Access Granted: Creating Inclusive Learning Experiences for All Students

Accessibility, universal design, or inclusion?

We, Cathy and Guissou, got to know each other at Dawson’s 2-day UDL-intensive “Inclusion & Wellness retreat.” We noticed considerable overlap in our areas of interest and goals, and have since begun to explore intersections between:

• accessibility
• assistive technology
• Universal Design (UD)
• UDL
• inclusion

We have also been examining how these concepts and tools are used and implemented in college classrooms.

Through our collaboration, we have begun reflecting on what it means to have an accessible course. Since the word “accessibility” has come to represent notions surrounding the needs of a particular student group, we found it helpful to truncate the word, as suggested by Tobin & Behling, and consider the broader notion of “access”:

• How are students accessing the learning materials in our courses?
• How are they navigating learning spaces?
• How are they interacting with learning materials, with the teacher, and with one another?

Universal design: Necessary for some, beneficial for all

When designing for accessibility, we adapt for individuals with specific needs, but often, what we come up with can benefit everyone. This embodies the concept of “Universal Design,” the predecessor to UDL, developed by architect Ronald Mace and his colleagues, who defined UD as “design that is usable by all people, to the greatest extent possible, without the need for adaptation or specialized design.” For example, as pictured in the image below, the automatic doors at a grocery store, originally designed for individuals in wheelchairs, are also helpful for parents pushing strollers, older adults with walkers, and even people carrying heavy boxes or juggling coffee and a phone. What is essential for some has proven beneficial for all, illustrating how designing to the edges of user ability can widen and facilitate access for a more diverse user base.

AI-generated images illustrating how automatic doors at a grocery store can be beneficial for a broader range of users

What is UDL?

The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework was developed by Dr David Rose and his colleagues at CAST, responsible for extending the principles of UD into the classroom, and merging them with current pedagogical research. UDL aims to create accessible and inclusive learning experiences and environments by eliminating barriers for all learners.

Teachers who embrace the underlying principles and philosophy of UDL will find no shortage of ideas for ways to implement the UDL guidelines in their courses. The framework is non-prescriptive, so implementation can be very different depending on the discipline, teacher, and context. We often gravitate toward the areas of the framework that involve scaffolding and metacognition because of the inherent overlap with other pedagogical approaches. But we sometimes forget the roots of UDL in Universal Design. In a classroom context, it doesn’t matter how well designed an activity is if we’ve excluded a portion of the students from accessing it.

Equality, equity, and learner agency

We are all familiar with the important differentiation between the notions of equality and equity. Equality means everyone receives the same, while equity ensures that everyone gets what they need. Specific accommodation aims to achieve equity by leveling the playing field for students with specific learning barriers or disabilities, enabling them to participate in learning.

Universal design shifts the focus from the student and considers the possibility that the environment itself could be disabled or disabling. Instead of “how can we accommodate this student,” the question becomes “how can we enable the learning environment to allow more students to access it, and all students to thrive within it?”

Important caveat: in an ideal world, we would be able to remove all barriers to allow equitable access for every student, but this is not always possible with complex user needs. The complementary application of accommodations and universal design for learning ensure maximum access for all students.

Katie Novak (Novak Education) highlights the potential of UDL to move beyond access toward learner agency. Allowing students to make choices along their learning path fosters both equity and engagement by enabling learners to participate in the design of their own learning experience, adapting their choices as needed and using whatever tools and supports they require along the way.

From universal to inclusive design

The UDL guidelines update (2024) sought to incorporate aspects of wider principles of inclusive design. In an accessible guide to inclusive design, Bruno Perez described this concept as seeking to understand and embrace diversity, addressing the different needs and motivations of users, by considering:

• user diversity (expanding the range of possible users)
• accessibility (making the resource available for use)
• usability (making the resource easier to use)

So, how do we design learning experiences that will work for all students? The key is in understanding learner variability.

Learner variability

Faced with vastly differing abilities and varied learning preferences in our classes, we may resort to targeting the “average student.” However, as Todd Rose explains in “The Myth of Average,” there is really no such thing. Analyzing multi-dimensional tasks along a single axis may lead us to categorize our students as “strong, weak, or average.” Most teachers will recognize these common descriptors, but such reductive generalizations fail to account for the variability of each learner across the broad spectrum of abilities that compose the performances we are evaluating.

Variability equals varied ability

Learner variability exists not only within your group but also within each individual, potentially changing between contexts. If we compare 2 equally performing “average” students, one may be strong in recalling knowledge but struggle with reading and vocabulary, and the other may have an exact opposite skillset. A wide range of variables impact performance within a single person.

As Barbara Pape from Digital Promise Global states, “learner variability is the rule, not the exception.” Every student brings a unique set of abilities, skills, interests, learning preferences, and background to each learning experience. Designing with learner variability in mind at the outset is about valuing this diversity and using our understanding of it to inform our design choices. Flexible learning environments will enable each student to mitigate and target weaknesses and shine light on their strengths.

Designing for variability by removing barriers to learning

It is not necessarily a disability that leads to exclusion, but rather the presence of barriers to learning that create functional limitations and obstacles to participation. Therefore, granting access is not about eliminating impairments or disabilities — it is about removing obstacles so that all students can fully engage in the learning.

Here are a few different types of learning barriers and examples of each:

• environmental (e.g. large textbooks that can’t be read on public transport for students with long commutes)
• communicative (e.g. generational or culturally based differences in communication)
• organizational (e.g. redundant or inefficient bureaucratic processes to access necessary services)
• attitudinal (e.g. false association of learning disabilities with cognitive impairment)

Organizational and attitudinal barriers are ubiquitous and hard to address because we are often not even aware of their presence.

Hidden curriculum: an invisible barrier to learning

Even harder to address are barriers within the hidden curriculum. This includes informal or unspoken course expectations or etiquette that tends to vary significantly between teachers. For example:

• the manner to communicate with teachers in writing
• the manner to respectfully engage in online discussions and group work
• rules concerning deadlines and submission expectations

Such implicit rules can be especially challenging for students with disabilities or those with differing academic or cultural backgrounds. By explicitly teaching our expectations through modelling, discussions, and role-playing, we create a more inclusive environment and equip students with essential life skills.

Digital media barriers

Digital media can present unique challenges for many students. For example, notifications can disrupt focus for all students but are particularly problematic for students with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Applying UDL principles to reduce these barriers helps not only those with disabilities but also those facing temporary or situational barriers. For example, providing alternatives to text-heavy platforms could help a student with dyslexia or one who has had a concussion. The following table provides a few more examples:

Back to the basics: guidelines for universal accessibility

Drawing from our local accessibility experts, this section will return to the core principles where the various approaches to inclusive design converge: removing barriers to participation and ensuring universal access. The following guidelines will ensure that students can easily read and navigate the materials, supporting diverse learning needs and fostering an inclusive environment.

Accessible format

Ensure information is provided in an accessible digital format. Content containing scanned images rather than selectable text makes it unreadable by screen readers and difficult to transform. Follow these tips to make your materials accessible:

• Ensure text is selectable (i.e. not scanned images) or if not, try to locate a newer version
• Convert older scans to accessible digital formats using an optical character recognition (OCR) tool
• Use accessibility auditing tools in Microsoft platforms (under “Review” or “Check Accessibility”)

Text accessibility

• Use bold for emphasis instead of italics, underlining, or highlighting
• Check that edges are not cut off on different devices
• Ensure adequate contrast between text and background (check out this Contrast Checker tool)
• Opt for clear sans-serif fonts (e.g. Arial or Calibri)
• 12-14 points for Word or printed documents
• 24-36 points for PowerPoints (depending on the size of the screen and room)
• Make headings 20% larger than general text
• Use “headings” and “styles” consistently for easy navigation and signposting
• Avoid handwriting (hard to read and inaccessible to screen readers)

Backgrounds and colours

When designing your materials, be mindful of the impact of backgrounds and colours on accessibility for all learners, especially those with ADHD, dyslexia, or visual impairments:

• Avoid busy backgrounds that could be distracting or make text hard to read
• Consider omitting graphics that do not add meaning to content
• Favour images and symbols over colour only, when emphasizing textual information
• Avoid red, green, pink, yellow, and blue for text or backgrounds (difficult to distinguish for individuals with colour blindness)

URL links

When using URL links, note that screen readers read the entire link, so be sure to edit the text displayed (right-click/insert/edit link). Non-descriptive buttons like “click here” only address sighted individuals, but others may also not take the time to follow links with no specified destination. Provide a concrete and specific description of the link, for example: “A copy of the PowerPoint presentation is uploaded on SharePoint for easy access.”

Alternative text (“alt text”)

For digital media (images, graphs, tables, etc.), including alternative text will ensure that students using a screen reader app for whatever reason can access a description of the image.

To add alt text to your documents:

• In Microsoft and Google Suite:
• Right-click on the image
• Choose edit/view “Alt text”
• Describe the image briefly or generate alt text using the automatic tool
• Label non-informative images (e.g. background graphics) as decorative
• In PDF documents:
• Open the (more) “tools” menu
• Choose “Accessibility”
• Click “Set alternate text”

Closed captions and transcripts

Adding closed captions and transcripts to audio and video materials has become essential to improve access for the above-cited diverse needs and contexts. It also renders audiovisual content searchable, not to mention making up for poor sound quality of audio-visual equipment. This guideline offers step-by-step instructions for adding and editing closed captions on platforms like Teams and Zoom. Viewers can easily turn captions on or off as needed. Most online streaming platforms offer auto-generated captions, which may require some editing (editing the auto-generated captions on public platforms like YouTube is possible), but even imperfect captions are better for your students than none at all!