Universal Design in education means taking a proactive stance for accessibility for all students. It comes from a philosophy that all students are different; have different learning needs; and that we need to present content in multiple ways and permit students to express their understanding of the content in multiple ways. This should be the standard for all classes for all ages, whether face-to-face or online.
Dolores,
Touche! Well said. So often faculty see making things accessible as being too time consuming and as you say, "too much trouble". If we can get beyond this attitude, we can see that universal design can help everyone.
Renee Shaffer
Universal design is the starting point for making all material accessible to all students. We have learned as instructors to take into account the various learning styles of students and universal design just expands on this. No two students learn exactly the same way and students with disabilities are no different. Universal design is proactive because the course is created with the intent to be accessible to everyone. I believe that once faculty can overcome the belief that "this is all too much trouble", then materials will be more beneficial to everyone.
Universal Design in education is the ability to create a learning space that is usable and accessible to multiple learners.
The principle of universal design means that the learning environment is designed so that is universally accessible to all students regardless of the browser, etc. type of technology that they are using to view the content. Thank you. Mike Crowley
Parrish,
When institutions are proactive it can save everyone a lot of hassles and can help everyone.
Renee Shaffer
Universal Design in education is “the design of products and environments to be usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design.â€
Simply put, courses should be designed with everyone in mind, up front. This saves universities from having to go back to make alterations for a handful of students, since those were already considered and built in.
