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UDL In Brief
Universal Design for Learning — often, referred to as Universal Design because of its origins outside of the classroom — is a pedagogical approach based on the idea that learning is a process that is facilitated (and hindered) by the environment in which one is expected to learn. UDL at its best draws attention to the underlying structural ableism, racism, classism, cisnormativity, and heteronormativity of learning spaces; instead of questioning “what is wrong with this individual that they are not learning in this space?”, the principles of UDL instead pose the question, “what is wrong with the structural environment that is designed for some, but not others? How can the structural environment be improved to create space for multiple styles of learning, particularly those that are undervalued in hegemonic learning spaces?”
Particularly at LaGuardia Community College — as well as CUNY more broadly — UDL has tremendous implications for a largely POC, largely immigrant, largely low-income student population.
In brief, UDL attempts to ensure that each piece of classroom learning can be accessed and manipulated by users in various ways, such that there are:
- multiple, valued forms of representation;
- multiple, valued forms of action and expression;
- multiple, valued forms of engagement.
The valuing of different forms of engagement — for example, actively valuing non-verbal modes of participation in class by assessing quieter students with the same worth as students who speak up more in class — is a crucial component of ensuring that classroom spaces move toward equity rather than perpetuating the privileging of some affects, learning processes, and forms of engagement over all others.
UDL is often critiqued for the problematics of “universality” (which is usually code for whiteness), and it is our goal through DfA at LaGuardia to ensure that our versions of UDL incorporate critical race feminisms and queer of color critique as central facets of course design and research.
For more on UDL and the information presented here, please explore our General Must Reads resource page.
DfA Student Application
Part-time Job and Learning Opportunity:
STUDENT LEADERS for Paid Advocacy positions
APPLY BY SEPTEMBER 15, 2017
Are you a LaGuardia student living with dis/abilities? And/or have you advocated for improved access to education for all students?
The Designing for All Project at LaGuardia Community College is an initiative that will help provide increased access to education across the school. If you’ve ever had experiences in a classroom where you felt like you weren’t being invited to learn in the ways you need to learn, this project might be a great fit for you.
We will be working throughout Fall 2017-Spring 2018 to expand the way that we think about teaching and learning at LaGuardia — and across CUNY — so that all students can have access to effective, empowering learning. This means finding out what resources and curricular changes students need to learn well and figuring out how these needs can be both met and exceeded.
We’re looking for five students to take a leadership role in LaGuardia’s Designing for All Project. These students will ideally identify as having dis/abilities, or be learning academic English as their second language, and/or who have experience working to improve educational access for all.
Over the next two terms, we will be working across disciplines to generate universally designed classroom practices so that all LaGuardia students — inclusive of dis/ability status, language experience, or learning styles — will be able to more effectively access and control their own education.
Student leaders will be paid stipends of 1000 dollars total for the year.
Student leaders’ work will be published in Summer 2018, and they will play a key role in shaping the direction of this project. Meetings with students will include leadership skill development and will be driven by student needs and desires.
To this end, we are recruiting five students to take the lead in the following projects:
Summer and early Fall, 2017:
- Apply for Designing for All student leader position by September 15th; and
- Participate in a full team meeting with faculty and administrators to ensure students’ experience will play a key role in shaping the trajectory of the program.
Fall I, 2017:
- Participate in weekly student team working groups (schedule to be determined), some of which will meet online;
- Co-develop a survey for fellow LaGuardia students regarding their needs as learners;
- Craft a plan for survey distribution/collection;
- Distribute survey; and
- Assist with analysis of survey data.
Fall 2, 2017 (Winter Term)
- Begin crafting a reflective project about your experience here (possibly reflecting on the experience of creating universally designed classroom practices) that will be published in Summer 2018.
Spring I, 2018:
- Participate in one full team meeting to share expertise and skills that students think the rest of the team will need moving forward in this project;
- Participate in two full team meetings to evaluate program implementation and offer expertise for course correction;
- Participate in student team meetings (schedule to be determined); and
- Reflect on your project-related experience and any connected issues around inclusive learning through a crafting project of your own choosing.
Qualifications
- Commit to fall, winter, and spring participation in the project starting Fall 2017 through Spring 2018;
- Be registered as a student at LaGuardia Community College during Fall 2017 and Spring 2018 terms; and
- Demonstrate a desire to advocate for your communities, or have experience advocating for your communities.
Timetable
Students will apply for this opportunity by Friday, September 15, 2017 and be interviewed the following week.
To Apply
Fill out the form here: https://goo.gl/forms/zEs93bkxiYHS5rya2
Upcoming Events
Coming soon! Stay tuned!
Blogs/People to Follow (Part 1)
Margaret Price’s blog is always worth a read, for her latest presentations and published work on mental health, bodymind, teaching, and the academic environment.
CUNY’s own Andrew Lucchesi has maintained an excellent blog regarding his academic process sorting through studying and teaching with dis/abilities firmly in mind.
Accessible Classrooms is a resource-hub for accessibility tutorials for ensuring that the online resources (such as PDFs, images, and videos) we offer our students are physically accessible for more students.
The Ohio State University’s Composing Access site offers a great deal of advice regarding ensuring that your conference presentations (and by extension, your lectures) are more accessible, as well as general accessibility resources.
Disability Rhetoric is a blog that grew out of the Disability Studies Special Interest Group at CCCCs (the Conference on College Composition) in 2009, and houses a great deal of classroom-ready teaching resources, including syllabi.
UDL Across the Disciplines (Humanities and Social Sciences)
Note: This post comes with the disclaimer found elsewhere on the site. Much scholarship focusing on UDL currently does not adequately attend to the intersectional needs of students of color and the ways that racialized expectations in classrooms disproportionately limit the access that students of color have to classrooms (and thus, often, to structural adjustments to classrooms called for in UDL scholarship that makes race invisible, therefore coding itself white). There are some excellent readings critiquing the whiteness of dis/ability studies more broadly and UDL praxis specifically here in the General Must-Reads section.
This page from the brilliant Stephanie Kerschbaum offers phenomenal resources for dis/ability and the writing classroom.
Miksch, Karen L. “Universal Instructional Design in a Legal Studies Classroom.” Curriculum Transformation and Disability: Implementing Universal Design in Higher Education (2003): 163.
DeLong, Renee. “Writing Assignments and Universal Design for Instruction: Making the Phantom Visible.” Implementing Universal Design in Higher Education (2008): 131.
James, Patricia, and Themina Kader. “Practicing Universal Instructional Design in Visual Art Courses.” Implementing Universal Design in Higher Education (2008): 87.
Arendale, David, and David Ghere. “Teaching College History using Universal Instructional Design.” Implementing Universal Design in Higher Education (2008): 113.
Chanock, Kate. “Towards Inclusive Teaching and Learning in Humanities: Alternatives to Writing.” Learning and Teaching in Higher Education 3 (2008): 19-32.
Johnson, Julia R. “Universal Instructional Design and Critical (Communication) Pedagogy: Strategies for Voice, Inclusion, and Social Justice/Change.” Equity & Excellence in Education 37.2 (2004): 145-153.
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