14 Moving Forward with UDL

Drawing on a UDL approach for planning and teaching a course does not need to be an overwhelming, all-or-nothing effort. In most cases, faculty interested in UDL adapt their courses over many iterations to enhance their design and reduce access barriers. Choosing even one potential barrier that you can reduce or remove for students can make a big difference in the ability of students to not only survive your course, but to thrive in their learning!

What is known as the “Plus-One approach” (video; 2:19 mins) or adding an additional modality for conveying content or assessing learning — is an easy way to expand the accessibility of your courses in manageable “bites” over time. You can find a list of examples of these techniques from real educators in the UDL Plus-One Pledges made section.

Also, consider being open and transparent with your students when implementing UDL-inspired measures, whether you build them into your course design from the outset or pivot mid-semester to enhance your course’s accessibility. Most students want to understand why a course is set up the way it is, and some of them may even be “watching and learning” with the goal of becoming educators themselves. It can be especially helpful for students with formal accommodations to be aware of the ways you have built accessibility into your course. For example, if time allotments for activities or assignments are generous and flexible by design, this may help a learner to decide whether to make use of their accommodations, such as exam rescheduling or booking a test in the campus testing centre, or if your embedded access considerations may already meet their needs.