Universal Design for Learning: Why the Best Learning Supports Help Everyone
About 25 years ago, while pursuing my master’s degree and teaching certificate, I learned about an approach to education that felt like a lifeline: Universal Design for Learning.
Like many teachers, I was thinking about how to meet the needs of an entire classroom of students. How could I help 25 different learners reach the same academic goals when each arrived with their own strengths, interests, challenges, and experiences?
Creating 25 completely different lesson plans was not realistic. Universal Design for Learning, or UDL, offered a more practical approach: Build flexibility into the learning experience from the beginning.
I sometimes think of it as bringing the spirit of an Individualized Education Program, or IEP, to an entire classroom. UDL does not replace an IEP or the individualized support some students need. But it asks teachers to anticipate differences and design lessons that give more students meaningful access to learning.
And if you have ever appreciated a sidewalk ramp, you already understand the basic idea.
What Sidewalk Ramps Can Teach Us About Learning
Picture a sidewalk corner with a ramp leading into the street.
For someone using a wheelchair, that curb cut can make the difference between navigating the neighborhood independently and being unable to access it at all.
But wheelchair users are hardly the only people who benefit.
Parents pushing strollers use the ramp. So do travelers pulling suitcases, delivery workers moving heavy carts, cyclists, and people recovering from injuries. In the video short below, you’ll see my husband pushing a stroller we got for our aging dog.
The textured surface near many crosswalks provides another layer of access by helping people who are blind or have low vision recognize where the sidewalk ends. Yes, Shel Silverstein immediately comes to mind!
The features I described are examples of universal design: environments created with a wider range of human needs in mind.
Here is what I find particularly important about the sidewalk ramp: The problem is not just that someone uses a wheelchair. The problem also exists because the environment was originally designed around the assumption that everyone could step over a curb. The environment itself can cause the problem.
Change the environment, and access changes.
The same principle applies to education.
When a student struggles because directions were unclear, the classroom was overwhelming, or an assignment required skills unrelated to the actual learning goal, we should look at the environment as well as the student.
And honestly, does a sidewalk ramp send you into a tailspin because someone who needs it might benefit?
No?
Then you understand universal design.
What Is Universal Design for Learning?
Universal Design for Learning is an approach to designing instruction, learning materials, assessments, and environments with the natural differences among learners in mind.
The word “universal” does not mean there is one teaching method that works for everybody. It means anticipating that students will need different pathways and building appropriate options into the learning experience.
According to CAST, the organization that developed the UDL framework, those options generally fall into three categories:
- Representation: How students access and understand information.
- Action and expression: How students demonstrate what they know.
- Engagement: How students stay interested, involved, and ready to learn.
A teacher using UDL might begin planning with questions such as:
- What is the actual goal of this lesson?
- What skills am I assuming students already have?
- Where might students encounter unnecessary barriers?
- How could I present this information in more than one way?
- What different formats might allow students to demonstrate their understanding? (my personal favorite)
- What supports would help students reach the goal without changing the goal itself?
Those questions make learning more accessible from the outset, rather than waiting until a student has already become frustrated or fallen behind.
Universal Design Shows Up in Everyday Life
Sidewalk ramps are only one example.
Closed captions are essential for many people who are deaf or hard of hearing. They also help someone watching a video in a noisy restaurant, learning a new language, or trying not to wake a sleeping baby. As someone with an auditory sensitivity, captions have changed my life.
Automatic doors improve access for people with mobility-related disabilities. They also help anyone carrying groceries, pushing a stroller, or juggling an armful of packages.
Speech-to-text supports people who struggle with writing or typing, but plenty of people use it because talking through an idea is faster.
Audio navigation helps someone with low vision. It also helps drivers keep their eyes on the road.
And written checklists can be indispensable for someone with executive functioning challenges, although I would argue that most of us benefit from having important steps written down.
The common thread is that accessibility features often help far more people than we initially expect. Understood provides additional examples of how these everyday design principles translate into education. (Great website!)
What Universal Design Looks Like in the Classroom
UDL becomes much easier to understand when we move beyond educational terminology and look at what students actually experience during a lesson.
At Pacific Learning Academy, our one-to-one setting gives us considerable flexibility in how students take in information, demonstrate understanding, and stay engaged.
Different Ways to Take In Information
Students do not fit neatly into categories such as visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learners. But presenting information through different formats and senses gives them more ways to engage with and understand the material.
I explored this concept in an earlier post, Learn With Your Senses. When students can interact with information through different senses and formats, they have more opportunities to understand and remember it.
Here are a few examples:
- A student studying a novel might read a printed book, listen to the audiobook, or follow along with both.
- A history lesson might combine a short reading, a map, a documentary clip, and a conversation about how the events connect.
- A math instructor might explain a concept aloud, demonstrate it on a whiteboard, and use a graph or physical objects to make the relationship visible.
- A science student might learn a process through a diagram, a video, a hands-on activity, and a written summary.
- An instructor might give directions verbally and in writing, then provide a checklist the student can refer to while working.
- Videos can include captions, unfamiliar vocabulary can be introduced in advance, and complicated ideas can be paired with visuals or real-world examples.
These options can be particularly helpful for students with dyslexia, ADHD, language-processing differences, or sensory needs.
But plenty of students without a diagnosis also benefit from hearing an explanation a second way, watching a demonstration, or having written directions available after the lesson ends.
Different Ways to Show What Students Know
Understanding something and demonstrating that understanding are closely related, but they are not always the same skill.
A student may understand a topic well and still struggle with handwriting, organizing an essay, speaking in front of a group, getting started, or completing a timed test. Pacific Learning Academy’s tutoring and accredited courses seem to attract this particular type of student most of all: smart kids who struggle to show what they know because something is getting in the way.
UDL encourages teachers to consider more than one appropriate way for students to demonstrate their knowledge.
Depending on the learning goal, a student might:
- Write an essay or a shorter written response.
- Explain their thinking during a discussion with their instructor.
- Create a presentation, video, or recorded explanation.
- Design a visual project, timeline, infographic, or physical model.
- Use speech-to-text to capture their ideas before revising.
- Work through a math problem on a whiteboard while explaining each step.
- Use a graphic organizer or outline to plan a longer assignment.
- Complete a traditional quiz or test when that format appropriately measures the skill being taught.
For example, if the goal is to demonstrate an understanding of a historical event, a thoughtful presentation may reveal just as much knowledge as a written essay.
If the goal is to learn how to write an essay, the student still needs opportunities to practice writing. However, they might benefit from an outline, sentence starters, a planning conversation, speech-to-text, or additional time.
At Pacific Learning Academy, instructors can adjust the format while keeping the academic objective in view. They can also provide support during practice, gradually reduce that support, and check whether the student can demonstrate understanding independently.
The destination remains the same. Students simply have more than one way to get there.
Different Ways to Stay Engaged
Learning requires more than access to information. Students also need to feel sufficiently interested, comfortable, and supported to participate.
That can be particularly difficult for someone who has experienced repeated frustration, anxiety, sensory overload, or a loss of confidence.
Engagement may improve when a student can:
- Choose a book, project topic, or example that connects with their interests.
- Work in a quieter room with fewer distractions.
- Adjust the lighting or take a short movement break.
- Understand the purpose of an assignment before beginning.
- Break a large task into smaller, more manageable steps.
- Receive regular feedback instead of waiting until the end of a unit to find out whether they are on track.
- Move through material at a pace that allows for questions, reflection, and genuine understanding.
- Build a consistent relationship with an instructor who notices when something is not working.
Imagine a student who shuts down when asked to write a research paper.
An instructor might begin by helping that student choose a topic they genuinely care about. Together, they might talk through a few ideas, record some initial thoughts, and organize those thoughts into a basic outline.
The assignment is still challenging, but the student now has a way in.
Or imagine a student who becomes overwhelmed in a noisy classroom, like I used to. A smaller, quieter learning space may allow that same student to focus, ask questions, and participate much more comfortably.
Sometimes the difference between avoidance and engagement is a clearer starting point, a calmer environment, or a teacher who asks, “What would help you get started?”
Does UDL Lower Academic Standards?
It should not.
A ramp does not eliminate the destination. It provides another way to reach it.
The same principle applies in the classroom.
If a student understands biology but struggles with handwriting, requiring a handwritten response may tell us more about the student’s handwriting than their knowledge of biology.
If a student has strong ideas but struggles to organize an essay, we may need to teach the organizational process explicitly rather than assume the student lacks understanding.
The important question is: What are we actually trying to teach or assess?
When the goal is reading comprehension, an audiobook may help a student access the material. When the goal is developing a specific reading skill, that skill still needs to be taught and practiced.
When the goal is understanding historical events, an oral presentation may be an appropriate way to demonstrate mastery. When the goal is learning to write an essay, the student needs supported opportunities to develop that writing ability.
Different pathways can give us a clearer picture of what a student understands, what skills still need development, and which supports make meaningful progress possible.
UDL also does not eliminate the need for individualized accommodations, specialized instruction, or an IEP. Those supports remain essential for many students.
The goal is to create a more accessible learning environment while continuing to provide individualized support where it is needed.
Better Design Creates Better Opportunities
One of the most useful questions an educator can ask is: Where is the barrier?
Sometimes a student needs to develop a specific skill.
Sometimes the student needs more practice, clearer feedback, or an individualized accommodation.
And sometimes the biggest obstacle is that the learning environment was designed around an imagined “average student” who does not actually exist.
Universal Design for Learning asks us to expect human variation and plan accordingly.
We would not look at a wheelchair user facing a staircase and conclude that the person simply needs to try harder.
We would ask where the ramp is.
Our students deserve the same question.
Need help figuring out what is getting in the way of your student’s learning?
Whether your student struggles to get started, stay engaged, process information, or show what they know, Pacific Learning Academy can help identify the barriers and find a better path forward.
Ready to explore options for your student and learn more about Accredited Middle & High School classes or academic support (tutoring)?
Schedule a free consultation with one of our Academic Coordinators
Pacific Learning Academy is a one-on-one school based in Sammamish, Washington. We offer single courses, dual enrollment, and graduation pathways for students studying middle and high school curriculum. Pacific Learning Academy is Washington State Approved and a nationally accredited private school (Cognia). High School coursework is approved by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for student athletes. We are also a member of the Washington Federation of Independent Schools. In addition to academic credit, the Academy offers tutoring support in all subjects from 6th to 12th grade. Lessons are available virtually or in person, including at your Sammamish home, our Sammamish school office, or local libraries across the Eastside. See more at www.PacificLearningAcademy.com.