d |
|
- Figure 4.1 -
Access in a Retrofitted Building |
Universal Design for Learning is an extension of an architectural movement called universal design. Originally formulated by Ron Mace at North Carolina State University, the idea behind universal design in architecture is to create structures that are conceived, designed, and constructed to accommodate the widest spectrum of users, including those with disabilities, without the need for subsequent adaptation or specialized design.
|
Before the universal design movement, architects rarely addressed the mobility and communication needs of people with disabilities. The results were buildings that were inaccessible to many. Legislation mandating universal access led to extensive retrofitting with ramps, elevators, talking signs, and other access devices. But retrofitting is expensive, often aesthetically disastrous (as illustrated in Figure 4.1), and usually inadequate in many ways.
Universal design provided a new and better approach. Architects realized that by considering the needs of their buildings' potential users at the outset, they could subtly integrate universal accessibility into the fabric of the building's design. Universal design challenges architects to innovate, often improving aesthetics and functionality. For example, the universally designed pyramid-shaped entrance to The Louvre, shown in Figure 4.2, embeds a sleek modern elevator within its spiral staircase.
|
As universal design's concept of access for all spread to areas such civic engineering and commercial product design, an unanticipated benefit became apparent: Addressing the divergent needs of special populations increases usability for everyone. The classic example is the curb cut. Originally designed to enable those in wheelchairs to negotiate curbs, curb cuts also ease travel for people pushing strollers or riding skateboards, pedestrians with canes, and even the average walker. Television captioning provides another example. When captioning first became available, it was intended just for hearing-impaired people, who had to retrofit their televisions by purchasing expensive decoder boxes to access the captions. Later, decoder chips were built into every television, making captioning standard and available to all viewers. This universal design feature now benefits not only the deaf, but also exercisers in health clubs, diners in noisy restaurants, individuals working on their language skills, and couples who go to sleep at different times. Further, as a built-in feature, access to television captioning costs a few cents rather than several hundred dollars.
|
Background Knowlege: The Center for Universal Design advocates principles that result in environments and products for all people. |
Universal Design for Learning extends universal design in two key ways. First, it applies the idea of built-in flexibility to the educational curriculum. Second, it pushes universal design one step further by supporting not only improved access to information within classrooms, but also improved access to learning.
Universal Design in the curriculum. In the early 1990s, the staff at CAST was working with collaborating schools to adapt print-based curricula so these materials would be accessible to students with disabilities. The barriers inherent in printed textbooks had long excluded students with physical disabilities, students with visual impairments, and students with learning disabilities, among many others.
It seemed ironic to us that legislators and architects were working very hard to ensure that educational buildings were universally accessible, but no such movement pursued universal accessibility for the curriculummethods and materials used inside the buildings—the curriculum. From our work with individual teachers and learners, we realized that the concept of universal design could be applied to curriculum materials and approaches. We experimented with multimedia tools and created some learning materials with built-in options that made them more flexible than printed books.
Out of that work came the prototype for a new and flexible kind of electronic book that we later co-developed (with Scholastic Inc.) into the language arts curriculum called WiggleWorks. The books in the WiggleWorks curriculum, all available on CD-ROM, have one distinguishing characteristic: They were developed from the start with features that allow them to be used by all kinds of students, including those with disabilities. Students with physical disabilities can turn pages and access controls with the touch of a key or a switch attached to the computer. Students with visual impairments can select large text with high contrast or opt to hear the text read aloud, navigating the program through buttons that "speak" their functions. This feature is also helpful to students who have difficulty decoding printed text.
Most important, the program's management system allows teachers and parents to "set up" the books to suit each learner's needs and preferences. Varied presentations of content and differing sets of supports are available for each student who signs in to the program. WiggleWorks is not a special education product, but a literacy program for all learners. The built-in flexibility improves access and usability for all, making the program the first example of universally designed curriculum.
|
Example: Scholastic's Wiggleworks, the first literacy program to incorporate UDL principles, was co-developed by CAST. Find out how young children benefit from this learning tool. |
Access to information vs. access to learning. Non-educators often make the mistake of equating access to information with access to learning. In reality, these are two separate goals. In fact, increasing access to information can actually undermine learning, because it sometimes requires reducing or eliminating the challenge or resistance that is essential to learning.
The distinction between access to information and access to learning is analogous to the kind of heavy lifting done by a professional mover versus that done by a body builder. The professional mover is interested in getting the sofa from point A to point B as quickly as possible and with the least wear and tear on his muscles. Therefore, he uses tools such as a dolly, a hydraulic lift, and a truck to help him do the job. These tools reduce the challenge of the work—a goal that suits the mover very well. The body builder has a different goal: increasing muscle. He seeks opportunities to lift weights, undertaking long workouts and increasing the weight as his strength improves. He uses tools that selectively support the muscles not being trained and increase resistance for those that are.
The goals of learners more closely resemble those of the athlete-in-training than those of the mover. UDL is predicated on that difference. As educators, our aim is not simply to make information accessible to students, but to make learning accessible. This requires resistance and challenge. Much as the body builder needs to know which muscle group requires strengthening before he can structure his training, the teacher needs to know the instructional goal in order to appropriately structure teaching. For example, if Kamla's teacher, Ms. Abrams, sets the goal of helping Kamla learn to decode text more fluently, allowing Kamla to use the computer's text-to-speech function on a reading assignment would undermine that goal rather than support it. However, if the goal were to help Kamla master the content within the text and build her enthusiasm for that content, then computer-supported reading would be an appropriate support,.
Similarly, when Ms. Chen wants to work on Charlie's research skills, providing full access to the World Wide Web (and its endless diversions) could undercut this "distractible" student's learning rather than enhance it. To help Charlie focus on learning research skills, Ms. Chen might restrict his access to a particular set of articles and Web sites relevant to the task. By aligning Charlie's focus with his learning challenge, Ms. Chen increases his chances of success.
Thus, although access to content and activities is often essential for learning, access to information is neither sufficient for nor synonymous with learning. Knowing the instructional goal is essential for determining when to provide support and when to provide resistance and challenge. With this balance aligned appropriately, students gain access to learning. The UDL framework provides guidance for using technology to support that balance.
