URSULINE CENTER FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING: ACCESS TO ALL

UDL ONE NOTE

Designing Instruction & Assessments with UDL 

Jennifer Pusateri lead the UDL workshop for the 2020 Spring Faculty Institute. This link will take you to the slides and to other resources used in the workshop.  https://sites.google.com/view/brescia/workshop 

UDL in 15 Minutes 

There is a podcast produced by Loui Lord Nelson, a leader in UDL. It is called UDL in 15 Minutes -- The Podcast. 

https://theudlapproach.com/media/ 

#UDLchat 

#UDLchat is a bi-weekly Twitter chat held on Wednesdays at 8pm Central. If you sign up, you will get a text reminder 10 minutes before it starts. It's a great way to stay in touch with other professionals using UDL. It lasts about 30 minutes and you can participate as much or as little as you like.  https://twitter.com/hashtag/udlchat?lang=en 

CAST 

http://www.cast.org/ 

CAST is a nonprofit education research and development organization that works to expand learning opportunities for all individuals through Universal Design for Learning. 

200 Harvard Mill Square 
Suite 210 
Wakefield, MA 01880 

cast@cast.org 
781.245.2212 

WEB AIM 

https://webaim.org/ 

WebAim provides training to empower organizations to make web content accessible to people with disabilities. 

Center for Persons with Disabilities 
Utah State University 
6807 Old Main Hill 
Logan, UT 84322-6807 
435.797.7024 

DIVE into UDL 

Immersive Practices to Develop Expert Learners: resources, activities, challenges and questions to support your growing experience with and understanding of UDL. Dive into UDL 

https://www.diveintoudl.com/ 

Brescia Tutorials 

Brescia University Accessibility 

This link will connect to our Brescia University One Drive folder containing tutorials and resources for making your documents accessible. 

Access Ain't Inclusion (TED Talk) 

Thinking out-loud here in writing;  I think at the heart of UDL lies inclusion:  inclusion of all with all their precious unique features and characteristics.  That's what makes us all more effective:  embracing and tapping into this wealth of uniqueness. UDL is a tool that helps us maximize inclusion, thereby maximizing people's strengths.  How do we, then, maximize the environment here at Brescia, with its various components, to make it more inclusive?  The areas with which I am most familiar are faculty, pedagogy, and student advisement.  Here is a piece that spoke to me very strongly and made me think deeper:   

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7w2Gv7ueOc 

UK and Its UDL Initiative 

Here is an example of an institution not too far from us which is in its initial stages of implementing UDL.  This website also provides excellent resources regarding UDL theory, practices in various areas, and resources.   

https://www.uky.edu/udl/ 

CAST in Higher Ed 

This section of CAST is designated for resources that help with implementing UDL in colleges and universities.  I especially liked the section on UDL Institutions, listing schools that participate in the UDL Initiative and what/how they are doing it.   

http://udloncampus.cast.org/page/udl_landing 

TECHNOLOGY TO SUPPORT MULTIPLE MEANS OF REPRESENTATION

Moving text from a paper based option to an electronic option provides much flexibility in how the text can be manipulated, enlarged, simplified, spoken, and highlighted. Many of these options are built into the operating systems of students’ devices.  Here are some additional options:

• Adjusting text

  • Type and size of font, contrasting background color, or magnification can be adjusted with tools like Beeline Reader, HelperBird, Immersive Reader, Read&Write Simplify page tool.

• Remove distractions/clutter/ads from content

  • Reader View is a Chrome extension that focuses on text content and filters distractions. Reader view is also available on Safari for Apple mobile devices.

• Sources for Electronic Text/Books

  • Electronic books can be purchased, created, or found. A few free sites to locate electronic books Project Gutenberg, Overdrive, LibriVox (free public domain audio books).

• Text-to-Speech

  • The ability to combine the digital text with auditory feedback enhances the comprehension for many struggling readers. Many of the popular platforms have some form of text to speech built in. Some additional choices Microsoft Immersive Reader, Dolphin Easy Reader, Read&Write Google, Natural Reader.

• Multiple Levels

  • Content available at a variety of reading levels provides an opportunity for students to read similar content but select appropriate reading levels on sites such as Newsela,  Brittannica School, and Tween Tribune.

• Closed Captioning

  • Making presentations accessible to all students is now easier with built in closed captioning Adding captions is an option in both Google Slides and Microsoft 365 PowerPoint. YouTube and Flipgrid also allow for closed captioning.

TECHNOLOGY TO SUPPORT MULTIPLE MEANS OF ACTION AND EXPRESSION

Technology provides an awesome array of opportunities to increase options in which an individual can express his/her knowledge.

• Writing Supports 

  • For those students who find writing/typing difficult, simple supports like spell check, grammar check, Grammarly, dictionary features, Rewordify, and word prediction are useful for many. Speech-to-text or dictation also provides a helpful option.

• Graphic organizers

  • Graphic organizers can help address all three of the UDL principles. Teachers can use them to provide alternate means to represent information, highlight critical features or activate background knowledge. They can also provide an alternate way for students to demonstrate their understanding and organize information. A sampling of free graphic organizers/mind maps include: Popplet Lite (iOS), Mindmup (Chrome Extension), Holt Interactive Graphic Organizers (web or paper based), or Coggle (web-based). 

• Multimedia production tools

  • Using the many multimedia production tools for video and audio can be powerful and engaging options for many students. For more information on multimedia production tools, see Thing 3 - Audio & Visual Learning.