General UDL Resources

General UDL Resources

Here, you will find a curated list of resources to help you on your UDL journey. From webpages to videos to books, these resources contain information on how you can best incorporate UDL.


Introduction to UDL

Webpages

UDL Guidelines

This comprehensive resource offers detailed guidelines divided into three primary principles: engagement, representation, and action & expression. Each section provides specific strategies for implementing UDL in educational settings to cater to diverse learning needs.

Summary of Proposed Updates for UDL Guidelines 3.0

This webpage summarizes the currently proposed updates and adjustments for the UDL guidelines. It also contains a video summary, as well as access to a PDF one-pager with a clear breakdown of the major changes being made to the UDL framework.

UDL On Campus: Universal Design for Learning in Higher Education

With resources in written and video formats, UDL On Campus provides strategies for inclusive course design, practices for accessible media and content formats, and information on accessibility to support the application of UDL principles.

Books

Universal Design for Learning: Theory and Practice

This book provides a look into the foundational research and practical applications of UDL and can be accessed for free with a Clusive account. It is invaluable for educators seeking to understand the neuroscience behind UDL and how to apply it effectively.

Universal Design for Learning: One Small Step

A learning resource to help educators reshape their teaching practices by using the principles and approaches of UDL. This book is openly available through Pressbooks.

Articles

Cracks in the Foundation: Personal Reflections on the Past and Future of the UDL Guidelines

This 2021 reflection from CAST co-founder David Rose and his peers engages with critiques of the UDL framework. The article addresses some of the barriers to inclusion, equity and diversity that the framework has historically not addressed.

Videos

UDL at a Glance

This video discusses the importance of providing multiple means of engagement, representation, and action & expression to address the diverse needs and abilities of all learners, aiming to create more inclusive educational environments

UDL Principle 1: Engagement

Webpages

Wise Feedback: Using Constructive Feedback to Motivate Learners

Introduces a feedback style that promotes building trust between instructors and students, providing substantive and informative feedback that includes strategies for future learning and success.

Books

One Small Step 1.3 UDL Principle 1: Multiple Means of Engagement

A short chapter that presents practical examples of how multiple means of engagement can be implemented in the classroom, as well as reflection questions for educators.

Videos

Universal Design for Learning (Part 3): Engagement Strategies

This video describes concrete strategies that promote student motivation: real-world examples and applications, student input on content, varying difficulty, and instructor feedback.

PDF Resources

ENGAGEMENT: UDL Principle – Teaching Strategies

A short document which outlines 8 teaching strategies for optimizing student engagement based upon the UDL principle. Each strategy is accompanied by tangible actions that instructors and designers can use while designing or running a course.

Principles of Engagement Checklist

This checklist on engagement is designed for educators to plan UDL engagement strategies and goals for supporting students in the classroom. It uses accessible language and has space for educator self-evaluation for each goal and sub-objective.

UDL Principle 2: Representation

Webpages

Digital Accessibility for Content Creators

Contains useful advice for providing text alternatives, captions and transcripts for media and optimizing the design of online materials for use with assistive technologies. The sections on presentations and images/media are particularly useful as they give concrete practices for creating clear text, image, audio and video representations of content.

Books

One Small Step 1.4 UDL Principle 2: Multiple Means of Representation

A short chapter with a clear explanation of multiple means of representation specific to a post-secondary context from accessible and multimodal course materials to pedagogical approaches, among others.

Videos

Universal Design for Learning (Part 4): Representation Strategies

Runs through strategies such as developing student vocabulary, giving students control over how frequently and how quickly they access and use learning resources, and ways of presenting information to avoid cognitive overload and promote making connections between ideas.

PDF Resources

REPRESENTATION: UDL Principle – Teaching Strategies

A short document which outlines 7 strategies to ensure representation of content reaches all students, based upon the UDL principle. Each strategy is accompanied by implementable actions, including accessible representations of content.

Closed Captioning Standards and Protocol for Canadian English Language Broadcasters

General Guidelines for Closed Captioning (pp.11-28) provides guidance for creating accessible captions with a focus on accuracy, preserving meaning and intent, consistency and clarity. This guidance is helpful for editing machine-generated captions or creating captions from scratch.

UDL Principle 3: Action/Expression

Webpages

Assistive Technologies for Students with Learning Disabilities

Physical accessibility is a key guideline of action and expression, and this resource explores the different technologies from low- to high-tech that students may use in order to actively participate in their learning.

Executive Functioning in Online Environments

This web resource with both written and video components explores how to optimize executive functioning for online environments.

Books

One Small Step 1.5 UDL Principle 3: Multiple Means of Action & Expression

This short chapter provides practices for how multiple means of action and expression can be achieved in the classroom, including tips for assessments, exams, and feedback, as well as some reflection questions for educators.

Videos

Universal Design for Learning (Part 4): Action and Expression Strategies

A video providing an overview of multiple means of action and expression. It makes practical suggestions for student expression, such as giving options for demonstrating knowledge in different formats for both independent and collaborative work.

PDF Resources

ACTION & EXPRESSION: UDL Principle – Teaching Strategies

A short document which outlines 8 teaching strategies for optimizing student action and expression based upon the UDL principle. Each of these strategies has 3 specific actions educators can take to promote action and expression.

UDL Tips for Developing Learning Goals

Explores guiding appropriate goal setting from an educator and student perspective, and provides advice for scaffolding learning, and how to make space for students to reflect on their learning, and monitor their own progress and goals.

UDL Examples and Tools

Websites

UDL Resource

This site includes information on UDL, but critically provides lists of online tools that facilitate UDL’s principles of Action & Expression, Engagement, and Representation. For example, for implementing the Principle of Action and Expression, the site provides tool suggestions for mind mapping, doing math on screen, and creating infographics.

Podcasts

Think UDL Podcast

This podcast explores topics within higher education that relate to Universal Design for Learning with guests who share how they are implementing UDL principles in their work.

Documents

Supporting STEM students with dyslexia guide

The guide explores experiences of students with dyslexia in higher education, presents case studies as a starting point for making STEM more accessible, and a list of guiding questions for educators to consider when making course adjustments.

Universal Design for Learning Quick Notes and Tips

A selection of quick tips and resources for implementing UDL in a higher learning context. Find useful documents on no-, low- and high-tech options for accessibility, tips for recording lectures, and inclusive teaching practices.

Books

A Comprehensive Guide to Applying Universal Design for Learning

Section 3.2: UDL Priorities – This section reviews and explains teaching to the margins, creating expert learners, proactive planning, access, flexibility, explicit expectations and structure, and frequent and varied assessment.

Section 2.4: Applying UDL to Blended Learning – This section provides applications of UDL in blended learning environments. It outlines the priorities for each of the three UDL principles, as well as ideas for designing your course.

Section 2.6: Applying UDL to Online LearningApplications for each UDL principle specific to online learning environments are provided in this section. As with the Blended Learning section, this section outlines the priorities for each of the three UDL principles, as well as ideas for course design.

UDL and Artificial Intelligence

Webpages

Accessibility and AI Tools

An overview of AI tools that can be used for accessibility purposes. It outlines how AI might be used for improving document and file accessibility, text-to-speech, adding alternative text to images, improving video accessibility and more.

Accessibility of AI tools

This webpage outlines a framework for testing commonly available AI tools for accessibility based upon the acronym FAST (Function, Appearance, Structure, Text Equivalents). It outlines the results of testing AI tools against this framework, and asks important questions about the implementation of AI tools when accessibility is lacking.

Books

AI Tools to Enhance Accessibility in Accessibility Handbook for Teaching and Learning

This chapter explores how AI tools such as Microsoft Co-pilot, Goblin Tools, Perplexity and AI Tutor Pro (among others) can be used to improve accessibility. It provides specific use cases for these tools, while also highlighting their limitations and potential privacy concerns.

Videos

Generative AI and Universal Design for Learning in Teaching and Learning

This recorded workshop explores how generative AI tools can be used to enhance the implementation of UDL principles in higher education contexts. Alongside the video, session slides and worksheets are provided.

Podcasts

Artificial Intelligence and Accessibility with Joe Houghton, Think UDL Podcast

This episode discusses how AI can be leveraged to improve accessibility for course design, teaching and learning. They also discuss some of the ethical implications of using AI tools, as well as the future of AI in higher education as it pertains to accessibility and UDL.