Universal Design for Learning

The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) is an intergovernmental organisation created by Commonwealth Heads of Government to promote the development and sharing of open learning and distance education knowledge, resources, and technologies.

© 2021 by Commonwealth of Learning

Universal Design for Learning is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence (international): http://creativecommons.org/licences/by-sa/4.0.

For the avoidance of doubt, by applying this licence the Commonwealth of Learning does not waive any privileges or immunities from claims that they may be entitled to assert, nor does the Commonwealth of Learning submit itself to the jurisdiction, courts, legal processes, or laws of any jurisdiction.

Universal Design for Learning has been prepared by Josie Gray, adapting the Accessibility Toolkit – 2nd Edition by Amanda Coolidge, Sue Doner, Tara Robertson, and Josie Gray and published by BCcampus and under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0Licence and UDL on campus by CAST , which is under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 Licence , along with open content from other sources. Specific attributions are provided throughout the course. Content not attributed are original to this work.

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This section introduces Universal Design for Learning (UDL), its origins, and supporting principles. This will provide a foundation for the rest of the course and demonstrate the potential of UDL to make teaching resources and practices more responsive to students’ diverse needs and contexts. This section will include the following topics:

1. Introduction to UDL
2. Student Variability and Assistive Technology