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Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an educational framework that aims to make learning accessible to students with a wide range of needs and abilities. By focusing on making spaces, content and learning activities accessible to those with disabilities, UDL can benefit all learners, including those without disabilities. But what does UDL look like in practice, and how can we begin applying UDL to any learning environment?

Universal Design: Changing the Environment

UDL grew out of the idea of universal design in architecture and city planning, where ramps and sidewalk curb cuts, for example, were designed to meet disability support needs but ultimately benefited everyone. Without ramps, people who use wheelchairs were often excluded from public spaces, including schools, or had to rely on individual assistance for access, often via separate, locked, employees-only entrances. By installing a ramp on the main entrance of a building, people in wheelchairs can access the building the same way everyone else does. Ramps also provide easier access for many people who would never have sought or qualified for accommodations, like those who are carrying heavy items or wheeling carts or strollers.

Disability advocates coined the term "the curb-cut effect" to describe how changes made for the purpose of disability access have much broader benefits. Changing the environment to make it more accessible-rather than forcing individuals to adapt to the environment-creates equitable spaces that are more inclusive and provide immediate and practical benefits for everyone.

This focus on reimagining the environment has spread beyond disability activism and helped to shape other movements for equity and social justice. Angela Glover Blackwell, a policy expert and equity movement leader, has promoted "the curb-cut effect" as a model for how programs and policies that center the needs of those who are most underserved-such as people with disabilities and people of color-often benefit the rest of society.

Universal Design for Learning and Disability Justice

The same is true of UDL: All students benefit. Most students don't have documented disabilities or accommodations; indeed, the diagnosis, assessment and documentation required to secure effective individual accommodations is often out of reach for many families. Yet all students have access needs-some of which are nearly always met by the default systems and processes, and some of which are not. Students whose needs are not usually met by default are "disabled" by the system's failure to meet their needs. It is the system-not the need-that is disabling. With UDL, careful planning creates systems and processes that meet a greater variety of the predictable needs people have, which normalizes a range of needs and reduces the pressure on students and families to advocate individually.

UDL allows students of varying abilities and disabilities to work together as peers. They learn to understand differences in abilities, needs and strengths, including differences that are not immediately obvious (such as neurodivergent ways of thinking, communicating and perceiving). This understanding will be an asset to them throughout their lives as they experience diverse workplaces and communities and interact with many people whose bodies and minds differ from their own.

By providing students with disabilities with more of the support they need to be successful, UDL also makes it less likely that these students will face disciplinary action because of behaviors that adults don't understand or needs that aren't being met. When their needs are met, students are less likely to get caught up in the school-prison nexus that entangles so many disabled young people in a seemingly inescapable web of unmeetable requirements and violent institutions (See The Pedagogy of Pathologization by Subini Ancy Annamma, Ph.D., for more on this cycle.).

UDL does not replace the need for individual accommodations. It is aspirational in being "universal"; in real-world situations, people sometimes have competing access needs, and we should always be prepared to respond creatively and collaboratively to help learners succeed in their own ways. But UDL is far more beneficial, for many more students, than only making individual accommodations.

UDL aligns with a disability justice model that celebrates people as whole beings in all their complexity, assumes that each body and mind has both strengths and limitations, and emphasizes interdependence over individual achievement. Disability justice and UDL both emphasize that learners are different from one another, and that's okay. Expecting all learners to reach the same objectives on the same timeline is not realistic or just. Expecting the same teaching methods to work for everyone, or expecting students to adapt to educators' methods, doesn't work. Instead, we must design learning experiences on the assumption that learners will have different needs from each other.
[Note on identity-first and person-first language: Many disability advocates prefer person-first language (e.g. "person with a disability") and many others prefer identity-first language (e.g. "disabled person"). Both preferences come from disability advocacy as interventions against ableist implications of language. When talking about a specific person, it's important to use the language that person prefers. For this article-since we are not focusing on a specific identity or person-we've used both.]
Toolkit: Universal Design for Learning in Practice

Universal Design: Questions to Consider

From the beginning, UDL invites educators to ask some critical questions as they plan any lesson, course or learning experience. Being intentional about creating inclusive learning experiences is essential.

Some of the questions may be easy to answer, while others will require more creativity and research and the help of additional resources. The following are some questions to consider as educators plan learning experiences:

What do I know about the diversity of strengths and needs in this group of learners? What don't I know? How can I find out more?

For what kinds of learners would this experience (activity, lesson, etc.) work best? Who would find it most challenging and why? What adjustments could I make so everyone can benefit from it?

What existing knowledge, understanding, skills and capabilities does this activity assume? (For example, does it assume the ability to hear and understand speech quickly? Does it assume the ability to hold several steps of instructions in short-term memory? Does it assume particular fine motor skills?) How could I adapt the activity to make it beneficial for students who don't have those capabilities?

How much energy and attention span does the activity require for success? How could I break it down to work for students who may tire more quickly or have shorter attention spans?

What is the purpose of the activity-not the specific learning objectives, but the bigger "why" behind the learning experience? How can we imagine multiple ways of moving toward that purpose?

The answers to these questions will depend on our context, the age of learners we're working with, and our own capacities and resources. We must be creative in imagining new ways of doing things, often differently from how we were taught. We have to break out of how things are usually done to notice what else is possible.

Universal Design: Strategies

Below are some introductory examples of UDL practices that can be used in a variety of settings. This is not an exhaustive list but rather a starting point, because there is so much more we can do to design learning experiences that are more inclusive and equitable.

1. Introduce and affirm a variety of communication methods.

With younger students: Explain that we communicate in many ways, and brainstorm together the broad range of communication methods-both those that include language and those that do not. For example: speech, sign language, writing and numbers, typing, a variety of art methods, movement and dance, touch, pointing, ways to indicate choice, expressions, and more. Affirm and provide opportunities to communicate in ways other than speech.

With older students: Introduce a variety of communication methods and ways of responding and participating. Provide opportunities for discussion and participation using a range of communication methods. Technology can provide multiple ways to brainstorm together and have discussions that include those who may be nonspeaking, which can also benefit those who are not comfortable speaking in a group. Explore collaborative technology tools and apps.

2. Provide information in multiple formats.

With younger students: Use a multisensory approach as much as possible. Include activities that engage two or more senses. Use pictures, videos, music and written words, and invite students to move their bodies (in ways that work for them) as they are learning the information. For example, you might have them repeat the information or touch words or pictures. Bring in objects that can be touched or smelled (being cautious to avoid allergens, including perfume and essential oils, and manufactured scents such as scented markers). For all sensory activities, offer choices so that students can avoid becoming overstimulated. Use graphic organizers, charts and drawings as well as spoken instructions. Consider translating information into the languages spoken at home and sharing resources such as multilingual glossaries.

With older students: All the tips for working with younger students also work with older learners, including adults. In addition to recorded media (audiobooks, podcasts, videos), consider integrating self-paced interactive presentations (like web resources that students click through). At the very least, provide information in written and graphic formats in addition to spoken words. Provide individual copies of information in presentations along with transcripts and notes.

3. Provide feedback in multiple formats.

Feedback should be designed to help learners build both competency and positive learning habits, rather than to judge their learning or compare their learning to others'. Like any other information, it should be provided in multiple formats.

With younger students: Give students examples of what success might look like and what learning is building toward, in ways that are relevant to students' cultures, interests and goals. Give feedback often to help them notice small improvements as well as make corrections. Pair feedback with tools, supports and reminders to help learners improve. In addition to verbal feedback, offer visual representations of progress, such as sticker charts marking progress toward a goal. Visual representations should either be private to each student or should collectively track the group's learning; they should not publicly compare students' learning to each other.

With older students: All the tips for working with younger students also work with older learners, including adults (even the sticker charts-adults love getting a gold star!). Additionally, offer learners ways to monitor their own progress, such as templates to guide self-assessment and reflection, checklists, and scoring rubrics.

4. Actively teach strategies for managing attention, time and tasks.

(Many of these strategies are explained in detail in the UDL Guidelines from CAST.)

With younger students: Model the process of setting goals and making step-by-step plans. Provide organizational aids, including graphic organizers and templates, to help learners categorize information and keep track of processes. Model planning by "thinking aloud" about how to approach a task before beginning.

With older students: All the tips for working with younger students also work with older learners, including adults. In addition, provide checklists and note-taking guides, or engage learners in co-creating these resources. Provide estimates of how much time a task should take and encourage students to ask for support if it is taking much longer than expected. Of course, different learners need different amounts of time for the same task-but if a task is taking much longer than expected, it may be an indicator that the task needs to be reframed or reorganized to better support the student's learning.

5. Encourage multiple ways of participating in discussion.

With younger students: Vary learning formats with a mixture of direct instruction, collaboration in small groups, and individual thinking and practice time. Leave some time for reflection before asking for responses and give students the opportunity to pass and then come back to them. Offer multiple ways to participate nonverbally, including through gestures and technology.

With older students: In addition to the tips above for younger students, it's particularly important to leave some reflection time before asking for responses and to use formatted questions as well as open-ended questions. Offer ways to participate nonverbally, including the option of turning in short written notes instead of participating aloud. Integrate technology such as Poll Everywhere and similar apps, which allow participants to respond to questions on their phones or devices and let teachers display the aggregated responses.

6. Provide multiple ways for participants to demonstrate learning.

With younger students: A multisensory approach can be helpful when assessing comprehension and growth, as well as in learning activities. Invite students to show what they know in a variety of ways, such as through movement, singing, art-making, writing, storytelling, making choices or indicating answers, and sharing examples that connect with their lived experiences.

With older students: In addition to the above recommendations, it's especially helpful to provide multiple options for the same assignment. If you would usually assign an essay (but the goal of the learning experience is not primarily essay-writing), let students choose whether to respond in writing, with a voice memo, or in a creative format such as a presentation or artwork (possibly with a brief written artist's statement).

7. Ask about needs (and do not assume all needs are or can be documented).

With younger students: Lean into curiosity, observe and ask questions. Little kids want to do well, so if something does not seem to be going well, or a student seems disengaged or careless, it might be because they are not able to do the activity in the way it is being presented. Direct and open communication with the child's family is key in this situation. View caregivers as partners, and together you will be able to figure out the needs of the child and what strategies, services or supports might be needed.

With older students: Older students will tend to have greater awareness of their own strengths and needs, and they should be your first partners in figuring out what will work best for them. Many teachers collect introduction cards on the first day of class, inviting students to share any nicknames, their pronouns and other information they want the teacher to know. This is a great opportunity to ask about access needs. Since many people don't think of their needs as access needs, the question should be explained and worded in a way that makes sense for the group. To gain insight into their students' access needs, teachers can use an expanded learning styles inventory that inquires about comfort level in situations and preferred ways to receive information and respond. Provide these questions in a variety of formats and give multiple opportunities for responding to make the inventory, and the act of sharing itself, more accessible.

Getting to know more about learners can be a multistep and ongoing process rather than a one-time questionnaire. Invite student feedback about learning processes and encourage experimentation so that learners can continue to find approaches to learning that work better for them.

The Physical Environment

Infrastructure and environment can support or hinder the learning process. A setting's acoustics, lighting and temperature, for example, can impact whether that space is comfortable and conducive to learning or not. Even within the practical limitations of our classrooms, small adjustments can make a big difference. Some things to consider:

A quiet nook for students who might need to self-regulate

A space where students can move their bodies and get kinesthetic stimulation (e.g., an exercise ball, balance board, or yoga mat with enough space to stretch out completely and move around)

Different types of seats students can choose from (with and without armrests, of different sizes, both hard and cushioned, with desks/tables of different heights, etc.), distributed throughout the classroom (not marked as "special" seating)

At least one space with a lighting option that is not fluorescent (also, make sure fluorescents anywhere are not flickering or buzzing)

Limited unnecessary sounds (electric pencil sharpeners, electronics that ding even as part of a learning activity, decorations that rustle, etc.)

Spaces designed for independent learning (e.g., desks not facing each other) and other spaces set up for collaborative learning (e.g., chairs in a circle)

Extra shawls, blankets or oversize sweaters students can use when they feel cold

Some decorations that are visually interesting but also areas of the room without much visually interesting/distracting material

All students should have access to all the different spaces and ways to use space in the classroom. Students should be able to make choices about using spaces, rather than having some areas available only to students who the teacher thinks need that particular kind of space.

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Applying Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Supports Inclusive Education

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Ensuring education is inclusive of young people with diverse needs and abilities takes intentional practice; UDL can help educators design experiences that benefit all students.

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The disability rights movement's foundational principle-"Nothing about us without us"-has been a rallying cry through much of the movement's long narrative of intersecting with more high-profile social justice struggles. The legislation most people celebrate in association with disability rights, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, was influenced by the landmark civil rights legislation of 1964, and represents what people with disabilities had always sought: for their rights to be recognized and respected. But ableism doesn't simply end with legislation; it remains a challenge, and the goals of equity and inclusion-in schools, society and the social justice movement-have yet to be fully realized.

Throughout much of the nation's history, for the disability community, our existence was one of isolation and segregation. And while education is key to uplifting people, despite landmark decisions ( Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka in 1954) and legislation (Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973), having a disability left many people on the margins of equitable education.

The unfortunate truth is that a barrier of ableism exists within the fight for justice. Even now, as intersectional struggles seek to be more inclusive, the disability community often must ask "the movement" to include us. So, what happened on the way to justice?

Where We Have Been-The "Crippled" Little Black Boy

I began my school journey in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1975, which coincided with the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, later reauthorized as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1990. My arrival every day at the Elias Michael School for Crippled Children was a challenge. Being Black and a child with cerebral palsy, or "crippled" as I was called, neither I nor my classmates were expected to put forth any effort to learn. So, little effort was spent on teaching us. The simple act of requesting that actual math be taught got me sent to the principal's office.

This was my earliest experience of the intersectionality of my identities not being fully considered, except in ways that created barriers. As a child, I was unaware to what extent racism and ableism were shaping my ability to be educated. It would seem these problems should have been addressed with the passage of the Handicapped Children Act and the Brown v. Board of Education decision. But the fact that I have race and disability at play is often overlooked, as though parts of my identity should be siloed when focusing on other parts. And the times all my identities are recognized, they compound one another in society's biased view of both my race and disability.

Being overlooked plays in the back of my mind because my grandmother, mother and several family members were active in social justice and civil rights struggles. As a child, I spent a lot of time with my grandmother and had a unique front-row position to the women's rights fight and the movement for civil rights coming out of the Jim Crow era. Later, in the 1980s and 1990s, family discussions addressed the possibility of the first Black president of the United States. And I listened intently, even though I didn't fully understand what my parents were talking about as they spoke of things like affirmative action. Yet, beyond directly relating to me, disability wasn't in the mix of those powerful topics about justice.

Then, as now, in conversations about criminal legal system reform, or about police interaction with Black and Brown youth, disability is rarely addressed. Or when it is, it's a secondary effect. As someone who has had related experiences, the question lingered: "Why am I not fully included in these discussions?" That question was reinforced when I became active within the social justice and disability rights movements. As I worked with various organizations on issues ranging from sexual assault and survivors' rights to criminal legal reform and voting rights, there seemed one glaring omission in each of these struggles-reconciling the multiplicities of an individual's identities. Understanding that a person could be Latine/x, trans and disabled and in need of access to schools and voting, of how those intersecting identities needed to be included, was absent from conversations.

Where We Are in This Struggle

The social justice movement still has difficulty including various parts of the equity struggle, particularly disability representation. When the overturning of Roe v. Wade engendered an outcry, people with disabilities were sidelined in the conversation. This is echoed across not just rights and access to reproductive care but social justice in general. For example, with the unrelenting attacks on voting rights, accessibility to the polls, let alone the ballot, are rare focal points for voting rights organizations.

Disability rights advocate Justin Dart Jr. laid out the possibilities in 1987, when he testified in front of the Select Education Subcommittee that, "We have all the human, technological, economic and political resources necessary to effect a cultural revolution which will utilize the methods and products of science for the dignity and quality of human life. We stand at a historic crossroads. We are approaching foundational decisions about the future of rehabilitation and the fundamental rights of people with disabilities. Let us not seek scapegoats, let us seek solutions. We have no irredeemable enemies, only enemy attitudes." More than three decades later, his words remain relevant-both the problem and potential are still present.

Ableism as an impediment to the disability community's inclusion was laid bare with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many Americans dismissed the needs of people with disabilities or failed to understand how callous statements about those with other medical conditions who were dying affects our community. A recent study by researchers at Syracuse University confirmed that COVID-19 was far deadlier for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Yet the pandemic's increased health risks for students with disabilities is often given minimal consideration as politics have led some officials to refuse the implementation of safety protocols to reduce the spread of COVID-19. This particularly endangers students with disabilities and prevents them from safely accessing in-person education. The attitude of "getting back to normal" fails to recognize the increased risk for some people and that "normal" wasn't always equitable or inclusive to begin with, not in schools, workplaces, or society in general.

In the three decades since the signing of the ADA, even with other significant legislative gains, disability rights advocates still struggle to break through in attempts to get organizations working in the social justice space to realize that we have a common struggle. We are here. Include us. And not as an extension of benevolence, but because we are part of this shared humanity. Social justice organizations, political parties and national advocacy groups have platforms in which the disability community has vested interests. Yet there is still at times a disconnect. To make that link to the expansiveness of our community, the movement on all sides must be more aware that the -isms are real-including ableism-and they often exist not just "out there" in society, but within shared social justice movements. And the disability community itself must confront its own -isms, whether that is internal ableism, racism, homophobia or any other bias.

Too often, when intersecting identities are recognized, it is in the context of how our identities compound inequities. And while that consideration is important, there needs to be recognition as well that inclusion in the movement itself, in finding the solutions and having a place at the table for those conversations, is essential. No one should have to silo aspects of their identity to support or be supported by the present social justice movement. Unfortunately, in organizing and advocating for larger justice issues, the disability community, regardless of their shared identities, has been marginalized within these larger movements. And within the disability rights struggle itself, intersecting identities have also been pushed to the corners.

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Confronting Ableism on the Way to Justice

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To build a society that advances the human rights of all people requires the social justice movement to be intentional in including intersecting identities and diverse equity struggles.

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UD as a Foundation for Opportunity Structures

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UD as a Foundation for Opportunity Structures

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This piece is dedicated to the memory and work of Don Glass, an artist, educator, and researcher who devoted his considerable imagination to thinking about the many ways in which it is possible to invite people in.

At age 9, Ron Mace contracted polio. From then on, he took on barriers: flights of stairs to reach his classes, bathroom doors too narrow for a wheelchair, and no easy way to utilize what was supposed to be "public" transit. Undaunted, he went to architecture school with the intention of dismantling those barriers. Mace was an outspoken champion of North Carolina's 1973 adoption of Chapter 11X, the first accessibility-focused building code in the United States and foundation for the later movement to pass federal legislation prohibiting disability discrimination, including the Fair Housing Amendments Act of 1988 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. In 1989, Mace founded the Center for Accessible Housing, which later evolved into the Center for Universal Design, a leading resource for research and information on accessible design in housing, products, and the built environment. He, along with his wife Lockhart Follin-Mace, who also was a wheelchair user working in public policy, re-defined the concept of design. For them, design was not how something looks, or even how well it works, but how it affects the lives of people who use it, live in it, or engage because of it.

Their work, together with that of countless other activists, inspired the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which became law in 1990. It builds on the scope of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to prevent discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life, including jobs, schools, transportation, and all public and private places that are open to the general public.

The ADA ensures that people with disabilities have the same rights and opportunities as everyone else.

For an amazing timeline of the evolution of disability rights, see here.

In the Maces' Footsteps

Traditionally, the arts - long thought of as refined, perfect, and flawless - have been off-limits to individuals with disabilities, but there are others who followed in the Maces' footsteps to insist upon accessibility in the arts and beyond. For example, in 1983, artist and psychologists Florence and Elias Katz founded Creativity Explored, an arts studio that served adults with disabilities in San Francisco. Guided by the belief in art as a two-way street, the Katz's studio provided access to expressive opportunities for people who were usually closed out of making and creating. The studio also served as a gallery space where the remarkable work by those individuals could challenge public perceptions of what - and how - adults with developmental disabilities can contribute to the arts. In re-thinking opportunity structures for participants, the Katz's and the remarkable artist-staff who have kept the work alive have guaranteed that these adults have access to instruction, fine arts materials, sustained memberships (some for up to 30 years), exhibitions, sales, and income from the licensing of their designs to outlets like CB2. To this day, the organization's website features portraits of its board members and advisors drawn by workshop participants.

In a similar spirit, the work of Access/VSA at the Kennedy Center has sought out and acknowledged the work of artists and performers with disabilities. More recently, a consortium of arts and arts education organizations in New York has begun training teaching artists using the GIVE guide, a free online resource: Guide to Teaching Artistry in Inclusive Settings. Developed by teaching artists for teaching artists, the guide addresses inclusive curriculum, inclusive language, and classroom and behavior management for inclusive settings. (This work will be a major feature in this summer's Amplifying Creative Opportunities Issue 3.)

The Universal Design in Arts and Culture

Exercising their capacity for imagining possibilities, artists and arts organizations have built on and expanded this idea of universal design, both literally and conceptually.

In 1989, PHAMALy (Physically Handicapped Amateur Musical Actors League) was founded by five students living with disabilities, who had grown frustrated with the lack of theatrical opportunities. These founders were ahead of their time in building an inclusive organization that directly served disenfranchised individuals with disabilities from all racial, ethnic, gender, and class identities. The Phamaly Theatre Company (PTC) gives actors a supportive space to explore and develop their craft, empowers artists within their disability identity, educates the community about access and inclusion, and entertains audiences with high-quality, award-winning theater that re-invents musicals and classical theater works, ranging from Guys and Dolls to Midsummer Night's Dream. This work is documented in , a recent film made by and with the members of PTC. In the same vein, performers like Yvonne Rainer and Jerron Herman and companies like Axis Dance have re-imagined movement, treating their embodied differences as artistic resources, highlighting what is unique and beautiful about their bodies in motion, and expanding the definition of "moving" - in every sense of the word.

The Human Library Organization re-imagines pages as people. Begun in Copenhagen in the spring of 2000 as a project for Roskilde Festival, the core idea was to "publish" individuals as "open books" who would meet with a small group of "readers" in a safe "library" environment to speak about and answer questions about their lives. "Books" included people who are often stigmatized such as deaf individuals, people on the autism spectrum, transgender individuals, people living homeless, extremely tattooed and pierced people, and others. This inclusive library of "books" provides "readers" with opportunity to "check out" individuals who will challenge their stereotypes and it offers people volunteering to be "books" with the opportunity to share their full humanity. In this way, the Library, like a fully accessible theater or audition space, builds an environment that challenges stereotypes and prejudices. It is a place where real people are on loan to readers and where difficult questions are expected, appreciated, and answered. Their tag line is "Unjudge someone."

Finally, consider how the city of Coventry, selected as the UK City of Culture in 2021, made the bold choice to design its program with its citizens, including individuals experiencing poverty and homelessness. The resulting festival amplified the voices of people with lived experiences of homelessness in the Arts and Homelessness Festival, a week-long event co-designed and staffed by people with lived experiences of homelessness. The festival included theater, a photographic portrait exhibition, a sleep-out, and the second ever International Arts and Homelessness Summit, designed to ensure that the limelight of 2021 could be converted to immediate and consequential change. (Read more about this in Amplifying Creative Opportunities Issue 3, when we profile the impact of working on this festival on young researchers and evaluators.)

At its most direct, universal design taught us to normalize need: ramps, lower bathroom sinks, and close captions are human needs, not the outsized demands of needy people. They are like prescription glasses or hearing aids - extensions of human capacities we all have a right to.

Stepping Back: Three Lessons of Universal Design

Universal design has many legacies for thinking about building opportunities.

1. Universal design benefits all of us, expanding experience for everyone involved. Consider a recent concert by Sisterfire at the Kennedy Center, signed by an amazing performer who conveyed not only the lyrics, but also the contours and the expressivity of the musicians' wordless vocal improvisations. His choices enlarged the concert for everyone in the audience.

2. Universal designs model how to notice, take on, and replace deeply-embedded, widely-held exclusionary ways of thinking and acting. The concept of neuro-diversity dissolves the ingrained duality of normal v. abnormal and in so doing, alerts us to the world experienced in multiple ways. The idea of a continuum of gender identities dislodges the immutable binary of sex as assigned at birth. Both are ramps to thinking about human variety and relatedness, rather than separating who we are into disjunct categories.

3. The work of universal designers teaches us about the long arc of equity work. Ron and Lockhart Follin-Mace began their work in the 1970s, the film imperfect played in festivals in the 2020's - that is half a century of determined, hopeful work on inventing opportunity structures. And there is more coming-sourced by their original determination.

This post is a part of the Taking the Long View focus of our Amplifying Creative Opportunities newsletter.
Read more of the second issue of our Amplifying Creative Opportunities newsletter. Read another Taking the Long View piece "Five Steps for Equity" by Dr. Thomas Wolf.

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Universal Design as a Foundation for Opportunity Structures - WolfBrown

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At age 9, Ron Mace contracted polio. From then on, he took on barriers: flights of stairs to reach his classes, bathroom doors too narrow for a wheelchair, and no easy way to utilize what was supposed to be "public" transit. Undaunted, he went to architecture school with the intention of dismantling those barriers.

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Stories from the Field: Visual Arts & UDL

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Structure of the UDL Learning Guidelines

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Structure of the UDL Learning Guidelines

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National Center on Universal Design for Learning

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Concise overview

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Links to resources curated by Liz Byron.

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Links to resources curated by Liz Byron

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Music Resource Page_ Instrumental and Vocal

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Links to resources curated by Liz Byron.

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Links to resources curated by Liz Byron.

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Art for All: Additional Resources - CAST Professional Publishing

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Since there is no "average" how do we work with variability?

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The Myth of Average:  Todd Rose at TEDxSonomaCounty

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Top 5 Tips for Reducing Stereotype Threat

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Top 10 Tips for Designing an Engaging Learning Environment

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From the developers of UDL

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CAST is a multifaceted organization with a singular ambition: Bust the barriers to learning that millions of people experience every day. We do this by helping educators and organizations apply insights from the learning sciences and leading-edge practices to educational design and implementation.

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Find out more about CAST. We're busting barriers to learning, until learning has no limits®.

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Novak Education - UDL, MTSS, and Inclusive Practices PD for Educators

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High-quality, evidence-based professional development on MTSS, UDL, and Inclusive Practices. Professional Learning for teachers and leaders.

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Katie Novak Lesson Plan Review Template (1)

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This inspirational talk by Michael Nesmith, a creative designer for Amazon, shares how UDL helps him to find solutions to issues he faces as a deaf person.

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Why We Need Universal Design | Michael Nesmith | TEDxBoulder

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From a teacher's perspective

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Planning for Variability in the Visual Arts Classroom

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Planning for Variability in the Visual Arts Classroom

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This "skinny book" by Liz Byron is full of ideas, strategies and resources.  CAST Professional Publishing: Art for All: Planning for Variability in the Visual Arts Classroom

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Explore DO-IT programs and resources from the University of WA.

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National Center on Universal Design for Learning

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This article explains the connection between arts integration and UDL.

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Arts Integration and Universal Design for Learning

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Explore the powerful alignment between arts integration and three principles that guide Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

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Art lesson template from CA.

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This professional learning module connects UDL Principles to CA Arts Standards with instructional examples.

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"Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a research-based framework for improving student learning experiences and outcomes through careful instructional planning focused on the varied needs of all students, including students with disabilities, advanced and gifted learners, and English learners. The principles of UDL emphasize providing multiple means of representation, action and expression, and engagement and options for various cognitive, communicative, physical, meta-cognitive, and other means of participating in learning and assessment tasks. "

- CAS Introduction, page 19

UDL is an approach that is essential for some, good for all. The following is a video from the National Center on Universal Design for learning. As you watch the video, think about how the principles and components of UDL might be applied when teaching a lesson in one of the five artistic disciplines.

UDL: Principles and Practice from National Center on Universal Design for Learning, March 17, 2010 (6:35)

CAST UDL Guidelines

As mentioned in the video, there are three principles that are central to the implementation of UDL lessons in the classroom: engagement, representation, and action & expression. is an organization whose mission is to "transform education design and practice until learning has no limits."

As described by CAST, "These guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities."

*If you view the UDL Guidelines on the CAST site, they become interactive and you can explore each principle and checkpoint further by clicking on the arrows and links provided.

Myth of Average

If you haven't watched Todd Rose's TEDx Talk, The Myth of Average, you are encouraged to watch it to learn about how the design of the fighter pilot cockpit inspired a reimagining of what education could look like if you "ban the average and design to the edges."

The Myth of Average: Todd Rose at TEDxSonomaCounty by TEDx Talks, June 19, 2013 (18:26)

Myth of Average in Education

We know that there is no such thing as an "average" student and UDL recognizes the uniqueness that each individual student brings to the classroom.

Click HERE for a comic inspired by a public school student with disabilities by Michael F. Giangreco and illustrated by Kevin Ruelle.

The Copernican Shift

The Copernican Shift refers to the scientific shift from geocentrism, where the earth was thought to be at the center of the universe, to heliocentrism, which is Nicolaus Copernicus's theory that the sun is the center of the Solar System. That was a revolutionary discovery that changed the world's thinking about its place in the universe.

Universal Design for Learning also demonstrates a revolutionary shift in thinking away from curriculum being at the center of instruction, to the learner being at the center of instruction.

This shift in thinking values the learner, no matter who they are or what their ability, proficiency level, cultural background, or motivation.

"Each child is a unique person, with unique needs, and the purpose of the education system of this state is to enable each child to develop all of his or her own potential."

California Education Code Section 33080, Purpose of the Educational System

Examples of UDL in Arts Instruction

Table 6 comes from page 20 of the CA Arts Standards and it gives art instructional examples that relate to the three guiding principles of UDL:

Reflection Activity

1. Reflect: What are 3 things that you notice and at least 1 thing that you wonder about related to UDL as it relates to Arts instruction?

2. Submit your responses in writing, sketch/infographic, audio, or video as evidence by clicking the "Submit Assignment" button at the top right of this page.

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"Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a research-based framework for improving student learning experiences and outcomes through careful instructional planning focused on the varied needs of all students, including students with disabilities, advanced and gifted learners, and English learners.

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Overview of UDL

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National Center on Universal Design for Learning

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Questions that link to the UDL guidelines.

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Get inspired by this compelling story about how everyone can engage in music making.

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Collective voice of disability community captured by new song, 'Spaces'

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James Ian's new song called "Spaces" is made by, and for, the disabled community. While the song highlights a disease known as spinal muscular atrophy, or SMA, it also celebrates the talent of the much broader disability community. This report is part of our arts and culture series, CANVAS.