Embracing inclusivity is essential for creating higher education environments where all students can thrive. To this end, inclusive teaching frameworks are designed to recognize, accommodate, and value the diverse backgrounds, abilities, and experiences of all students. This chapter examines one such framework, Universal Design for Learning (UDL), which aims to address barriers to learning in education. After situating UDL within the broader inclusive teaching conversation, we will describe two common approaches to applying UDL: the UDL Design Cycle (Rao & Meo, 2016) and the Plus-One Approach (Tobin & Behling, 2018). At the end of the chapter, we will provide examples from our own practice of how UDL can be applied openly across any discipline or degree level.

UDL, inspired by the Universal Design architectural movement, was developed out of a need to make educational spaces more accessible for students with disabilities, and over time, it has expanded to address other structural barriers to learning. A lack of inclusive teaching strategies can widen achievement gaps by overlooking the unique learning needs of historically marginalized groups and significantly impact learners' engagement, retention, and overall well-being. Without inclusive practices, students may struggle to connect meaningfully with the curriculum, educators, and peers leading to higher dropout rates. Non-inclusive teaching can perpetuate biased narratives and misconceptions, reinforce existing societal inequalities, and make it difficult for marginalized learners to achieve upward mobility (Altes, Willemse, Goei, & Ehren, 2024; Svendby, 2024).

Furthermore, status quo approaches to inclusive education tend to be retroactive and transactional, requiring disadvantaged and marginalized learners to put in effort to get additional support (Sanger, 2020). Often, course modifications are made on a case-by-case basis after a learner has requested them through institutional channels, such as the Disability Services Office. This can be problematic, as it requires learners to disclose a disability as justification for access, regardless of whether the environment itself is inclusive (Pearson &, Boskovich, 2019). Many learners who encounter barriers in the learning environment may choose not to pursue institutional channels due to the potential for stigmatization, (re)traumatization, and/or othering. Additionally, course modifications can be time- and resource-intensive, leaving learners waiting for accommodations well into the term.

To address these barriers, UDL is a proactive educational framework that guides the design of learning goals, methods, assessments, and policies of the diversity of learners in mind (CAST, n.d.). Through exploring variability and anticipating the diverse needs and preferences of their learners, educators can center learner agency by designing their course to include choice and flexibility. For example, showing a slide presentation at the front of a classroom may pose a barrier to many students if not accessible in any other format-- due a disability, language level, or a personal situation that keeps them from class. An educator can post their presentations online so that learners can review the presentation at their preferred times and on their own devices. In this way, UDL recognizes that barriers are present within the design of the learning environment and not the learner themselves, complementing the work of Disability Services offices to reduce barriers to learning while giving learners more space to disclose disabilities and personal situations on their own terms.

UDL is grounded in neuroscience research on how the human brain learns. The principles of UDL - Engagement, Representation and Action & Expression - are designed to accommodate the diverse ways in which individuals process information, store knowledge, and express understanding. UDL recognizes that learners have different strengths and preferences, and it provides multiple pathways for accessing, understanding, and demonstrating learning (CAST, 2024). By considering the neurological underpinnings of learning, UDL aims to create inclusive and effective learning environments for all students.

With its origins in disability inclusion, the scope of UDL has been broadened over time to welcome all aspects of learner backgrounds and identities. The latest version (3.0) emphasizes critical pedagogical approaches and addresses systemic injustices as barriers to learning. It also makes more explicit connections between UDL and other asset-based frameworks that honor learners’ cultural and linguistic practices (CAST, 2024). The updated framework emphasizes the role of belonging in teaching and learning, valuing multiple ways of knowing and making meaning, and centering and valuing forms of expression that have been historically silenced or ignored by addressing biases.

Step 1. Identify barriers, preferences and needs. In this step, the educator focuses on identifying barriers within the learning environment and recognizing strategies to reduce or eliminate them. It is relevant to keep in mind learners' preferences and needs. Some ways to identify possible learning barriers are listed in Handout 1- The UDL Design Cycle.

Step 2. Develop clear goals. At this point, the educator identifies and develops clear goals that provide a shared focus and direction for all learners. This helps everyone understand the purpose of their learning and how it connects to the overall curriculum. It is important to ensure the goals are stated in ways that allow learners to achieve them in a flexible manner.

Step 3. Design flexible assessments for each goal. When designing assessments, the educator takes into account learners’ preferences, identities, abilities, language, cultural background and systems of support they have. Flexible formative and summative assessments can reduce biases that some traditional assessments perpetuate by providing options. Including formative assessments can encourage continuous learning by providing opportunities for students to receive ongoing feedback and adjust their learning approaches.

Step 4. Develop flexible, creative and attractive methods and materials. By designing and creative engaging methods and materials, the educator can promote learners' engagement in the classroom and reduce barriers traditional methods and materials can create for certain students. Flexible, creative, and attractive approaches can help to break down these barriers and make learning more accessible.

Step 5. Teach. Enjoy your time of teaching and learning with the learning class community.

Step 6. Reflect and revise.
Reflecting on the teaching cycle is essential for promoting inclusive practices. By reviewing past teaching experiences, educators can identify areas where they can improve their practices to better meet the needs of all learners. In addition, regular and systematic reflection can help educators develop a growth mindset, recognizing that teaching is a continuous process of learning and improvement. Moreover, revising and reflecting with learners can create a culture of continuous learning and improvement within an institution.

While robust, the UDL framework is not always meant to take a substantial amount of time and effort. Educators can start with areas of their course that have the greatest potential to remove the specific barriers in one's own teaching and learning environment. For example, an educator may notice that several students have flagged a handwritten exam as a barrier on the end-of-semester survey. This would be an opportune area to reflect on how a UDL-approach to assessment may reduce barriers by offering more choices for learners to demonstrate their learning process.

This concept was coined as the “Plus-One Approach” by Tobin and Behling (2018), which is an iterative process of progressively making more course interactions and content to be increasingly more inclusive as the course is repeatedly taught. They encourage educators to reflect on the following questions as an impetus for making changes to their courses:

• Where do students always have questions?
• Where do they always get things wrong on assessments?
• Where do they always ask for explanations in a different way from the one you provide?

In the example of a handwritten exam, one could think about how different components of the assessment could create barriers. Requiring students to be at their best at a specific time and place on exam day could present a barrier for students who have not slept well or students with a long and tiring commute. Asking students to handwrite an exam could create barriers for students with neuromuscular conditions or students whose home language differs from the language of instruction. It could also present motivational barriers for students who experience anxiety preparing for or taking exams.

Once an area for improvement is identified, an educator can use CAST’s UDL guidelines to brainstorm ways to offer more choice and flexibility. In the case of the example above, designing options for students to use multiple media for communication (5.1), such as the choice between handwriting, typing, or using assistive technology like voice-to-text, may already reduce barriers within the exam format. One could also consider offering a menu of options for demonstrating what a student has learned. In the innovative technique below, we describe how a format free assessment can reduce many of these barriers and promote engagement in the learning process.

It is important to note that even the most universally-designed course may still present barriers, as every group of students is different and will enter the classroom with varied preferences, goals, and needs. Designing an inclusive learning environment comes down to finding the right balance between structure and flexibility so that students can engage in their own way without being overwhelmed by choice. Therefore, listening to learners’ experiences and reflecting on one’s own experiences is a crucial element of creating a continuously more inclusive environment.