Universal Design of Instruction

Students come from a wide variety of cultural, ethnic, racial, and socioeconomic backgrounds. For some, English is not their first language. Represented in most classes are many types of learning styles, including both visual and auditory learners. In addition, increasing numbers of students with disabilities are included in regular precollege and postsecondary education courses. Their disabilities include blindness, low vision, hearing impairments, mobility impairments, learning disabilities, and health impairments.

Students want to learn, and instructors share this goal. How can you design instruction to maximize the learning of all students? The field of universal design can provide a starting point for developing an inclusive model for instruction. You can apply this body of knowledge to create courses for which lectures, discussions, visual aids, videotapes, printed materials, labs, and fieldwork are accessible to all students.

Universal Design

Designing any product or service involves the consideration of many factors, including aesthetics, engineering options, environmental issues, safety concerns, and cost. Typically, products are designed to be most suitable for the average user. In contrast, universal design 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 (http://www.design.ncsu.edu/cud/about_ud/about_ud.htm). For example, a standard door in a place of business is not accessible to everyone. If a large switch is installed, the door becomes accessible to more people, including some wheelchair users. However, applying universal design principles when a business facility is being designed could lead to the installation of sensors that would signal the door to open when anyone approaches it, making the building accessible to everyone —a small child, a man whose arms are temporarily unavailable because he is carrying a large box, a frail elderly woman, or a person using a walker or a wheelchair.

When designers apply universal design principles, their products and environments meet the needs of potential users with a wide variety of characteristics. Disability is just one of many characteristics that an individual might possess. For example, one person could be five feet four inches tall, female, forty years old, a poor reader, and deaf. All of these characteristics, including her deafness, should be considered in developing a product or service she might use.

Making a product accessible to people with disabilities often benefits others. For example, sidewalk curb cuts, designed to make sidewalks and streets accessible to those using wheelchairs, are today often used by children on skateboards, parents with baby strollers, and delivery staff with rolling carts. When television displays in noisy areas of airports and restaurants are captioned, programming is accessible to people who are deaf and everyone else who cannot hear the audio.

At the Center for Universal Design at North Carolina State University, a group of architects, product designers, engineers, and environmental design researchers established the following set of principles of universal design to provide guidance in the design of environments, communications, and products.

Equitable Use. The design is useful and marketable to people with diverse abilities. For example, a website that is designed so that it is accessible to everyone, including people who are blind, employs this principle.
Flexibility in Use. The design accommodates a wide range of individual preferences and abilities. An example is a museum that allows a visitor to choose to read or listen to the description of the contents of a display case.
Simple and Intuitive. Use of the design is easy to understand, regardless of the user's experience, knowledge, language skills, or current concentration level. Science lab equipment with control buttons that are clear and intuitive is a good example of an application of this principle.
Perceptible Information. The design communicates necessary information effectively to the user, regardless of ambient conditions or the user's sensory abilities. An example of this principle being employed is when television programming projected in noisy public areas like academic conference exhibits includes captions.
Tolerance for Error. The design minimizes hazards and the adverse consequences of accidental or unintended actions. An example of a product applying this principle is an educational software program that provides guidance when the user makes an inappropriate selection.
Low Physical Effort. The design can be used efficiently and comfortably and with a minimum of fatigue. Doors that are easy to open by people with a wide variety of physical characteristics demonstrate the application of this principle.
Size and Space for Approach and Use. Appropriate size and space is provided for approach, reach, manipulation, and use regardless of the user's body size, posture, or mobility. A flexible science lab work area designed for use by students with a wide variety of physical characteristics and abilities is an example of the employment of this principle.

[Picture of participants using computers equipped with universal design.]

Universal Design of Instruction

Universal design principles can be applied to many products and services. Following is a definition of universal design of instruction (UDI):

In terms of learning, universal design means the design of instructional materials and activities that makes the learning goals achievable by individuals with wide differences in their abilities to see, hear, speak, move, read, write, understand English, attend, organize, engage, and remember. Universal design for learning is achieved by means of flexible curricular materials and activities that provide alternatives for students with differing abilities. These alternatives are built into the instructional design and operating systems of educational materials—they are not added on after-the-fact ("Ensuring Access," 1999).

Universal design principles can be applied to lectures, classroom discussions, group work, handouts, web-based instruction, labs, fieldwork, and other academic activities and materials. They give each student meaningful access to the curriculum by assuring access to the environment, and allowing for multiple means of representation, expression, and engagement (http://www.cast.org/). Listed below are examples of instructional methods that employ principles of universal design. They make course content and activities accessible to people with a wide range of abilities, disabilities, ethnic backgrounds, language skills, and learning styles.

Class Climate. Adopt practices that reflect high values with respect to both diversity and inclusiveness. Example: Put a statement on your syllabus inviting students to meet with you to discuss disability-related accommodations and other special learning needs.
Physical Access, Usability, and Safety. Assure that activities, materials, and equipment are physically accessible to and usable by all students and that all potential student characteristics are addressed in safety considerations. Examples: Develop safety procedures for all students, including those who are blind, deaf, or wheelchair users; label safety equipment simply, in large print, and in a location viewable from a variety of angles; repeat printed directions orally.
Delivery Methods. Use multiple accessible instructional methods. Example: Use modes that involve multiple senses to deliver content and motivate and engage students—consider lectures, collaborative learning options, hands-on activities, Internet-based communications, educational software, fieldwork, etc.
Information Resources. Assure that course materials, notes, and other information resources are flexible and accessible to all students. Example: Choose printed materials and prepare a syllabus early to allow students the option of beginning to read materials and work on assignments before the class begins and to allow adequate time to arrange for alternate formats, such as books on tape.
Interaction. Encourage effective interactions between students and between students and the instructor and assure that communication methods are accessible to all participants. Example: Assign group work for which learners must support each other and that places a high value on different skills and roles.
Feedback. Provide specific feedback on a regular basis. Example: Allow students to turn in parts of large projects for feedback before the final project is due.
Assessment. Regularly assess student progress using multiple, accessible methods and tools and adjust instruction accordingly. Example: Assess group/cooperative performance as well as individual achievement.
Accommodation. Plan for accommodations for students for whom the instructional design does not meet their needs. Example: Know how to get materials in alternate formats, reschedule classroom locations, and arrange for other accommodations for students with disabilities.

Employing universal design principles in instruction does not eliminate the need for specific accommodations for students with disabilities. For example, you may need to provide a sign language interpreter for a student who is deaf. However, applying universal design concepts in course planning will assure full access to the content for most students and minimize the need for special accommodations. For example, designing web resources in accessible format as they are developed means that no redevelopment is necessary if a blind student enrolls in the class. Letting all students have access to your class notes and assignments on an accessible website can eliminate the need for providing material in alternative formats. Planning ahead saves time in the long run.

[Picture of instructors learning about universal design.]

Tips for Preservice/Inservice Instruction in Universal Design of Instruction

In the Preservice/Inservice Presentations section of Part II of this notebook, you will find guidelines and materials for delivering a presentation on universal design of instruction.

Universal design can benefit other individuals who do not have disabilities. For example, captioning course videos, which provides access to deaf students, is also a benefit to students for whom English is a second language, to some students with learning disabilities, and to those watching the videos in a noisy environment.

Employing universal design principles in everything we do makes a more accessible world for all of us. It minimizes the need to alter it for anyone.

View the video and read the publication Equal Access: Universal Design of Instruction for more information on UDI applied to onsite instruction and to tutoring and learning centers. For information on applying universal design principles to make postsecondary student services accessible, view the video and read the publication titled Equal Access: Universal Design of Student Services.

View the video and read the publication Real Connections: Making Distance Learning Accessible to Everyone for an example of universal design principles applied to online learning.

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