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A Joint Statement from CAST and the UDL-IRN on Racial Inequities

Date:
Tuesday, June 2, 2020

In light of the horrifying death of George Floyd at the hands of police, CAST and the UDL-IRN join with millions of Americans in repudiating the systemic and individual inequities that affect Black Americans and other people of color. Violence against people of color takes many forms—the obvious abuses as in the Floyd case, yes, but also the systemic prejudice built into our education systems, workplaces, public spaces, and more that rob so many people of hope and opportunity.

For decades, our work has focused on transforming education until learning has no limits—for anyone—through Universal Design for Learning (UDL). In recent years, our work with community colleges, organizations like YouthBuild, affordable housing communities, state education agencies, and English language learners has taught us that you cannot eliminate barriers to opportunities to which people don’t even have access.

Moving forward, this is a fight each of us needs to be engaged with day after day, and to which CAST is prepared to leverage its capacities and efforts. You are invited to join us for our sixth annual symposium, UDL Rising: Designing for Equity, which is solely focused on better understanding and confronting the barriers that limit learning. We recognize our responsibility to address these barriers vigorously and honestly—we want to dig deeper in pursuit of a greater truth.

CAST and the UDL-IRN stand in solidarity with students, families, educators, workers and the entire UDL community in affirming: Black lives matter.

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