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Chapter 6: Using UDL to Support Every Student's Learning

CAST Guidelines: Universal Design for Learning

CAST is developing guidelines for implementing Universal Design for Learning in curriculum design, development and selection. The UDL Guidelines are slated for completion and posting in late summer, 2002.

The CAST UDL guidelines will support developers, publishers and educators wishing to create goals, methods, materials, and assessments that are sufficiently flexible to reach all learners. The guidelines document will frame Universal Design for Learning by providing background information and accessibility prerequisites for UDL by linking to work such as the Web Access Initiative (WAI) (http://www.w3.org/WAI/) and Bobby Worldwide (http://www.cast.org/Bobby/).

Following CAST's three principles of UDL, the guidelines will provide examples, methods, and checkpoints for curriculum design, development, and selection. Using the guidelines, curriculum developers and publishers can build in flexibility from the start, and educators can assemble and combine flexible materials that support diverse learning needs, strengths, and interests.

The completed document will offer recommendations about the optimal technical and editorial methods for meeting the guidelines as well as a glossary of terms and a listing of resources to assist developers, publishers, and educators.

The guidelines will provide support for creating:

1. Universally designed goals
2. Universally designed materials
3. Universally designed methods
4. Universally designed assessments.
   

Within each of these aspects of curriculum design, the guidelines will address recognition, strategic, and affective differences between students so that the maximum and most effective flexibility can be built in.