The History of UDL

Universal Design originated in the architecture field, where the goal was to design buildings that can accommodate the greatest number of people. It was developed by Ron Mace at North Carolina State University. In the design of architecture and, later, products, the goal was to make things accessible to people with disabilities in an equitable way. This might include ramps for wheelchairs, visual cues to pair with fire alarms, wide doorways, closed captioning on television programs, and using icons and/or braille in addition to words on signs.

In the 1990s, the Center for Applied Special technology, or CAST, used the concept of Universal Design and decided that learning should be set up that way, too. Curriculum should always be designed to accommodate the greatest number of learners. Instead of trying to come up with an accommodation when a particular student has a problem, UDL focuses on making that content accessible to as many people as possible before problems present themselves. Making learning accessible to all students is actually the law in the United States, according to the IDEA (2004) law. This framework is heavily research-based and goes along with the science of neuroanatomy, or the science of how your brain works when you learn.

The wonderful thing about UDL is that technology is becoming more and more available to students across the country, and teachers can share what they have developed via the Internet. So, teachers who need to come up with resources for their students often can find accessible options at their fingertips. Students who want to demonstrate what they know via a powerpoint presentation, a video, or a text-to-speech presentation have choices and options. Neither learning style nor disability are barriers to acheivement when UDL is utilized.

http://www.cast.org/teachingeverystudent/

http://www.csupomona.edu/~facultycenter/facultyResources_UDL.shtml

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Design_for_Learning