Coady Webinar - Universal Design for Learning: Connecting Accessibility and Adult Education
Channel: Coady Institute
Date: 2018-11-13

As teaching and learning continues to evolve in this 21st century, more and more of our interactions and activities with learners are taking on a digital component. We know some learners who access adult learning programs may have diagnosed and undiagnosed learning disabilities, cognitive processing delays, mental health issues, and/or physical limitations and require appropriate resources and spaces in which to learn. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an approach to the design of products and learning environments to be usable by as many learners as possible, regardless of age, ability, or situation. Coupled with differentiated instruction, we can offer multiple means of representing information, of expressing learning, and of engaging with each other in digital spaces. 

In this collaborative session, participants will learn about UDL and share what works for them and for their learners, but also how it is working in their virtual classrooms and resource spaces and why. We will focus on the online classroom, but anticipate that ideas will connect with our face-to-face contexts. The tools and techniques Wendy shares are aligned with UDL and Knowles’ (1984) theory of adult learning rooted in self-direction, knowledge, and life experience, and will be goal-oriented, relevant, practical, and collaborative. The intent is for viewers to exit the webinar with a renewed focus on accessible teaching and learning, and be armed with a host of new ideas and strategies to try with their own learners. 

Wendy Kraglund-Gauthier, PhD is the Manager of Networks and Ongoing Learning at the Coady International Institute. She is an educator, instructional designer, and researcher with over 25 years’ experience in K–12, post-secondary, and adult learning classrooms. Central to her work is achieving and facilitating sound teaching pedagogy, including ways Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles and technologies can be used in face-to-face and online classrooms to promote collaborative, safe learning for students of diverse ages, abilities, and backgrounds