TEAL Center Fact Sheet No. 2: Universal Design for Learning                                                                                                                       2010 
                                                       Universal Design for Learning 
                            
                      UDL is an approach to curriculum design that can                                               verse needs. A universally designed curriculum is 
                      help teachers customize curriculum to serve all                                                shaped from the outset to meet the needs of the 
                      learners, regardless of ability, disability, age, gender,                                      greatest number of users, making costly, time-
                      or cultural and linguistic background. UDL provides a                                          consuming, and after-the-fact changes to the curricu-
                      blueprint for designing strategies, materials, assess-                                         lum unnecessary. 
                      ments, and tools to reach and teach students with                                               
                      diverse needs.                                                                                 The UDL framework is grounded in three principles 
                                                                                                                     ●     Multiple means of representation – using a va-
                                                                                                                           riety of methods to present information, provide a 
                                                                                                                           range of means to support 
                   About UDL                                                                                         ●     Multiple means of action and expression  – 
                   Universal design for learning (UDL) is a set of prin-                                                   providing learners with alternative ways to act 
                   ciples for designing curriculum that provides all indi-                                                 skillfully and demonstrate what they know 
                   viduals with equal opportunities to learn. UDL is de-                                             ●     Multiple means of engagement – tapping into 
                   signed to serve all learners, regardless of ability, disa-                                              learners’ interests by offering choices of content 
                   bility, age, gender, or cultural and linguistic back-                                                   and tools; motivating learners by offering adjusta-
                   ground. UDL provides a blueprint for designing goals,                                                   ble levels of challenge. 
                   methods, materials, and assessments to reach all                                                  Roots of UDL 
                   students including those with diverse needs. 
                   Grounded in research of learner differences and effec-                                            The term Universal Design refers to a movement in 
                   tive instructional settings, UDL principles call for va-                                          architecture and product development that aims to 
                   ried and flexible ways to                                                                         make places and things more accessible to individuals 
                   ●     Present or access information, concepts, and                                                with disabilities. Many adaptations for people with dis-
                         ideas (the "what" of learning),                                                             abilities benefit a variety of users. For example, ramps 
                   ●     Plan and execute learning tasks (the "how" of                                               and curb cuts make it easier for parents with baby 
                         learning), and                                                                              strollers, elderly people, and delivery people to nego-
                   ●     Get engaged—and stay engaged—in learning                                                    tiate walkways and street. Similarly, closed captions 
                         (the "why" of learning)                                                                     on television and movies can be appreciated not only 
                                                                                                                     by the deaf and hard of hearing, but by people who 
                   UDL is different from other approaches to curriculum                                              can read them in noisy environments. They can also 
                   design in that educators begin the design process ex-                                             be used as support for listening comprehension by 
                   pecting the curriculum to be used by a diverse set of                                             viewers learning the language. The concept that  
                   students with varying skills and abilities.                                                       everyone benefits when designs incorporate the 
                                                                                                                     needs of every user has become known as universal 
                   UDL is an approach to learning that addresses and                                                 design. UDL extends this concept to education by ap-
                   redresses the primary barrier to learning: inflexible,                                            plying advances in the understanding of how the brain 
                   one-size-fits-all curricula  that raise unintentional                                             processes information to the design of curricula that 
                   barriers. Learners with disabilities are the most vul-                                            accommodate diverse learning needs. 
                   nerable to such barriers, but many students without                                               Under the UDL Umbrella 
                   disabilities also find that curricula are poorly designed 
                   to meet their learning needs. UDL helps meet the                                                  The good news is that UDL is not in conflict with other 
                   challenges of diversity by recommending the use of                                                methods and practices. It actually incorporates and 
                   flexible instructional materials, techniques, and strate-                                         supports many current research-based approaches to 
                   gies that empower educators to meet students' di-                                                 teaching and learning, such as the following: 
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               TEAL Center Fact Sheet No. 2: Universal Design for Learning                                                       2010 
            •   Cooperative learning (group work),                              new concepts using pictures, artifacts, videos, and 
            •   Differentiated instruction (see the TEAL Center                 other materials that are not lecture-based. Scaf-
                Fact Sheet No. 5),                                              fold student learning (provide temporary support 
            •   Performance-based assessment,                                   to reduce the complexity of a task) by providing a 
                                                                                course syllabus, outlines, summaries, study 
            •   Project-based learning,                                         guides, and copies of PowerPoint slides. 
            •   Multisensory teaching,                                     •    Teach to a variety of learning styles. Build 
            •   Theory of multiple intelligences, and                           movement into learning. Give instructions both 
            •   Principles of student-centered learning (see the                orally and in writing to engage students auditorily 
                TEAL Center Fact Sheet No. 6).                                  and visually. Consider using large visual aids for 
                                                                                slides, graphics, and charts.  
            How Can Students Benefit from UDL?                             •    Provide flexible opportunities for assessment. 
            Adult students benefit from two major aspects of UDL:               Allow students to demonstrate their learning in 
            (1) its emphasis on flexible curriculum, and (2) the                multiple ways that include visual and oral presen-
            variety of instructional practices, materials, and learn-           tation, rather than only written assessment. 
            ing activities. All students, including those learning         How might this work in the adult education class-
            English, older students, and those with disabilities ap-       room? Because adult education classes do not always 
            preciate the multifaceted ways content is presented,           rely on textbooks only for curriculum material, but ra-
            as well as options for demonstrating what they know.           ther utilize realia and authentic materials, instructors 
            UDL helps educators meet the challenge of serving              can be at an advantage when trying to incorporate 
            those with special needs while enhancing learning for          principles of UDL.  A common example is the tech-
            all.                                                           nique of using total physical response (TPR) exercis-
                                                                           es for adult English language learners. An example in 
            How Can Instructors Incorporate UDL?                           the ABE classroom might be to teach weights and 
            Instructors may want to try the following strategies           measurement using real objects and a variety of mea-
            (Rose & Meyer, 2002):                                          surement tools. Show video clips to demonstrate 
                                                                           measurement in various ways. Hands-on activities 
            •   Use multiple strategies to present content. En-            and demonstrations can help learners grasp the con-
                hance instruction through the use of case studies,         cept more readily than textbook readings and discus-
                music, role play, cooperative learning, hands-on           sion. Have learners demonstrate their understanding 
                activities, field trips, guest speakers, Web-based         through created visuals, oral presentations or demon-
                communications, and educational software. Ex-              strations, maps and charts, or simulated tasks.  
                ample:  Students can role play important events in         What’s the Research? 
                American history to give them a better under-
                standing of the events and people involved. Also,          According to the National Center on Universal Design 
                offer a choice of learning contexts by providing           for Learning at CAST, the research that supports UDL 
                opportunities for individual, pair, and group work         comes first from the research basis for the general 
                as well as distance learning, peer learning, and           principles of UDL, which come from cognitive learning 
                field work.                                                science and neuroscience, and also derived from the 
            •   Use a variety of materials. To present, illustrate,        work of Lev Vygotsky and Benjamin Bloom on under-
                and reinforce new content, use materials such as           standing individual differences and the pedagogies 
                online resources, videos, podcasts, PowerPoint             required to address them. Research has been identi-
                presentations, realia, manipulatives, and e-books.         fied on specific practices for meeting the needs of in-
            •   Provide  cognitive supports. Give students or-             dividual differences as well as research on the specific 
                ganizing clues; for example:  “I have explained the        applications of UDL. Links to the research can be 
                four main points, and now I am going to summar-            found under Research at the National Center on UDL 
                ize them.”  Present background information for             Website. 
                                               
             
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                 TEAL Center Fact Sheet No. 2: Universal Design for Learning                                                                         2010 
              Resources                                                                 
              Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST)                             ogies related to the National Instructional Materials 
              (www.cast.org) offers extensive UDL resources and                        Accessibility Standard (NIMAS). 
              strategies on its Website.                                               Teaching Every Student 
              Disabilities, Opportunities, Internetworking, and                        (http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent) is a CAST 
              Technology (DO-IT) (http://www.washington.edu/doit)                      Website that includes a multimedia version of the 
              offers supports for incorporating UDL principles into                    book, Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Uni-
              the postsecondary setting and experiences of stu-                        versal Design for Learning (see reference below). This 
              dents with disabilities.                                                 Website is designed for kindergarten through grade 
              National        Center for Accessible Media  12 teachers, but can be informative for adult educa-
              (http://ncam.wgbh.org) provides information and re-                      tion teachers. 
              sources for expanding access to educational and me-                      UDL Guidelines 
              dia technologies for students with disabilities.                         (http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/udlguidelines) from 
              National Center on Universal Design for Learning                         the National UDL Center provide a set of strategies for 
              (National UDL Center) (http://www.udlcenter.org/)                        implementing UDL along with practical suggestions. 
              supports the effective implementation of UDL by con-
              necting stakeholders in the field and providing re-                      References 
              sources and information about UDL and UDL imple-
              mentation.                                                               Rose, D. & Meyer, A. (2002). Teaching every student 
              NIMAS Development and Technical Assistance                               in the digital age:  Universal design for learning. Alex-
              Centers (http://aim.cast.org) serve as a resource for                    andria, VA:  Association for Supervision and Curricu-
              information about the policies, practices, and technol-                  lum Development. 
               
                              Authors: TEAL Center staff 
                              Reviewed by: Tracey Hall and Boo Murray, CAST.  
                              Adapted from CALPRO Fact Sheet No. 2, Universal Design for Learning. Author: Sally Ianiro with 
                              Anestine Hector-Mason. AIR: Sacramento, CA.  
                              About the TEAL Center: The Teaching Excellence in Adult Literacy (TEAL) Center is a 
                              project of the  U.S. Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education 
                              (OVAE), designed to improve the quality of teaching in adult education in the content areas. 
                              Beginning with writing instruction for Adult Basic Education (ABE) students, the TEAL Cen-
                              ter will offer an intensive program of professional development and individualized technical 
                              assistance to participating local staff in 12 states. 
                               
                              
                             
           This publication was prepared with funding from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Vocational and Adult Education, 
               
           under contract No.ED-VAE-09-O-0060. The opinions expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the opinions or policies of the            Page 3 
           U.S. Department of Education. This document is in the public domain and may be reproduced without permission.