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NCAC: Research & Solutions: Students Make Progress with UDL: Leap for Literacy

Leap for Literacy in The Digital Age

Celebrate International Literacy Day 2001 with NCAC

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Teachers, join with the National Center for Accessing the General Curriculum (NCAC) at CAST (Center for Applied Special Technology) on September 8, 2001. Celebrate the 31st annual International Literacy Day by exploring new literacy tools, new media, and electronic learning networks.

These are part of a bright new approach known as Universal Design for Learning (UDL) that is based on new brain research, new media technologies, and time-honored teaching practices. UDL offers an exciting blueprint for literacy and one that adds value to teaching by addressing individual learner differences even when class sizes are large.

UNESCO first celebrated International Literacy Day in 1967 to draw attention to issues and needs of children and adults around the globe. Today, this is a worldwide event for individuals, organizations, and countries to show their commitment to providing education for all-- one of CAST's major goals. In addition, several concerned organizations award literacy prizes. CAST and NCAC honor all participants. Special recognition goes to the literacy work of colleagues at the International Reading Association as they award the 22nd annual literacy prize in Washington, D.C.

UDL redefines communication, literacy, and media literacy in meaningful ways as part of the nationwide school improvement effort. CAST has developed and refined UDL during the last twelve years with promising results in four areas: teaching, learning, assessment, and curriculum. In-depth information about UDL is found on CAST's Web site and in publications.

Briefly, here are some fast facts about UDL:

• UDL is opening the doors to the curriculum for all types of learners. This approach holds special promise for students who typically are turned off by information in print or students who require an alternative or an accelerated learning pace.
• Because there is no completely universally designed curriculum and no single curriculum or software program that can provide all of the flexibility needed to create a UDL environment, universally designed instruction is put into place in manageable steps using products from different vendors.
• UDL teachers work with a variety of flexible tools, programs, materials, and Web sites. These are used in different combinations for different learners and for different teaching purposes. Built-in flexibility in the tools and materials enables teachers to respond to individual differences under many different circumstances and learning conditions.
• Full implementation of universally designed instruction depends upon school districts to develop policies that support personalized and individualized learning. They must make a long-term commitment to wiring schools for technology, and for providing instructional and assistive technologies with technology support.
• Teachers, ultimately, implement UDL and hold the keys that can open the doors to learning and new literacy.
• Although UDL is only starting to make a difference in schools, much is known about incorporating UDL into traditional teaching and about helping students learn actively and benefit from a universally designed education.

Read on for more ideas about using universally designed instruction to open new doors to literacy:

• Raise The Bar for Literacy with Universally Designed Instruction
• Bend and Flex Your Curriculum with UDL!
• Add Muscle to Instruction with an Electronic Toolbox
• Push for Accessible Digital Formats to Set Literacy In Motion: Bobby
• Reach for Literacy With BOBBY
• Flip For Digital Resources In CAST's Universal Learning Center
• Discover Professional Fitness For Literacy: Join the NCAC Consortium

• Resources
• About NCAC

Raise The Bar For Literacy In Your Classroom With Universally Designed Instruction

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Communities improve opportunities for literacy when instruction is meaningful, accessible to all, and versatile enough to address the diverse learning styles of students of all ages. Universally designed instruction aims to accomplish this by improving literacy in the broadest sense. Because it is flexible, universally designed instruction enables students to take personal pathways as they learn what is required by school districts and states.

The best-known example of this type of instruction is called Universal Design for Learning (UDL). It is developed by CAST in order to create "level playing fields" in classrooms so that all can learn. UDL benefits both teachers and their students, even when class sizes are large or when students learn in vastly different ways from one another.

Universal designs in education have origins in architecture and city planning. In those fields, either laws or ethics assure that that the built environment is accessible for people with physical and sensory disabilities; but many others benefit from the barrier-free environment that results. As an example, the curb cuts found on sidewalks aid the mobility of people with physical and sight limitations. But wait! The depressions that lower the sidewalk at crosswalks and intersections also provide safe passage for senior citizens, mothers using strollers, joggers, and all others.

Similar ideas about accessibility are enlivening UDL classrooms today. There, teachers are removing barriers for those who have disabilities and others who learn differently. In education, it is not a single measure such as a curb cut but, instead, flexible instructional routes combined with careful teaching techniques that open the doors to the curriculum.

UDL is developed and guided by CAST in order to improve results in teaching, learning, and assessment for all students across the curriculum. UDL also impacts the way curriculum materials are developed, chosen, and used so as to maximize a student's potential. Because there is no completely universally designed curriculum and no single curriculum or software program that can provide all of the flexibility needed to create a UDL environment, universally designed instruction is put into place in manageable steps using products from different vendors.

Bend And Flex Your Curriculum With UDL!

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Teachers, International Literacy Day is an ideal time to turn the limelight on literacy in your classroom. With Universal Design for Learning (UDL), you can structure unique learning opportunities that are exciting, personalized, and popular. Using UDL, teachers modify the curriculum to meet the needs of all types of learners. In UDL classrooms, learners no longer are forced to adjust to the fixed formats and traditional curriculum presentations of the past.

Thus far, UDL is proving effective with students who have different backgrounds, experiences, abilities, and interests. Static print-on-paper formats or front-of-the class lectures are no longer the primary means of communicating the curriculum. Teachers are engaging students who are difficult to teach or who learn at an accelerated or irregular pace and the results are promising. Using digital text, a menu of software features that can be personalized, and network learning, students get involved with curriculum content in meaningful ways. Some may benefit from electronic learning supports called scaffolds and others may require changing levels of challenge.

The UDL approach imparts content by calling up -or not-voice, video, highlighting text, note taking, instant dictionaries or encyclopedias, and more. Students work only with the features that they need. Those who use learning supports give them up naturally when they can learn more independently.

Ideally, school districts implement UDL by providing training and by purchasing state of the art instructional materials. These include multimedia hardware and interactive educational software that are universally designed to enhance, to enrich, to repeat, or to accelerate curriculum content. Such versatile materials reduce the number of teacher-made adaptations, thus freeing this time and space for other concerns.

Family involvement

Families are an indispensable source of support for bringing universally designed instruction and a flexible curriculum to classrooms. Parents who support UDL are working at many levels, from aiding in policy development to converting print materials into digital text using scanners and computers.

Parents also can move universally designed instruction forward by making careful technology choices at home. In this way, homework, enrichment, or extra credit activities can continue using the universally designed methods and materials that children are using at school.

Add Muscle To Instruction With An Electronic Toolbox

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UNESCO estimates that more than 120 million children lack access to education and some 800 million of the world's adults do not know how to read or write. New communications technologies, educational products in interactive multimedia formats, and selected online networks are making it possible for learners with all types of backgrounds, experiences, and special circumstances to learn to read and write with power and purpose, early in their lives as students.

To add muscle to instruction, UDL teachers assemble an "electronic toolbox." The right tools and software enable students to manipulate digital text in various ways according to their needs. They can call up, adjust, and withdraw learning supports known as scaffolds in consultation with their teachers. In this way, learning is structured and customized while the challenges are varied appropriately.

Sources for electronic text vary and so do their costs.

• Selected textbook publishers offer their customers a companion CD-ROM presenting a multimedia version of the company's printed textbooks. These include obvious or embedded enhancements that students can use to increase their understanding, move ahead, or limit the stimuli.
• Various publishers produce interactive educational software programs on topics that cross the curriculum. Many of these have advanced features including audio and video and other universally designed features.
• Online electronic networks also are a rich source for learning when sites are carefully chosen. Both conceptually and economically, online networks are a necessary learning component of universally designed instruction.
• Parents or other personnel can stay within the copyright law and convert print to electronic text under certain circumstances for schools and libraries. They work with scanners, computers, and word processing programs.
• Low-cost and no-cost sources for digital text also are available on line through the Internet and World Wide Web. Try the CAST e-text Spider on CAST's Web site, a locator tool that leads teachers to digital text.
• A new educational concept, a digital text repository, is debuting this fall as a new service of CAST. For more information take a look online at CAST Universal Learning Center (ULC)

The Power of Networks

As part of a flexible curriculum, teachers are turning to online educational networks on the Internet and World Wide Web. When the sites are universally designed, they give teaching and learning a lift to something more global, powerful, fast, and expanding.

Connectivity to these sites provides

• Timely connections to news, and widely varying content and coursework,
• Access to experts and mentors through distance learning,
• Video or audio conferencing
• E-mail
• Publishing opportunities for their own work on line,
• Instructional presentations with and without multimedia,
• Interactivity to exchange feedback.

These features can make the larger world smaller, more connected, and more manageable. The U.S. Congress outlines such benefits in a report from its Web-based Education Commission that praised the Internet as a tool when learning is structured. The Web Commission found that carefully chosen learning on line:

• Enables education to occur in places where there is none,
• Extends resources where there are few,
• Expands the learning day, and
• Opens the learning place.
• Connects people, communities, and resources to support learning
• Adds graphics, sound, video, and interaction to give teachers and students multiple paths for understanding.
• Is a medium that kids today expect to use for expression and communication

"Every community and school district has the responsibility to develop policies and make informed decisions to ensure that new technologies will enhance, and not create barriers to learning," the Commission said in the report. The problem is, that too many Internet sites and learning networks on the World Wide Web are not designed to make information accessible to the widest possible audience. Experts know how to design accessible sites. Now, more education and other sites need to take advantage of this expertise to advance literacy in the digital age.

Push For Accessible Digital Formats To Set Literacy In Motion

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Merely providing students with digital text on a screen does not guarantee that information is accessible or that learning will occur. In fact, too many digital learning materials and Web sites are not accessible to the widest possible audience.

Electronic learning materials create unnecessary barriers in education as a result of uniformed design decisions. But help is on the way! Accessibility guidelines for designers and Web masters are available from many accessibility and usability experts. The ideal is to create within education electronic learning materials and equipment with few or no barriers right from the start; then, use the power of increased access and the promise of supported personalized learning through UDL to achieve optimal educational results for all students.

In classrooms this would mean a change from narrow fixed materials to those that increase access to curriculum content. It requires a switch from the exclusive use of books that are printed on paper to learning experiences using electronic texts. Research at CAST shows that digital versions of books are much better for many students, including those with disabilities. Why? Because while the content of the books is exactly the same, the difference is in the way that the content is displayed. Printed words on paper are fixed, unchangeable text. In digital versions, the computer presents content in many different ways that students or their teachers select and adjust. Here are some examples:

• Sara, who has low vision, can increase the font size so that it is large enough for her to see it comfortably.
• Bill, who is blind, can turn on text that appears on the screen as spoken words, or tell the computer print it on a Braille printer.
• Jen, who has physical disabilities, can advance from screen to screen through the pages of a book by blinking her eyes.
• For Michael, who is dyslexic, and for students who are underachieving for various other reasons, can use the mechanical mouse to click on a difficult word so that the computer reads it aloud or links it instantly to a definition that is linked to the content.

In the best cases, accessibility occurs via direct access for most students. Products designed to be inclusive with UDL features keep costs down for schools because the materials are usable by large numbers of students. The programs work more smoothly than when equipment is added in order to help learners. However, technology producers are not yet manufacturing truly versatile products so that all can learn.

Most current successes for students with physical and sensory disabilities come in the form of adaptive or assistive technologies. These can be stand-alone or they work as "add-on" programs or devices intended to be compatible with standard computer equipment. Here are some examples:

• Matthew is a third grader who cannot speak of use his arms or legs. Electronic switches help him drive a wheelchair and to operate his computer so that he can write, communicate, and work on grade level.
• Katherine, who is blind, uses screen reader technologies to surf the Internet and work across the curriculum conducting research and preparing reports.
• Nina has a brain injury that causes her to be aphasic, and uses an electronic augmentative communication device to speak to her friends and collaborate on schoolwork.

Currently, even though advancements in technology are appearing each year, there are no completely universally designed products and assistive technologies play a vital role as learning aids. Screen readers, screen magnifiers, adaptive keyboards, word prediction software, voice recognition software, single switches, and others should be part of a school district's offerings. However, as technology advances, the hope is that assistive technologies and adaptive devices would become standard options within multimedia programs.

With product usability in mind, school districts that aim to achieve new literacy should purchase flexible and accessible instructional materials that are designed to reach as many students as possible. Some of these are:

• Text-to-Speech Supported Reading Software
• Talking Browsers
• Screen Readers
• eBook Software for Desktop PC's and Laptops
• Portable eBook Display Devices without Speech
• Books on Tape

Find more information about these and other literacy resources and to find links to product Web sites, at http://www.cast.orgmaster/reference.

Reach for Literacy With BOBBY

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Web designers who build school district sites should be part of the effort to achieve new literacy, too. School district information, including children's work that is posted on line, should be accessible to the widest possible audience. This means designing Web pages that avoid unnecessary complexity, provide information in alternative forms that meet a range of access needs, and create pages that are compatible with assistive devices.

Bobby is here to help Web designers. This is a free service provided by CAST that helps Web page authors remedy and repair significant barriers that prevent some readers from viewing its content. By following accessibility and usability guidelines, a school district can assure that all information is open to the largest possible audience.

For example, Bobby helps Web designers discover that a blind user or auditory learner could have access to information simply by adding a sound track to a movie. Similarly, a hard-of-hearing user would benefit if a script were included when a sound file originally was the sole source of information.

Bobby evaluates each site that is referred via the World Wide Web and reports back solutions or suggests a next course of action. Most remedies are small additions that add clarity and help Web browsers to work more effectively. As part of International Literacy Day, check your Web site and look for the Bobby icon. If you don't see it, send a link to your district's Webmaster with a request to make your site accessible to the widest possible audience. Use International Literacy Day as an opportunity to recommend that the district use Bobby or other Web accessibility evaluator as a regular part of a commitment to a literate and informed citizenry.

Flip For Digital Resources In CAST's Universal Learning Center

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Literacy moves front and center this month thanks to a new service of CAST and International Literacy Day. An innovative resource called the Universal Learning Center (ULC) debuts as a brand new digital curriculum resource. It can help teachers keep pace with new literacy trends using digital text and multimedia educational software. Teachers can try out the first phase of the service at no cost during of a limited pilot program. After that, full access to the center will be available through subscription.

The center is starting out by featuring 9th and 10th grade social studies and literature materials. In time, there should be plenty of offerings for other grades, digital core curriculum materials including textbooks, and digital materials that are in the public domain. Not all digital materials are accessible, but those at ULC are carefully chosen to be compatible with assistive technologies and new media such as desktop and handheld devices that support and scaffold learning.

Educators who register with the ULC have access to the use of digital materials that are cleared to comply with copyright law and publisher agreements. Ultimately a range of textbooks, reference books, workbooks, worksheets and other supplemental learning materials will be banked in the ULC. In the future, registered educators will select and store the materials that they acquire and manage these resources using search and locator tools that can identify works by title, subject, grade level, publisher, or select other options. A future resources and workshop section is also planned along with professional development activities and updated resources of all kinds.

Discover Professional Fitness For Literacy: Join The NCAC Consortium

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The National Center invites teachers and all other school professionals and personnel to join the National Consortium on Universal Design for Learning. It can be an important first step in learning about universal design in classrooms and a great place to find tips and suggestions from practitioners.

When you join the National Consortium on Universal Design For Learning, you become part of a national partnership of educators, schools and experts. These are professionals who want better results for all students, no matter how diverse or different are their backgrounds, experiences, abilities, and learning styles. The consortium intends to pool the collective expertise and promote literacy through UDL. Members can gain insights about creating personalized learning experiences and maximize his or her ability to progress.

Launched in 1999, the National Consortium on Universal Design for Learning is comprised of regular and special educators and other professionals who share responsibility and accountability for their education students. It advances the goal of serving all students well through research, professional development, demonstration of best educational practices, and collaboration with experts. Sign up to join.

Resources

UDL Tools and Resources

Education requires different types of challenges at different times depending upon a variety of factors that include a student's readiness to learn, and the match between how students learn and the manner that information is presented and managed. Universal Design for Learning calls for the curriculum to be adjustable in order to meet the needs of students with varied abilities and learning styles. Rather than forcing students to work with a set curriculum and inflexible materials, the materials and methods of UDL offer flexibility and versatility so that schoolwork can be personalized. The tools and resources described on these linked pages support UDL concepts.

Selected Products from CAST

CAST eReader

Available both in Macintosh and Windows versions, the CAST eReader adds spoken voice, visual highlighting, document navigation, or page navigation to any electronic text. The software can take content from any source--the Internet, word processing files, scanned-in text, or typed-in text-and combine it with the most powerful features of talking and reading software.

Wiggleworks

The Scholastic Beginning Literacy System is an inclusive early literacy curriculum co-developed by CAST and Scholastic Inc. Universal design features make WiggleWorks a flexible tool for teaching literacy skills to diverse learners and working with mixed ability groups in classrooms.

Reading in the Computer Age

"In Learning to Read in the Computer Age, authors Anne Meyer and David Rose provide a thoughtful book that will help educate teachers in the theories and uses of computers for the teaching of reading. It presents rich knowledge both about computers and about the process of learning to read, relating computers to theories of the brain and to the teaching of reading skills and strategies. It also shows how computers can enhance student motivation and engagement." - (from the preface by Jeanne S. Chall, Series Editor and John F. Onofrey, Editor).

The Future is in the Margins: The Role of Technology and Disability in Educational Reform

This paper, The Future is in the Margins, was prepared under contract to the American Institutes for Research on behalf of the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Technology (Contract 282-98-0029).

About the National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum (NCAC)

More about NCAC Partners.

	National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum (NCAC): In a collaborative agreement with the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Programs (OSEP), CAST has established a National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum to provide a vision of how new curricula, teaching practices, and policies can be woven together to create practical approaches for improved access to the general curriculum by students with disabilities.
	Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP): Funding for the National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum is provided by the Office of Special Education Programs in the U.S. Department of Education.
	Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST): Founded in 1984, CAST is an educational, not-for-profit organization that uses technology to expand opportunities for all people, including those with disabilities.
	Council for Exceptional Children (CEC): CEC is the largest international professional organization dedicated to improving educational outcomes for individuals with exceptionalities, students with disabilities, and/or the gifted.
	Parent Advocacy Coalition for Educational Rights (PACER): The Parent Advocacy Coalition for Educational Rights (PACER) Center is a nonprofit that helps parents and families of children with disabilities. They have 25 programs assisting individuals with and without disabilities.
	Harvard University Children's Initiative/ Harvard Law School (HCI): Under HCI, Schooling and Children's emphasis on program evaluation, innovative schools, and community linkages are integrated with the activities of the Center for Children's Health and with Children's Studies at Harvard, an interdisciplinary effort developed by Schooling and Children.
	Boston College, Department of Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction: Boston College is a community of scholars and practitioners engaged in inquiry and practice that aim to improve the lives of children, youth and families. Students who complete their degrees at Boston College carry into their professional lives a commitment to serve others through their teaching, counseling, school and university administration, educational evaluation, policy work and research.