UDL Campus Implementation Criteria
When Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is systematically and intentionally applied campus-wide, it reduces barriers to create truly equitable, inclusive environments and ensures academic success for all learners.
The UDL Campus Implementation Criteria (UDL-CIC) framework offers a clear roadmap for campus-wide adoption of UDL. Grounded in implementation science, the UDL-CIC defines the critical attributes of high-quality UDL implementation at the organizational level. Much like the UDL framework itself, the criteria are data-driven, support continuous improvement, and offer flexible pathways for institutions as they progress through the stages of implementation.
When aligned with the UDL-CIC, institutions can design equitable, accessible environments that proactively address learner variability by eliminating systemic barriers. This framework fosters an iterative, reflective process that empowers educators to continuously refine their practices, ultimately nurturing the success of every student.
Overview of the UDL-CIC
The UDL-CIC is organized around four domains, each defined and shaped by specific and trackable elements. These domains and their elements provide a comprehensive blueprint to guide institutions and organizations in assessing, planning, refining, and demonstrating progress in implementing UDL.
To bring these elements to life, each domain features a Continuum of Practice that translates them into actionable steps across four progressive levels, from initial exploration to systemic cultural change. By illustrating what UDL looks like at every stage of adoption, the continuum offers clear guidance for measuring growth, tracking improvement, and evaluating organizational progress.
The four domains of the UDL-CIC are:
Explore the domains below, then dive deeper to explore their specific elements and continuum of practice.
Domain One: Higher Education Culture and Environment
In higher education, the UDL framework is used collegially to create a culture that values equity, inclusion, and agentic learning for all. The higher education organization commits to design flexible, goal-directed experiences and environments that anticipate the variability of its members and has high expectations for all.
Domain Two: Teaching and Learning
In higher education that uses the UDL framework, faculty and staff design learning opportunities that anticipate learner variability so every learner can develop learning agency. The UDL Guidelines are used proactively and iteratively to design course goals, assessments, methods, and materials to reduce barriers to learning. Rather than focus solely on learning activities, a UDL higher education organization views all interactions as learning opportunities and designs each with UDL’s inclusive principles in mind.
Domain Three: Leadership and Management
In higher education organizations that use the UDL framework, leaders actively support and monitor UDL implementation across higher education organizations. Using an iterative, data-driven design process, leaders model UDL practices and ensure that all learning environments and experiences, including higher education organization processes, procedures, and resources, are designed to anticipate learner variability by reducing barriers and promoting equity, inclusion, and agentic learning for all.
Domain Four: Professional Learning
In a higher education organization that uses the UDL framework, professional learning opportunities are personalized and embedded, and they promote ongoing professional growth. Professional learning is designed and facilitated by UDL professionals to be flexible, data-driven, and goal-directed, and to promote the development of faculty and staffs’ expertise.
Cross Cutting Concepts
The foundational design concepts of UDL are woven into the domains, elements, and indicators of the UDL-CIC. When aligned with the criteria, educators will design for:
- Equitable, inclusive, and accessible environments. The design process focuses on creating equitable, inclusive, and accessible environments and experiences for all.
- Learner variability. Anticipating learner variability requires that educators consider the whole learner, including their social, emotional, cognitive, perceptual, physical, sensory, and cultural strengths and needs when designing learning experiences and environments.
- Reducing barriers in the environment. By recognizing that barriers reside in the design of the environment or experience, not in the learner, barriers can be intentionally reduced using the UDL Guidelines and an iterative design process.
- Data-driven, iterative learning. Learning design is an intentional, iterative process focused on continuous improvement at all levels, using rich and varied data to inform subsequent design.
UDL-CIC Levels of Implementation
To guide institutions toward mature UDL implementation, each domain outlines a sequential, four-level overview of the continuum of practice. By defining specific benchmarks for every phase of implementation, this framework serves as an actionable roadmap for auditing current practices, tracking ongoing refinement, and diagnosing organizational development
The UDL team determines the extent to which the organization currently meets the element indicators. Using data from multiple sources, the organization sets goals and develops a plan to move toward greater implementation. The UDL team determines which data it uses to monitor progress toward meeting the indicators. At this level, the UDL team and a few early adopters are implementing UDL practices. This can look differently depending on the size of the institution and/or if it is an entire system change with multiple programs, departments or institutions working together.
The organization adopts and implements the UDL framework in a systematic way across the four domains: culture and environment, teaching and learning, leadership and management, and professional learning. The UDL team continues to collect data from multiple sources, analyze the data to monitor progress, and revise UDL implementation goals in all domains. At this level, some higher education professionals implement UDL practices.
The organization uses the UDL framework to guide improvement of UDL implementation practices in the four domains: culture and environment, teaching and learning, leadership and management, and professional learning. The UDL team monitors UDL implementation and teaching and learning data in all domains, and adjusts plans based on its findings. At this level, most higher education professionals and units, departments, and/or programs as a whole are implementing UDL practices.
The UDL team members share their UDL implementation story (e.g., lessons learned, strategies and successes, data that shows change in target outcomes) with the broader education community. They mentor other organizations on implementing UDL and help advance the UDL community by designing and implementing innovative UDL practices. At this level, almost all higher education professionals and units, departments, and/or programs as a whole are implementing UDL practices.