from the nonprofit education website Edutopia highlights the importance of metacognition as a tool for self-regulation. For additional tools, Dr. Stuart Shanker and the Self Regulation Institute has a library of resources at the Mehrit Center.

# data[].attributes.body
Children who struggle with short term memory, planning ahead and organize their ideas can benefit from tools to help them increase their executive function capabilities. Examples of assistive technology that can help them focus include online timers from Youtube and Google Keep's visual organization platform. This First/Then visual schedule app translates the first/then tool to a digital resource, and Mindful Powers offers kid friendly mindfulness activities and games that can be practiced as a whole group or individually.

For more tools and ideas on how to use technology to promote executive function in children, Dr. Peg Dawson of "Smart But Scattered" offers online courses on how to help children focus.

# data[].attributes.body
With the digital revolution, multiple technologies have emerged to bring access to books to all learners. Among them are Clusive, the personalized online digital resource from the experts at CAST, as well as Ghotit, an app that targets people with dyslexia and dysgraphia. Reading Eggs is a widely popular app that helps students progress systematically through phonics lessons. Beeline uses gradient color to make online text more reader friendly and Wordsift.org is another tool that provide background wordmaps to access background information on unfamiliar vocabulary.

# data[].attributes.headline
Multiple Means of Representation - The "What" of Learning

# data[].attributes.subject
Multiple Means of Representation - The "What" of Learning

# data[].attributes.body
We all take the world in differently. Good teachers understand that their students need multiple ways to interact with content before they can truly absorb it. By approaching lessons with a UDL mindset, educators can create more opportunities for their students to connect with content.

Provide Options for Perception

Customize the display of online information with a tool like Beeline Reader, which applies a color gradient to text to make it easier and more pleasurable to read. Learn how to deliver alternatives to auditory information with Signing Savvy, a website that generates sign language videos when you type in words and phrases. Offer alternatives for visual information by utilizing Microsoft's Seeing AI, an app that describes text, currency, people, and images for people who are vision impaired.

Provide Options for Language & Symbols

Provide clarification for vocabulary and symbols with Visuwords.com, a website that provides an interactive visual web for any word that you type into its search engine. Help students decode math symbols and notations with WolframAlpha, the site that provides step by step solutions to math problems. Illustrate through multiple medias by exploring Google's Arts and Culture page to find visual resources connected to your content. One resource many children are already familiar with in the area of math is Sal Khan's Khan Academy, which has helped students decode and understand math since 2006.

Provide Options for Comprehension

Activate background knowledge with the popular Youtube channel CrashCourse, a kid-friendly, animated series that has over a thousand videos on history, social science, life science, literature and more topics.

# data[].attributes.headline
Using Assistive Technology to Communicate

# data[].attributes.subject
Using Assistive Technology to Communicate

# data[].attributes.body
For children who struggle with communicating their wants, needs and knowledge, there are new tools emerging every day. Proloquo is an app that offers simple illustrations that give nonverbal students a voice. Likewise, Google's simple speech to text tool provides a writing tool for people who struggle with writing. Storybird is a book writing tool that connects children's original writing with illustrations to create their own books and expert Don Johnston's Co:Writer tool uses smart technology to provide predictive grammar to facilitate better writing from students.