Core Concepts in Universal Design for Learning

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This section articulates CAST’s vision of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Implications for teaching, design benefits, opportunities, and challenges inherent to UDL are discussed. It is our conviction that UDL is the key to increased educational opportunity for all learners. CAST is committed to expanding and implementing UDL methodology in this rapidly evolving field.

Summary of Universal Design for Learning Concepts
UDL shifts old assumptions about teaching and learning in four fundamental ways...

Universal Design for Access and for Learning
Applying universal design to learning materials and activities can increase access for all learners, especially those with disabilities…

The Learning Brain
Positron Emission Topography (PET) and other advanced imaging techniques enable neuroscientists to study the learning brain in action...

Qualities of Educational Media
Considering the learning brain within three networks (recognition, strategic and affective) helps us to examine how learners interact with the forms of representational media commonly used in education (text, images, speech, manipulative materials, and the growing field of networked multimedia)…

Individual Differences, Teaching Approaches and New Media
Every learner is unique. Labeling students as disabled, average or gifted makes broad assumptions about the similarities of learners within categories (missing the differences) and about the differences between learners across categories (missing the similarities)…

Implementing UDL: Goals, Teaching, and Assessment
For UDL to become a reality in schools, we need flexible materials from curriculum developers; policies that support individualized goals, learning methods, and assessment; professional development practices that support educators in the UDL approach...

Benefits of Universal Design for Learning
Universal Design for Learning has the potential to solve the problem of providing equal education opportunity for all learners…

Assistive Technologies vs. UDL
Assistive technologies will always have a role in the education of learners with disabilities…

The Need for Consumer Demand
Parents, teachers, advocates, and learners themselves can make a difference by requesting curriculum in the most flexible, usable format and by communicating their opinions to publishers, schools, organizations and legislators…