UDL Awards 2026: Honoring Changemakers and Innovators in Universal Design for Learning

Innovation, inclusivity, and a relentless commitment to breaking down learning barriers—this is what defines the extraordinary recipients of the 2026 UDL Awards. These prestigious honors celebrate trailblazers who are making significant contributions to the field of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), inclusive education, and accessibility, serving as a powerful reminder of what is possible when we design learning without limits.

What makes the UDL Awards truly special is that they are entirely driven by the the field. Every single recipient was nominated by members of the education community who were deeply inspired by their impactful work. Out of an incredible pool of community-driven nominations, the UDL Awards Committee had the privilege of selecting the final recipients across three categories that reflect the cutting edge of our field: the Anne Meyer UDL Design Award, the David Rose UDL Research Award, and the UDL Innovative Practice Award.

Read on to meet this year’s visionaries and celebrate their achievements. Join us during UDL-Con: International Live Online in July, 2026 for a session where we’ll hear from the recipients and honor their work.

Anne Meyer UDL Design Award

Vineeta Garg and Gunjan Tomar, founders of Wellbeing Mantras, are the 2026 recipients of the Anne Meyer UDL Design Award. They have spent more than two decades advancing inclusive education through a comprehensive UDL ecosystem that combines professional learning, instructional tools, digital resources, and wellbeing-centered design.

Through their Pedagogy of Learning UDL platform, open-access courses, research, publications, and educator training programs, they have equipped more than 25,000 educators across 10 countries to proactively design for learner variability and create more equitable learning environments. Their work has had a broad impact on multilingual learners, neurodivergent students, learners with disabilities, and underserved communities, reaching an estimated 8 million students while demonstrating how UDL, social-emotional learning, and technology can be integrated to improve access, engagement, agency, and learning outcomes.

David Rose UDL Research Award

Dr. Sean Joseph Smith is the recipient of the 2026 David Rose UDL Research Award. He is a leading UDL researcher and professor at the University of Kansas, whose more than two decades of work have advanced inclusive education through research, technology innovation, teacher preparation, and professional learning. His scholarship and grant-funded initiatives—including WRITE, WritingClassroom.org, VOISS, and AI-SCORE—demonstrate how Universal Design for Learning can be leveraged alongside emerging technologies to improve access, engagement, and outcomes for learners with disabilities and diverse learning needs.

Through his research leadership, publications, educator training, and mentorship of future scholars, Dr. Smith has helped shape the national and international UDL field while translating research into practical, scalable solutions that support educators and learners worldwide.

UDL Innovative Practice Award

Dr. Paul D. Miller, Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Montgomery College, is the 2026 recipient of the UDL Innovative Practice Award. He has advanced Universal Design for Learning through innovative, institution-wide approaches that make inclusive design practical, scalable, and sustainable. His signature CLEAR Framework—Caption Everything, Logical Layout, Easy to Read, Alt Text for Images, and Responsive Design—translates UDL principles into actionable strategies that have influenced faculty development, course design, accessibility practices, and teaching across a college serving more than 44,000 students.

Through leadership of the Universal Design Center, faculty credentialing pathways, public scholarship, and the Inclusion by Design Summit, Dr. Miller has built a replicable model that helps educators move from awareness of UDL to meaningful implementation, creating more accessible and equitable learning experiences for diverse learners.