Towards an intersectional approach to accessibility in the post-secondary landscape. Examining the need for mindset shift in higher education to create interdisciplinary approaches to inclusion.
The accessibility momentum has grown exponentially over the last decade in Canada, much like it has in other jurisdictions. With growing numbers of students making requests for accessibility services, and vast numbers of students identifying as experiencing barriers in learning, discussing the inclusion of students with disabilities has now become the norm on most post-secondary. Campuses. Delivery of services has had to be refined and accelerated. There is innovation in the way faculty are now engaged in a reflection on inclusion. Importantly inclusive design is now talked about much more openly, with faculty embracing their role as designers and Universal Design for Learning taking a central stage within the Teaching and Learning suites that support instructors.
While change has been impressive and it is now fair to assert that higher education is much more focused than ever on inclusion, this discourse remains very narrowly focused on impairment and disability. This is problematic in many ways and threatens the further development of inclusive policies and of effective universal design practices. (i) First this narrow conceptualization of students with disabilities is problematic as it fails to acknowledge intersectionality and the way these students’ lived experience often also involves marginalization on the basis of nationality, race, sexual orientation, and gender. (ii) It becomes rapidly clear when instructors adopt a barriers analysis in the redesign of their courses or assessment with the use of inclusive design lenses such as UDL, that the barriers experienced by students with disabilities are also commonly encountered by other diverse learners. Efforts to convince instructors of the pressing need for inclusive design therefore lose momentum by ignoring many of the learners this reflection is pertinent for. (iii) Lastly in terms of strategic change and of the embedding of inclusive design in the mission statements and sustainable plans of campuses, there is strength in numbers and the lack of interdisciplinary discourse on inclusion and accessibility weakens efforts for growth of this agenda.
This fully interactive session will lead participants to thoroughly explore the interdisciplinary networks and dialogues that are necessary on their campuses to trigger change and to widen the discourse on accessibility to include all key stakeholders. It is action focused and aims to offer the participants the opportunity to develop an immediate plan as to the ways they can become change agent in this process of interdisciplinary work around accessibility. The session is based on qualitative research carried out in Canada with faculty and support personnel that seeks to explore the hurdles and opportunities that currently exist within the process of creating interdisciplinary efforts towards accessibility across post-secondary institutions.
Keynote Presentation Universell Norway May 25 Frederic Fovet
Keynote presentation at the Nasjonalt webinar om inkluderende læringsmiljø - Unoversell, Norway
Exploring the need for sustainable ‘whole campus’ approaches to the Inclusion of diverse learners
Keynote Presentation at the IT Sligo UDL Conference Frederic Fovet may 26Frederic Fovet
While there have been bold developments in the use of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in the post-secondary sector over the last ten years on both sides of the Atlantic, much of these efforts have focused on showcasing the pedagogical benefits of its implementation. This discourse has remained a little naïve when it comes to management of change and organizational leadership. In the worst case scenarios, naivety has given way to actual clumsiness, which has been counter-productive in getting buy-in from faculty.
This session will explore the challenges and opportunities of UDL implementation across post-secondary campuses and give full consideration to the numerous organizational variables which impact this process. It will argue that many of the UDL initiatives witnessed in Higher Education over the years have been doomed to stagnation or to a process of slow death because there has been a lack of strategic reflection at the start of these processes. It is an opportune time to learn from these lessons, and to devise blue prints for the strategic management of UDL integration that acknowledge the complexity of the post-secondary landscape.
A new dramatic set of variables now affects this process of implementation: the COVID-19 crisis has irretrievably changed the realities of Higher Education and its modus operandi. It would be unrealistic to hope to ever return to a pre-pandemic ‘normal’, and in many ways the COVID crisis has been the catharsis for radical changes which had been a long time coming in a destabilized, hyper-competitive, and mostly unsustainable landscape. This complex and charged climate will appear, to many, as rife with hurdles when it comes to UDL implementation. The last year and a half has indeed seen a shift back to medical model practices and a loss of ground for may inclusion advocates. It will nevertheless be argued in the presentation that the COVID pandemic has also offered unprecedented opportunities to position UDL as a sustainable framework well suited to the post-pandemic reality.
From curiosity to systemic implementation: Making UDL buy-in a strategic inst...Frederic Fovet
There has been growing but sporadic interest around Universal Design for Learning across the post-secondary sector in most jurisdictions over the last decade. This, in itself is encouraging and there is no doubt that the notion that inclusion must be achieved through proactive inclusive design rather than through retrofitting and accommodations is finally gaining in popularity and visibility. While many of the initiatives seeking to implement UDL are effective and credible, these are usually led by individual instructors or small communities of practice. As such, they represent powerful illustrations of UDL in action but they fail to tackle the complexity of how systemic implementation can be achieved across institutions. This presentation will offer an ecological view of the numerous factors that come into play when institutions consider campus-wide UDL implementation, and will prepare participants to proactively prepare for this complexity. It is undeniable that the COVID pandemic and the pivot to online teaching and learning have further muddied the waters, and the presentation will seek to explore what specific post-pandemic UDL efforts are now necessary.
Can you afford not to do this? Framing the pressing need for Universal Design...Frederic Fovet
Slides of my presentation as part of a panel run with Anna Santucci hosted by UCC and organized by CIRTL and James Northridge of UCC Inclusive
While Universal Design for Learning (UDL) had gained in momentum across Canadian post-secondary institutions over the last decade, it has been mostly framed in terms of pedagogical best practices. This has inherently meant that it has attracted and been appealing to instructors already very focused on transformative pedagogies and accessibility. Few other strategic approaches to UDL advocacy and strategic growth have to date been explored. Yet, many efforts to deploy UDL in the further and higher education sectors have stalled or not gained full momentum on the global scale. The time has perhaps come to conceptualize the need for UDL from powerful new and innovative stances, for optimal impact and growth outcomes.
An argument which is less often used to frame UDL but that carries perhaps more persuasive weight with faculty, staff, and administration is that of sustainable development. When examining current post-secondary practices with regards to accessibility, learner diversity, and inclusion, it becomes immediately and pressingly tangible that campuses can rarely afford to continue functioning efficiently with their existing models.
There are three distinct ways, this session will argue, in which sustainability can and should be used as a lens to examine the need for change in relation to inclusion and accessibility: (i) first the notion of sustainable teaching practices pushes us to question how long we can continue to design for the mythical mainstream classroom, without burning out while retrofitting constantly for the diverse student population that is in fact in our lecture halls; (ii) the sustainable development lens also pushes to examine out current model of service provision in relation to accessibility and to question how long this delivery model can last without imploding; (iii) lastly, considering the hyper neo-liberal mindset that currently characterizes the neo-liberal sector, it is reasonable to wonder if institutions have a genuine likelihood of surviving and thriving if they do not respond to the ever more eloquent needs of a diverse clientele.
This session will seek to examine and showcase how UDL addresses these three areas of concern related to sustainable development. The session will be followed by a 30-minute panel during which these themes will continue to be explored in a fully interactive manner with the audience. The outcomes include:
- Acknowledge the impact of sustainability as a lens to promote UDL within campuses;
- Explore arguments and examples that may be useful to showcase UDL within a sustainability approach in the participants’ own institutions;
- Identify stakeholder relationship which must be developed and strengthened to grow UDL implementation within the sustainable development lens.
UDL – Where the buck stops! - In the change to a UDL model, who does what? Presented at the AHEAD 2018 Conference - Let’s Bring the Elephant into the Room! - Reshaping the inclusive environment in further & higher education
Presentation Frederic Fovet Congress of Humanities and Social Sciences 2019Frederic Fovet
Inclusive provisions have been statutorily mandated in North America for now over two decades. Despite a growing body of literature around inclusive practices, many in-service teachers continue to express difficulties when it comes to tangible implementation of Inclusion in the everyday classroom. While there is debate around the various forms Inclusion can take (UDL, differentiation, personalization, etc.), there appears to be a more significant hurdle in getting in-service teachers to fully embrace Inclusion both as a goal and a practice.
This paper investigates teachers’ degree of awareness around the Social Model of Disability. It argues that teachers often lack basic awareness of Disability Studies, more particularly of the Social Model of Disability, and that this has a direct impact on their capacity to conceptualize and embrace Inclusion.
The paper draws from the researcher’s experience as a graduate instructor with in-service teachers, as well as from his experience as a consultant working with schools and school boards. The methodology chosen here is phenomenology, and it draws on tools such as auto-ethnography.
The paper opens a discussion around the reform and transformation of pre-service teacher training. It argues that Disability Studies should be integrated into teacher training as it plays a key role in having teachers develop a theoretical understanding of Disability as a social construct.
Frederic Fovet Presentatin at the UDL and Inclusive Practice Symposium: Reach...Frederic Fovet
Post-secondary campuses are attracting an increasingly diverse student population. This must be celebrated as it means that the post-secondary classroom is also increasingly representative of the population at large; it means as well that all students are confronted with diversity in their campus experience and learn to embrace it; the internationalization of post-secondary institutions furthermore leads to greater opportunities to develop global citizenship.
This diversity of the student population, however, is not always perceived by faculty as easy or seamless to address proactively. As a result, students’ expectations can often clash with current teaching and learning practices that have not changed as fast as the composition of the student body has done. This leads to friction. It is not just students with disabilities that are experiencing barriers in their learning; International students, second language learners, culturally diverse and racialized students, first generation students, Indigenous students, and non-traditional learners all report experiencing similar barriers in their learning in the post-secondary classroom. Together, these students often represent a majority on our campuses - a majority that does not feel learning is designed for their needs.
It is becoming urgent therefore to find ways of eroding this friction. The solutions must address the needs of diverse learners proactively, but also support faculty as they rethink their classroom practices. These solutions must be sustainable, user-friendly, cost-effective, and powerful; they must guarantee a rapid change in our teaching and learning landscape, uphold the standards of post-secondary education, and ensure the creation of genuinely inclusive provisions.
The session will explore how Universal Design for Learning is uniquely positioned as a framework to address these pressing needs. The session will be interactive and seek to empower participants with a firm mastery of the UDL principles, to offer them practical examples of their use in the classroom, and to guide them as they begin their journey with implementation.
Keynote Presentation Universell Norway May 25 Frederic Fovet
Keynote presentation at the Nasjonalt webinar om inkluderende læringsmiljø - Unoversell, Norway
Exploring the need for sustainable ‘whole campus’ approaches to the Inclusion of diverse learners
Keynote Presentation at the IT Sligo UDL Conference Frederic Fovet may 26Frederic Fovet
While there have been bold developments in the use of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in the post-secondary sector over the last ten years on both sides of the Atlantic, much of these efforts have focused on showcasing the pedagogical benefits of its implementation. This discourse has remained a little naïve when it comes to management of change and organizational leadership. In the worst case scenarios, naivety has given way to actual clumsiness, which has been counter-productive in getting buy-in from faculty.
This session will explore the challenges and opportunities of UDL implementation across post-secondary campuses and give full consideration to the numerous organizational variables which impact this process. It will argue that many of the UDL initiatives witnessed in Higher Education over the years have been doomed to stagnation or to a process of slow death because there has been a lack of strategic reflection at the start of these processes. It is an opportune time to learn from these lessons, and to devise blue prints for the strategic management of UDL integration that acknowledge the complexity of the post-secondary landscape.
A new dramatic set of variables now affects this process of implementation: the COVID-19 crisis has irretrievably changed the realities of Higher Education and its modus operandi. It would be unrealistic to hope to ever return to a pre-pandemic ‘normal’, and in many ways the COVID crisis has been the catharsis for radical changes which had been a long time coming in a destabilized, hyper-competitive, and mostly unsustainable landscape. This complex and charged climate will appear, to many, as rife with hurdles when it comes to UDL implementation. The last year and a half has indeed seen a shift back to medical model practices and a loss of ground for may inclusion advocates. It will nevertheless be argued in the presentation that the COVID pandemic has also offered unprecedented opportunities to position UDL as a sustainable framework well suited to the post-pandemic reality.
From curiosity to systemic implementation: Making UDL buy-in a strategic inst...Frederic Fovet
There has been growing but sporadic interest around Universal Design for Learning across the post-secondary sector in most jurisdictions over the last decade. This, in itself is encouraging and there is no doubt that the notion that inclusion must be achieved through proactive inclusive design rather than through retrofitting and accommodations is finally gaining in popularity and visibility. While many of the initiatives seeking to implement UDL are effective and credible, these are usually led by individual instructors or small communities of practice. As such, they represent powerful illustrations of UDL in action but they fail to tackle the complexity of how systemic implementation can be achieved across institutions. This presentation will offer an ecological view of the numerous factors that come into play when institutions consider campus-wide UDL implementation, and will prepare participants to proactively prepare for this complexity. It is undeniable that the COVID pandemic and the pivot to online teaching and learning have further muddied the waters, and the presentation will seek to explore what specific post-pandemic UDL efforts are now necessary.
Can you afford not to do this? Framing the pressing need for Universal Design...Frederic Fovet
Slides of my presentation as part of a panel run with Anna Santucci hosted by UCC and organized by CIRTL and James Northridge of UCC Inclusive
While Universal Design for Learning (UDL) had gained in momentum across Canadian post-secondary institutions over the last decade, it has been mostly framed in terms of pedagogical best practices. This has inherently meant that it has attracted and been appealing to instructors already very focused on transformative pedagogies and accessibility. Few other strategic approaches to UDL advocacy and strategic growth have to date been explored. Yet, many efforts to deploy UDL in the further and higher education sectors have stalled or not gained full momentum on the global scale. The time has perhaps come to conceptualize the need for UDL from powerful new and innovative stances, for optimal impact and growth outcomes.
An argument which is less often used to frame UDL but that carries perhaps more persuasive weight with faculty, staff, and administration is that of sustainable development. When examining current post-secondary practices with regards to accessibility, learner diversity, and inclusion, it becomes immediately and pressingly tangible that campuses can rarely afford to continue functioning efficiently with their existing models.
There are three distinct ways, this session will argue, in which sustainability can and should be used as a lens to examine the need for change in relation to inclusion and accessibility: (i) first the notion of sustainable teaching practices pushes us to question how long we can continue to design for the mythical mainstream classroom, without burning out while retrofitting constantly for the diverse student population that is in fact in our lecture halls; (ii) the sustainable development lens also pushes to examine out current model of service provision in relation to accessibility and to question how long this delivery model can last without imploding; (iii) lastly, considering the hyper neo-liberal mindset that currently characterizes the neo-liberal sector, it is reasonable to wonder if institutions have a genuine likelihood of surviving and thriving if they do not respond to the ever more eloquent needs of a diverse clientele.
This session will seek to examine and showcase how UDL addresses these three areas of concern related to sustainable development. The session will be followed by a 30-minute panel during which these themes will continue to be explored in a fully interactive manner with the audience. The outcomes include:
- Acknowledge the impact of sustainability as a lens to promote UDL within campuses;
- Explore arguments and examples that may be useful to showcase UDL within a sustainability approach in the participants’ own institutions;
- Identify stakeholder relationship which must be developed and strengthened to grow UDL implementation within the sustainable development lens.
UDL – Where the buck stops! - In the change to a UDL model, who does what? Presented at the AHEAD 2018 Conference - Let’s Bring the Elephant into the Room! - Reshaping the inclusive environment in further & higher education
Presentation Frederic Fovet Congress of Humanities and Social Sciences 2019Frederic Fovet
Inclusive provisions have been statutorily mandated in North America for now over two decades. Despite a growing body of literature around inclusive practices, many in-service teachers continue to express difficulties when it comes to tangible implementation of Inclusion in the everyday classroom. While there is debate around the various forms Inclusion can take (UDL, differentiation, personalization, etc.), there appears to be a more significant hurdle in getting in-service teachers to fully embrace Inclusion both as a goal and a practice.
This paper investigates teachers’ degree of awareness around the Social Model of Disability. It argues that teachers often lack basic awareness of Disability Studies, more particularly of the Social Model of Disability, and that this has a direct impact on their capacity to conceptualize and embrace Inclusion.
The paper draws from the researcher’s experience as a graduate instructor with in-service teachers, as well as from his experience as a consultant working with schools and school boards. The methodology chosen here is phenomenology, and it draws on tools such as auto-ethnography.
The paper opens a discussion around the reform and transformation of pre-service teacher training. It argues that Disability Studies should be integrated into teacher training as it plays a key role in having teachers develop a theoretical understanding of Disability as a social construct.
Frederic Fovet Presentatin at the UDL and Inclusive Practice Symposium: Reach...Frederic Fovet
Post-secondary campuses are attracting an increasingly diverse student population. This must be celebrated as it means that the post-secondary classroom is also increasingly representative of the population at large; it means as well that all students are confronted with diversity in their campus experience and learn to embrace it; the internationalization of post-secondary institutions furthermore leads to greater opportunities to develop global citizenship.
This diversity of the student population, however, is not always perceived by faculty as easy or seamless to address proactively. As a result, students’ expectations can often clash with current teaching and learning practices that have not changed as fast as the composition of the student body has done. This leads to friction. It is not just students with disabilities that are experiencing barriers in their learning; International students, second language learners, culturally diverse and racialized students, first generation students, Indigenous students, and non-traditional learners all report experiencing similar barriers in their learning in the post-secondary classroom. Together, these students often represent a majority on our campuses - a majority that does not feel learning is designed for their needs.
It is becoming urgent therefore to find ways of eroding this friction. The solutions must address the needs of diverse learners proactively, but also support faculty as they rethink their classroom practices. These solutions must be sustainable, user-friendly, cost-effective, and powerful; they must guarantee a rapid change in our teaching and learning landscape, uphold the standards of post-secondary education, and ensure the creation of genuinely inclusive provisions.
The session will explore how Universal Design for Learning is uniquely positioned as a framework to address these pressing needs. The session will be interactive and seek to empower participants with a firm mastery of the UDL principles, to offer them practical examples of their use in the classroom, and to guide them as they begin their journey with implementation.
Nothing about them without them: Authentically engaging students in UDL growthFrederic Fovet
Presentation at the 1st International Universal Design for Learning Symposium Learning Together.
Maynooth University, June 8th, 2023
There has been a growing interest for Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as a framework for inclusion in both the K-12 and post-secondary sectors over the last decade, and this momentum has been noticeable globally. The body of literature which evidences the pedagogical benefits of UDL implementation for the inclusion of diverse learners is now broad and diversified. There is also growing interest in examining UDL implementation from a leadership and administrative perspective, examining it as a management of change process.
Throughout this growth in scholarship and field initiatives, the concepts of student voice and student advocacy have frequently been used and showcased. The literature regarding the learner role in the process of UDL implementation is, however, still limited. Placing learners in the driving seat when it comes to UDL adoption is therefore purely conceptual and abstract at this stage. It will be challenging to genuinely scale-up UDL as a framework, in both the K-12 sector and the post-secondary landscape, until students have considered with care and offered an active leadership role. Students’ perception of UDL and its objectives are key in the success of initiatives that seek to integrate it across organizations.
This fully interactive session will examine the various facets of the notion of learner involvement in the process of UDL adoption. First, the session will consider the way UDL must be explicitly discussed with learners within the class, while UDL initiatives are attempted. Failure to explain this process to students, and to actively engage them in it, significantly limits the scope of such efforts. The second part of the session will consider learner voice beyond the class itself, and will discuss ways to involve students as co-advocates for UDL growth, across institutions. This is a rich and complex process of critical empowerment which has unfortunately been so far rushed or ignored. The third part of the session will consider how UDL professional development should be addressed not just to educators but to student groups and student representatives. This section of the presentation will explore how the UDL principles must bee woven into such resources and PD for students and student groups, and how they must inform the design of such initiatives.
Reimagining inclusion in higher education in transformational post-pandemic t...Frederic Fovet
Much of the discourse around inclusion in higher education has thus far been grounded in scholarship on disability and impairment. As a result, inclusion in this sector has been defined and discussed mostly in terms of an ‘accommodation vs. universal design’ dichotomy – or retrofitting after the fact versus proactive inclusive design ahead of the class. The COVID pandemic has forced, around the world, an overnight online pivot, as well as many other periods of pedagogical innovation and disruption over a two-year duration. The overall outcomes of this period of transformation in teaching and learning has been mixed with scholars and practitioners showcasing both new opportunities and continuing hurdles for students with disabilities.
The most unexpected outcome, however, of the emergence of the tertiary sector from the pandemic is the realization that issues of accessibility and inclusion which have been energized by the pivot are now discussed widely by the student body and are no longer restricted to issues of disability and impairment. This presentation will draw from qualitative data collected within the student body on a campus in Western Canada about the way their expectations about accessibility, inclusion and student-centeredness have evolved during and post-COVID in their experiences of their progression through their degree. It explores the emerging advocacy that surrounds these topics.
The discussion and outcomes section of the presentation will lead participants on a reflection about the ways the pandemic experience and the online pivot have radically transformed: (i) learner expectation with regards to inclusion and accessibility, (ii) blurred the delineations between students with disabilities and the rest of the student body, and (iii) created the need for a new conceptualization of inclusion in the tertiary sector in the post-pandemic landscape. One of the assertions developed in the presentation is that this redefinition of inclusion for the post-pandemic tertiary sector presumes a reflection on being together in/with place in the way teaching and learning redefines presence, connection, and engagement for fuller accessibility.
Breaking free of teacher-centric beliefs about assessment Using Universal De...Frederic Fovet
Awareness of learner diversity is growing in the post-secondary sector. Recent societal phenomena such as the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements, the emergence of Truth and Reconciliation as an urgent national priority, and the growing youth voice around the fluidity of sexuality and gender have all brought to the surface the need for higher education to adapt and authentically address learner diversity. Equity Diversity and Inclusion policies have, as a result, flourished on most campuses in recent years, but these initiatives – it can be argued – remain overall conceptual rather than pragmatic. They also tend to target campus climate and policies, rather than pedagogy itself. There are few tangible tools readily available for faculty to translate these EDI objectives into effective change in classroom practices
And yet a malaise around the very format of instruction and assessment keeps growing. Most instructors are amply aware that many practices that are currently being perpetuated were designed when the learner population was historically oddly homogenous. There is tension in this contemporary and fast changing context and many classroom practitioners are thirsty for user-friendly, time efficient tools that might guide them effectively through this pedagogical metamorphosis without endangering standards, core teaching objectives, and external benchmarks – and without pushing them to exhaustion. Assessment is an area of this collective pedagogical reflection where fear of change is most tangible.
This fully interactive closing Keynote will encourage participants to explore, in workshop style, the use of Universal Design for Learning as a simple and sustainable framework to begin the journey of breaking free of teacher centric design in assessment. The first section of the session will encourage the participants to examine the need for change in this landscape and the pressing thirst for hands on tools for pedagogical transformation (the ‘why?’). Attention will be paid to the way the COVID pandemic and online pivot have made this urgency more tangible. The second part of the session will showcase the extent to which UDL offers a very specific appeal in this context, as a process to begin the journey towards inclusive design in assessment (the ‘how?’). The third part of the session will take a macro view of the process of pedagogical change in higher education, and stress the need to acknowledge a number of important institutional, strategic and organizational variables in order to create winning conditions for UDL adoption in the area of assessment (the “and now?”).
Gauging the impact of social model awareness among elementary and secondary s...Frederic Fovet
There has a been an exponential development – if not an explosion - of inclusive policies and practices adopted within the elementary and secondary sectors in most Global North jurisdictions over the last two decades. While the discourse around inclusion has grown as a result, it would be unwise to assume that inclusive practices have become the norm or that they have been seamlessly integrated: there is still a lot of tension and unease among teachers seeking to implement inclusive practices; this translates into hesitation and sometimes even a push back from school leaders; there remains much confusion at times as to the intentions and theoretical principles that ground these efforts.
The session will offer insights into a study which sought to determine to what extent an introduction to the Social Model of Disability was effective and impactful in allowing elementary and secondary school teachers to ground their work in the field of inclusive practices with conceptual clarity. It is argued that this has so far been the missing piece in pre-service teacher training as well as in-service professional development. The inclusion discourse within the primary and secondary landscape, both in terms of policy documents and field resources, has not explicitly or effectively integrated Disability Studies - and more specifically the Social Model of Disability - when framing and formulating inclusive provisions. As a result, teachers’ theoretical understanding of the foundations for inclusive reforms as they relate to the rights of children with disabilities is shaky at best and this affects these classroom professionals’ commitment to broad transformative pedagogical reforms. Bio-medical and deficit models prevail, and other lenses and constructs offered by the Disability Studies literature remain absent from this professional reflection.
The session explores qualitative data collected among K-12 teachers as they were being introduced to the key features of the social model of disability. The data analysis gauges to what extent this transformed their views on inclusion in the classroom.
This fully interactive session will lead the participants, in a hands-on fashion, along the journey experienced by these teachers and allow for an experiential understanding of the degree to which any material developing awareness of the social model of disability can have immediate impact on the clarity and effectiveness of inclusion efforts in the primary and secondary sectors. More widely, a discussion will be triggered in the session around the urgency of including Disability Studies scholarship in pre-service teacher training.
From curiosity to sustainable individual implementation: Getting settled into...Frederic Fovet
While Universal Design for Learning (UDL) had gained in momentum across Canadian post-secondary institutions over the last decade, oftentimes instructors who are introduced to the framework get few opportunities to consider detailed implementation or to reflect fully on its implication for their own teaching and learning – beyond the initial increased awareness of the need for accessibility and inclusion of all diverse learners. As a result, much of this initial curiosity and interest tends to die down, for simple lack of support, infrastructure, and time.
This session will seek to address this common issue and ongoing challenge, by offering participants a half day of deep immersion into the principles of UDL and their implementation in class. After a quick refresher of the key characteristics of the UDL approach, the participants will be encouraged to work in teams on hands-on case studies and scenarios that will offer them the opportunity to fully gauge what the redesign of a class delivery or assessment – along UDL principles - might look like and imply.
The workshop will also include a large segment reserved for interactive questions and discussions. This will offer participants the opportunity to develop their reflection around UDL implementation in their practice and individual professional context in detail and depth. The whole group will have the opportunity to review a number of hands on concerns and preoccupations and to equip all participants with a degree of autonomy in relation to the implementation of UDL into their teaching and learning.
The COVID pandemic has forced onto schools an overnight pivot to virtual delivery and assessment. This emergency provisions and their online component have remained a part of the reality of teaching and learning for large parts of the last two years. Innovative and emergent uses of technology in the classroom have blossomed rapidly and found a rich and opportune context for growth. This two-year period of change and experimentation has now created an unprecedented thirst for the long-term adoption and integration of digital solutions in teaching and learning – be they virtual, hybrid of face to face.
Much of the reflection that has occurred around the use and integration of technology and virtual tools in teaching and learning, however, has ignored learner diversity, accessibility, and inclusion. The time constraints, exceptional circumstances of the pivot, the urgency of the measures, and the understanding arrangements were temporary have contributed to a certain laissez faire in terms of accessibility. The legal notion of undue hardship has explicitly been used by many schools and school districts to circumvent legislation on inclusion and human rights provisions which normally guarantee accessibility to learning.
This session will first examine the various concerns regarding inclusion and accessibility which have arisen during the pandemic in relation to digital learning. The presentation will then analyze the inherent risks that are present in relation to social justice and inclusion, as educational organizations transition back to face-to-face instruction and seek to retain the digital flavour that has blossomed over the last two years. The third section of this paper is a call for action which delineates the safeguards that must be in place as digital transformation of teaching and learning gains momentum in the post-pandemic landscape.
Tackling the two solitudes. Bridging the conflicting lived realities of facu...Frederic Fovet
The lived experiences of faulty and accessibility service providers can vary significantly in higher education. This interactive live session will create an opportunity for a multidisciplinary reflection around the optimal ways to bridge the conflicting visions and experiences these two groups of key stakeholders have in relation to UDL adoption in the post-secondary classroom.
The term ‘two solitudes’ is often used in Canada to describe the cultural isolation and suspicion French and English communities develop in relation to each other. This concept will be used in this live interactive session to encourage participants to reflect on the differing views, visions and lived experiences of faculty and accessibility service personnel in relation to the adoption and implementation of UDL in the post-secondary sector. It will create an opportunity for a multidisciplinary reflection around the optimal ways to bridge the conflicting visions and experiences these two groups of key stakeholders have in relation to UDL adoption in the post-secondary classroom. This facilitated collective brainstorming session will support participants as they seek to (i) understand the cause of these conflicting subjective realities in relation to inclusion in the classroom, (ii) reflect on practices that may bridge these conflicting views, (iii) formulate calls for action which may be useful to campuses to nurture multistakeholder involvement as they promote UDL implementation.
Addressing the needs of diverse learners in online and blended learning with ...Frederic Fovet
There has been growing but sporadic interest around Universal Design for Learning across the post-secondary sector in most jurisdictions over the last decade. This, in itself is encouraging and there is no doubt that the notion that inclusion must be achieved through proactive inclusive design rather than through retrofitting and accommodations is finally gaining in popularity and visibility.
UDL work, however, has long entertained an ambivalent and complex relationship with the rest of the scholarship on technology, blended learning and online learning. While the overlap between the UDL literature and these other bodies of practice is prima facie obvious and rich, in the field it has been somewhat difficult strategically to get buy-in for UDL from the practitioners and researchers traditionally involved in technology rich pedagogy.
The COVID pandemic and the pivot to online teaching and learning have shaken this status quo and offered unprecedented opportunities to demonstrate and showcase the relevance of UDL when it comes to systemically addressing learner diversity in online and blended pedagogy.
The pandemic, however, has also further muddied the waters, and disrupted many of the relationships between stakeholders in academia. The disruption has been such that it becomes challenging at times to foresee what lessons have been learnt from the pandemic and what new practices are likely to emerge from the COVID crisis. The presentation will examine what the future of UDL implementation within the growth of online and blended learning might look like in this disrupted and quickly changing landscape. It will invite participants to engage in lucid assessments of the opportunities and challenges the post-pandemic era gives rise to in this area.
Keynote –4th Pedagogy for Higher Education Large Classes (PHELC) Symposium, D...Frederic Fovet
Including learner diversity in large class teaching: Using Universal Design for Learning to sustain a systematic proactive reflection on social justice and accessibility
Can we do it without school principals’ commitment? Exploring the complex imp...Frederic Fovet
There has been a growing interest for Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as a framework for inclusion in both the K-12 and post-secondary sectors over the last decade, and this momentum has been noticeable globally. The body of literature which evidences the pedagogical benefits of UDL implementation for the inclusion of diverse learners is now broad and diversified. There is also growing interest in examining UDL implementation from a leadership and administrative perspective, examining it as a management of change process. In the K-12 sector, this scholarship is not as developed as it could be if it is going to effectively support and guide the efforts of teachers as they attempt to scale up their initiatives and achieve sustainable integration across schools. There are many variables teachers seeking to adopt UDL have to battle with, and the roles and positions of school principal is a factor often cited.
This presentation will explore in an interactive format the much under-researched impact of the know-how, disposition, and commitment of school principals towards UDL integration. An awareness of this variable and its impact is crucial when designing future blueprints for the effective growth of UDL across schools. The session will be run in a workshop format that will encourage participants to share their experiences authentically and to build on some of the frustrations that will be expressed about the frequent ambivalence of school leaders in the process of UDL growth. The anticipated outcomes are as follows. Participants will:
- Reflect on the impact of school leadership on the success of UDL implementation
- Examine the resources and training school principals are in need of to more effectively support UDL initiatives
- Explore the challenges faced by school principals when trying to support UDL projects, within a wider landscape of neoliberal pressures
Beyond curiosity: building on initial professional development opportunities ...Frederic Fovet
This interactive workshop will offer participants the opportunity to reflect collectively on the impact initial professional development on UDL has, within institutions, on the scaling up of UDL initiatives. The journey from PD opportunity to strategic involvement in UDL implementation across teaching and learning on campuses is not as linear as might be assumed. A variety of ecological variables can affect the impact these windows of PD have on practice, or the scope of their amplification across institutions. The workshop will lead the participants as they consider, beyond the actual content of UDL PD opportunity, what factors may limit the impact such UDL micro-credentials, or on the contrary magnify their potential. The workshop offers an opportunity to reflect, from an operational and leadership lens, what winning conditions need to be in place for PD on UDL to authentically take roots and achieve maximum outcomes.
Shaping inclusive educational landscapes in a post-pandemic world: Seizing un...Frederic Fovet
Keynote presentation at the IECONF 2023 Vienna Conference
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Nothing about them without them: Authentically engaging students in UDL growthFrederic Fovet
Presentation at the 1st International Universal Design for Learning Symposium Learning Together.
Maynooth University, June 8th, 2023
There has been a growing interest for Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as a framework for inclusion in both the K-12 and post-secondary sectors over the last decade, and this momentum has been noticeable globally. The body of literature which evidences the pedagogical benefits of UDL implementation for the inclusion of diverse learners is now broad and diversified. There is also growing interest in examining UDL implementation from a leadership and administrative perspective, examining it as a management of change process.
Throughout this growth in scholarship and field initiatives, the concepts of student voice and student advocacy have frequently been used and showcased. The literature regarding the learner role in the process of UDL implementation is, however, still limited. Placing learners in the driving seat when it comes to UDL adoption is therefore purely conceptual and abstract at this stage. It will be challenging to genuinely scale-up UDL as a framework, in both the K-12 sector and the post-secondary landscape, until students have considered with care and offered an active leadership role. Students’ perception of UDL and its objectives are key in the success of initiatives that seek to integrate it across organizations.
This fully interactive session will examine the various facets of the notion of learner involvement in the process of UDL adoption. First, the session will consider the way UDL must be explicitly discussed with learners within the class, while UDL initiatives are attempted. Failure to explain this process to students, and to actively engage them in it, significantly limits the scope of such efforts. The second part of the session will consider learner voice beyond the class itself, and will discuss ways to involve students as co-advocates for UDL growth, across institutions. This is a rich and complex process of critical empowerment which has unfortunately been so far rushed or ignored. The third part of the session will consider how UDL professional development should be addressed not just to educators but to student groups and student representatives. This section of the presentation will explore how the UDL principles must bee woven into such resources and PD for students and student groups, and how they must inform the design of such initiatives.
Reimagining inclusion in higher education in transformational post-pandemic t...Frederic Fovet
Much of the discourse around inclusion in higher education has thus far been grounded in scholarship on disability and impairment. As a result, inclusion in this sector has been defined and discussed mostly in terms of an ‘accommodation vs. universal design’ dichotomy – or retrofitting after the fact versus proactive inclusive design ahead of the class. The COVID pandemic has forced, around the world, an overnight online pivot, as well as many other periods of pedagogical innovation and disruption over a two-year duration. The overall outcomes of this period of transformation in teaching and learning has been mixed with scholars and practitioners showcasing both new opportunities and continuing hurdles for students with disabilities.
The most unexpected outcome, however, of the emergence of the tertiary sector from the pandemic is the realization that issues of accessibility and inclusion which have been energized by the pivot are now discussed widely by the student body and are no longer restricted to issues of disability and impairment. This presentation will draw from qualitative data collected within the student body on a campus in Western Canada about the way their expectations about accessibility, inclusion and student-centeredness have evolved during and post-COVID in their experiences of their progression through their degree. It explores the emerging advocacy that surrounds these topics.
The discussion and outcomes section of the presentation will lead participants on a reflection about the ways the pandemic experience and the online pivot have radically transformed: (i) learner expectation with regards to inclusion and accessibility, (ii) blurred the delineations between students with disabilities and the rest of the student body, and (iii) created the need for a new conceptualization of inclusion in the tertiary sector in the post-pandemic landscape. One of the assertions developed in the presentation is that this redefinition of inclusion for the post-pandemic tertiary sector presumes a reflection on being together in/with place in the way teaching and learning redefines presence, connection, and engagement for fuller accessibility.
Breaking free of teacher-centric beliefs about assessment Using Universal De...Frederic Fovet
Awareness of learner diversity is growing in the post-secondary sector. Recent societal phenomena such as the #MeToo and Black Lives Matter movements, the emergence of Truth and Reconciliation as an urgent national priority, and the growing youth voice around the fluidity of sexuality and gender have all brought to the surface the need for higher education to adapt and authentically address learner diversity. Equity Diversity and Inclusion policies have, as a result, flourished on most campuses in recent years, but these initiatives – it can be argued – remain overall conceptual rather than pragmatic. They also tend to target campus climate and policies, rather than pedagogy itself. There are few tangible tools readily available for faculty to translate these EDI objectives into effective change in classroom practices
And yet a malaise around the very format of instruction and assessment keeps growing. Most instructors are amply aware that many practices that are currently being perpetuated were designed when the learner population was historically oddly homogenous. There is tension in this contemporary and fast changing context and many classroom practitioners are thirsty for user-friendly, time efficient tools that might guide them effectively through this pedagogical metamorphosis without endangering standards, core teaching objectives, and external benchmarks – and without pushing them to exhaustion. Assessment is an area of this collective pedagogical reflection where fear of change is most tangible.
This fully interactive closing Keynote will encourage participants to explore, in workshop style, the use of Universal Design for Learning as a simple and sustainable framework to begin the journey of breaking free of teacher centric design in assessment. The first section of the session will encourage the participants to examine the need for change in this landscape and the pressing thirst for hands on tools for pedagogical transformation (the ‘why?’). Attention will be paid to the way the COVID pandemic and online pivot have made this urgency more tangible. The second part of the session will showcase the extent to which UDL offers a very specific appeal in this context, as a process to begin the journey towards inclusive design in assessment (the ‘how?’). The third part of the session will take a macro view of the process of pedagogical change in higher education, and stress the need to acknowledge a number of important institutional, strategic and organizational variables in order to create winning conditions for UDL adoption in the area of assessment (the “and now?”).
Gauging the impact of social model awareness among elementary and secondary s...Frederic Fovet
There has a been an exponential development – if not an explosion - of inclusive policies and practices adopted within the elementary and secondary sectors in most Global North jurisdictions over the last two decades. While the discourse around inclusion has grown as a result, it would be unwise to assume that inclusive practices have become the norm or that they have been seamlessly integrated: there is still a lot of tension and unease among teachers seeking to implement inclusive practices; this translates into hesitation and sometimes even a push back from school leaders; there remains much confusion at times as to the intentions and theoretical principles that ground these efforts.
The session will offer insights into a study which sought to determine to what extent an introduction to the Social Model of Disability was effective and impactful in allowing elementary and secondary school teachers to ground their work in the field of inclusive practices with conceptual clarity. It is argued that this has so far been the missing piece in pre-service teacher training as well as in-service professional development. The inclusion discourse within the primary and secondary landscape, both in terms of policy documents and field resources, has not explicitly or effectively integrated Disability Studies - and more specifically the Social Model of Disability - when framing and formulating inclusive provisions. As a result, teachers’ theoretical understanding of the foundations for inclusive reforms as they relate to the rights of children with disabilities is shaky at best and this affects these classroom professionals’ commitment to broad transformative pedagogical reforms. Bio-medical and deficit models prevail, and other lenses and constructs offered by the Disability Studies literature remain absent from this professional reflection.
The session explores qualitative data collected among K-12 teachers as they were being introduced to the key features of the social model of disability. The data analysis gauges to what extent this transformed their views on inclusion in the classroom.
This fully interactive session will lead the participants, in a hands-on fashion, along the journey experienced by these teachers and allow for an experiential understanding of the degree to which any material developing awareness of the social model of disability can have immediate impact on the clarity and effectiveness of inclusion efforts in the primary and secondary sectors. More widely, a discussion will be triggered in the session around the urgency of including Disability Studies scholarship in pre-service teacher training.
From curiosity to sustainable individual implementation: Getting settled into...Frederic Fovet
While Universal Design for Learning (UDL) had gained in momentum across Canadian post-secondary institutions over the last decade, oftentimes instructors who are introduced to the framework get few opportunities to consider detailed implementation or to reflect fully on its implication for their own teaching and learning – beyond the initial increased awareness of the need for accessibility and inclusion of all diverse learners. As a result, much of this initial curiosity and interest tends to die down, for simple lack of support, infrastructure, and time.
This session will seek to address this common issue and ongoing challenge, by offering participants a half day of deep immersion into the principles of UDL and their implementation in class. After a quick refresher of the key characteristics of the UDL approach, the participants will be encouraged to work in teams on hands-on case studies and scenarios that will offer them the opportunity to fully gauge what the redesign of a class delivery or assessment – along UDL principles - might look like and imply.
The workshop will also include a large segment reserved for interactive questions and discussions. This will offer participants the opportunity to develop their reflection around UDL implementation in their practice and individual professional context in detail and depth. The whole group will have the opportunity to review a number of hands on concerns and preoccupations and to equip all participants with a degree of autonomy in relation to the implementation of UDL into their teaching and learning.
The COVID pandemic has forced onto schools an overnight pivot to virtual delivery and assessment. This emergency provisions and their online component have remained a part of the reality of teaching and learning for large parts of the last two years. Innovative and emergent uses of technology in the classroom have blossomed rapidly and found a rich and opportune context for growth. This two-year period of change and experimentation has now created an unprecedented thirst for the long-term adoption and integration of digital solutions in teaching and learning – be they virtual, hybrid of face to face.
Much of the reflection that has occurred around the use and integration of technology and virtual tools in teaching and learning, however, has ignored learner diversity, accessibility, and inclusion. The time constraints, exceptional circumstances of the pivot, the urgency of the measures, and the understanding arrangements were temporary have contributed to a certain laissez faire in terms of accessibility. The legal notion of undue hardship has explicitly been used by many schools and school districts to circumvent legislation on inclusion and human rights provisions which normally guarantee accessibility to learning.
This session will first examine the various concerns regarding inclusion and accessibility which have arisen during the pandemic in relation to digital learning. The presentation will then analyze the inherent risks that are present in relation to social justice and inclusion, as educational organizations transition back to face-to-face instruction and seek to retain the digital flavour that has blossomed over the last two years. The third section of this paper is a call for action which delineates the safeguards that must be in place as digital transformation of teaching and learning gains momentum in the post-pandemic landscape.
Tackling the two solitudes. Bridging the conflicting lived realities of facu...Frederic Fovet
The lived experiences of faulty and accessibility service providers can vary significantly in higher education. This interactive live session will create an opportunity for a multidisciplinary reflection around the optimal ways to bridge the conflicting visions and experiences these two groups of key stakeholders have in relation to UDL adoption in the post-secondary classroom.
The term ‘two solitudes’ is often used in Canada to describe the cultural isolation and suspicion French and English communities develop in relation to each other. This concept will be used in this live interactive session to encourage participants to reflect on the differing views, visions and lived experiences of faculty and accessibility service personnel in relation to the adoption and implementation of UDL in the post-secondary sector. It will create an opportunity for a multidisciplinary reflection around the optimal ways to bridge the conflicting visions and experiences these two groups of key stakeholders have in relation to UDL adoption in the post-secondary classroom. This facilitated collective brainstorming session will support participants as they seek to (i) understand the cause of these conflicting subjective realities in relation to inclusion in the classroom, (ii) reflect on practices that may bridge these conflicting views, (iii) formulate calls for action which may be useful to campuses to nurture multistakeholder involvement as they promote UDL implementation.
Addressing the needs of diverse learners in online and blended learning with ...Frederic Fovet
There has been growing but sporadic interest around Universal Design for Learning across the post-secondary sector in most jurisdictions over the last decade. This, in itself is encouraging and there is no doubt that the notion that inclusion must be achieved through proactive inclusive design rather than through retrofitting and accommodations is finally gaining in popularity and visibility.
UDL work, however, has long entertained an ambivalent and complex relationship with the rest of the scholarship on technology, blended learning and online learning. While the overlap between the UDL literature and these other bodies of practice is prima facie obvious and rich, in the field it has been somewhat difficult strategically to get buy-in for UDL from the practitioners and researchers traditionally involved in technology rich pedagogy.
The COVID pandemic and the pivot to online teaching and learning have shaken this status quo and offered unprecedented opportunities to demonstrate and showcase the relevance of UDL when it comes to systemically addressing learner diversity in online and blended pedagogy.
The pandemic, however, has also further muddied the waters, and disrupted many of the relationships between stakeholders in academia. The disruption has been such that it becomes challenging at times to foresee what lessons have been learnt from the pandemic and what new practices are likely to emerge from the COVID crisis. The presentation will examine what the future of UDL implementation within the growth of online and blended learning might look like in this disrupted and quickly changing landscape. It will invite participants to engage in lucid assessments of the opportunities and challenges the post-pandemic era gives rise to in this area.
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There has been a growing interest for Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as a framework for inclusion in both the K-12 and post-secondary sectors over the last decade, and this momentum has been noticeable globally. The body of literature which evidences the pedagogical benefits of UDL implementation for the inclusion of diverse learners is now broad and diversified. There is also growing interest in examining UDL implementation from a leadership and administrative perspective, examining it as a management of change process. In the K-12 sector, this scholarship is not as developed as it could be if it is going to effectively support and guide the efforts of teachers as they attempt to scale up their initiatives and achieve sustainable integration across schools. There are many variables teachers seeking to adopt UDL have to battle with, and the roles and positions of school principal is a factor often cited.
This presentation will explore in an interactive format the much under-researched impact of the know-how, disposition, and commitment of school principals towards UDL integration. An awareness of this variable and its impact is crucial when designing future blueprints for the effective growth of UDL across schools. The session will be run in a workshop format that will encourage participants to share their experiences authentically and to build on some of the frustrations that will be expressed about the frequent ambivalence of school leaders in the process of UDL growth. The anticipated outcomes are as follows. Participants will:
- Reflect on the impact of school leadership on the success of UDL implementation
- Examine the resources and training school principals are in need of to more effectively support UDL initiatives
- Explore the challenges faced by school principals when trying to support UDL projects, within a wider landscape of neoliberal pressures
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Beyond curiosity: building on initial professional development opportunities ...Frederic Fovet
This interactive workshop will offer participants the opportunity to reflect collectively on the impact initial professional development on UDL has, within institutions, on the scaling up of UDL initiatives. The journey from PD opportunity to strategic involvement in UDL implementation across teaching and learning on campuses is not as linear as might be assumed. A variety of ecological variables can affect the impact these windows of PD have on practice, or the scope of their amplification across institutions. The workshop will lead the participants as they consider, beyond the actual content of UDL PD opportunity, what factors may limit the impact such UDL micro-credentials, or on the contrary magnify their potential. The workshop offers an opportunity to reflect, from an operational and leadership lens, what winning conditions need to be in place for PD on UDL to authentically take roots and achieve maximum outcomes.
Creating sustainable foundations for the development of social emotional lear...Frederic Fovet
The scholarship on social emotional learning (SEL) has grown exponentially over the last decade. While its beneficial impact on best practices in school is immediately palpable, developing and strengthening buy-in for SEL in schools has, on the other hand, been strenuous in many contexts globally. One reason for this pushback is the lack of clear current theoretical connection, in the eyes of teachers, with existing policies and practices that are already in place in most jurisdictions. In most pre-service teacher training, for example, just as in in-service professional development, SEL sits aside of inclusion as a topic and is presented to stakeholders as entirely distinct. In the field, similarly, SEL integration projects tend to rival projects on inclusion rather than complement them. This creates a struggle for resources which is counter productive. It also creates a degree of confusion in the mind of many teachers, which can lead to disengagement and push-back, when in fact these agenda compliment each other pedagogically with ease. Much of this tension is historical and relates to the way SEL was introduced at a distinct stage, in most jurisdictions, from other inclusive policies. This dichotomous strain is also due to the fact that the stakeholders promoting both agendas often have distinct theoretical backgrounds and professional training. This session will examine solutions to this tension and engage participants on how to optimally conceptualize SEL within existing legislative and pedagogical frameworks for inclusion.
The session will first review and analyze the existing tension between inclusion initiatives and efforts to grow SEL in K-12 schools. The second part of the presentation will examine in more detail qualitative data gathered in Canada, among K-12 teachers, that explores these individuals’ perceptions around the place of SEL within best practices for inclusion. The third section of the session will focus on solutions that may help erode or eliminate this tension and will seek to offer participants hands-on strategies that might be useful in their own national contexts.
Getting the message across silos: exploring the difficult art of involving mu...Frederic Fovet
Plenary presentation at the Universal Design for Learning National Conference. Climbing the UDL Ladder: Building a Culture of Inclusion in Higher Education: "Overcoming Obstacles to Enhance and Sustain UDL Collaboration in Tertiary Education"
Examining the practicalities of accessibility and inclusion in post-pandemic ...Frederic Fovet
The push for extensive online teaching and learning had begun well before the COVID pandemic and the online pivot, but the last three years have dramatically intensified the reflection around what Education 4.0 might look like in the post-secondary. Consensus appears to privilege hybrid and blended learning as the format which is most likely to optimally meet the needs of learners in coming decades. Lessons from the three years of pandemic disruption have been rich and nuanced in this respect. Within this phenomenal momentum of pedagogical creativity and innovation, however, the situation in relation to accessibility and full inclusion of all diverse learners has been ambivalent, and the experiences of diverse students have been contradictory. This session showcases the qualitative analysis of phenomenological data collected among accessibility and inclusion specialists within higher education – faculty and support staff - regarding the challenges and opportunities encountered during these transformative three years. The theoretical paradigm within which this data is showcased and analyzed is interpretivist, but the work also acknowledges preoccupations of critical theory/ critical pedagogy. The discussion that emerges from these findings will focus on the ways these pandemic lessons on inclusive teaching and learning can now serve as an exceptional window to proactively frame smart pedagogies of the future that leave out no stakeholders. The final section of the session examines ways to integrate these pandemic lessons to generate sustainable best practices for accessibility and inclusion in transformative blended learning spaces, that succeed in going beyond ad hoc interventions and retrofitting.
Keynote at the DCUTL2020: Reflecting on inclusive teaching in a post-pandemic...Frederic Fovet
The COVID pivot to online and blended learning has radically shaken teaching practices in the post-secondary sector, worldwide. Despite the overnight urgency and the rushed nature of the redesign, the shift to remote instruction and assessment has been a cathartic experience for individual instructors, departments and institutions as a whole. The pandemic has eroded the resistance to change which was prevalent in teaching and learning in many post-secondary landscapes. It has made classroom practitioners irreversibly conscious of their role and power as designers of the learning experience.
It would be naïve, however, to assert that this has been a period of only net gains. In the area of inclusion and social justice particularly, while there has been overall an increased awareness of learner diversity, accessibility and addressing diverse student needs have often been set aside or dismissed within the COVID contingency planning. The argument has been that the pandemic had made it impossible to focus on or to prioritize a Human Rights approach when so many other basic organizational priorities needed to be tackled with urgency.
The absence of focus on inclusion during the pandemic is concerning first because it has allowed a gap in opportunities to appear in most higher education landscapes – as inequities became exacerbated. The most worrying danger is, however, arguably yet to emerge. As instructors shift to the post-pandemic reality and integrate lessons from the COVID crisis into their practice, the prospect of adopting new teaching formats is increasingly appealing. A new, radically innovative conceptualization of blended learning is taking root - no longer seen as a response to remoteness, but instead as an optimized merging of best design considerations. It will be essential therefore, as this new vision of blended learning and its pedagogical potential emerge, to refocus attention on inclusion and learner diversity.
Universal Design for Learning (UDL), it will be argued in this presentation, has a key role to play in this reflection and will serve as a crucial framework to guide instructors as they navigate this new landscape and take on new responsibilities as lucid designers of fully blended experiences for the 21st century. The session will explore emerging needs in relation to inclusion within this new blended learning reality; it will examine specific ways UDL can be optimized as a lens to guarantee that inclusion remains a central concern in the coming years, as the post-secondary sector navigates this metamorphosis; lastly the session will consider the strategic and organizational challenges involved in giving UDL a central position within the pedagogical reflection which is unfolding in the post-pandemic landscape.
UDL implementation in higher education during the COVID crisisFrederic Fovet
Abstract: After a decade of advocacy across North American campuses, it can be fairly asserted that Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is finally having an impact on the inclusion of students with Disabilities across campuses. It is helping shift instructors and departments away from medical model approaches to students with Disabilities, and facilitating the adoption of the social model of disability in classroom practices.
In 2020, however, the COVID pandemic forced campus closures and an overnight shift to online instruction and assessment across the world. Many have argued that this pivot has helped increase awareness of accessibility and has developed inclusive design as a mindset among instructors. Equally numerous are researchers and practitioners who feel that the pandemic has weakened institutions’ commitment to inclusion, made accessible learning more difficult to achieve, and generally hindered the development of UDL in Higher Education.
This interactive session will lead the audience in assessing to what extent each of these assertions might be true, and how campuses can draw important lessons from these experiences, in relation to UDL implementation.
The presentation draws from multiple interactive workshops which have been offered to UDL advocates and faculty throughout the pandemic. It presents the analysis of phenomenological data gathered throughout these professional development sessions.
Frederic Fovet Keynote at the Perfect Blend Conference - Vancouver School BoardFrederic Fovet
Most schools around the world have been forced to launch extensive online and blended practices as the COVID pandemic precipitated the sector towards closure. This has been an unprecedented conjuncture for discovery, experimentation and exploration. As schools and teachers prepare for a post-pandemic landscape, it is also important nevertheless to acknowledge that the lessons learnt from these two years of forced change were not optimal. First, much of the work done online in the K-12 sector was not fully inclusive or designed for the full spectrum of diverse learners. Second, the blended and online practices that have emerged have generally been seen as poor substitutes, with teachers seeking to return to face to face urgently rather than reflectively integrating in their everyday teaching the rich pedagogical opportunities the blended formats have offered a glimpse of. The presentation will explore how Universal Design for Learning can be an immediately pertinent and effective framework, offering hands on tools, for teachers to capitalize on their pandemic experiences to transform their in-class practices, with the help of technology and a blended mindset.
What is the important data that is not being recorded in comparative internat...Frederic Fovet
There have been giant steps made in the last decade with regards to the ways data on student performance is collected, analyzed and used for school improvement (Breakspear, 2014; Rozgonjuk et al., 2019; Wu et al., 2020). Much of the impact of the analysis of this data lies in the fact that it has allowed for large international comparative studies that yield important conclusions on the effectiveness of teaching practices, curriculum, and modes of assessment (Dickinson, 2019; OECD 2000-2015). The PISA framework and annual PISA results have in particular allowed for revealing reflections, at international level, in relation to the objectives, ethos and performance of national educational structures (Krieg, 2019; Patrinos & Angrist, 2018).
International comparative studies carried out on the data collected for the purpose of these large surveys, however, have yet to examine learner diversity or educational system’s ability to develop, grow and sustain inclusive practices in schools (Krammer et al., 2021). As a result, a significant gap exists in the quantitative data that is emerging from international comparative studies (Ainscow, 2015; Booth & Ainscow, 2002; Poulsen & Hewson, 2014).
This presentation will (i) examine the limitations of international, comparative standardized data on the issues of learner diversity and inclusive practices, (ii) explore the quantitative tools that do exist but are currently under-utilized in terms of data mining, (iii) examine the challenges and opportunities which lie ahead in relation to the development of sustainable quantitative tools that might allow for comparative analysis of the various ways national education systems tackle the task of differentiating education.
Embracing equity in a public health emergency: the role of UDL in guiding instructors as they adapt to an unprecedented reliance on online and hybrid teaching.
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Towards an intersectional approach to accessibility in the post-secondary landscape. Examining the need for mindset shift in higher education to create interdisciplinary approaches to inclusion.
1. Pacific Rim Conference on Disability and Diversity
Frederic |Fovet, PhD.
March 7th, 2023, Honolulu.
Towardsan intersectionalapproachto accessibilityin the
post-secondarylandscape.
Examiningtheneedformindsetshiftinhighereducationtocreateinterdisciplinary
approachestoinclusion.
2. Land Acknowledgement
• I am honoured to live on the
unceded and ancestral
territory of the Syilx Peoples
and to work on the unceded
and ancestral territory of the
Tk’emlúps te Secwepemc
people. I also acknowledge
the Aboriginal custodians of
this land, their Elders and
their claims to land.
3. Objectives of the Session
• Section 1: Examine the areas of
tension in current approaches to
accessibility and inclusion in higher
and further education
• Section 2: Explore the usefulness of
an ecological lens to update and
modify strategic approaches to access
and inclusion on campuses
• Section 3: Examine the specific
multidisciplinary collaboration that
must be generated
• Section 4: Examine, lucidly and
pragmatically, the remaining hurdles
to this process of change.
• Section 5: Reflect on how to attain
authentic interdisciplinarity?
4. Personal lens and methodological stance
• Unique positioning as a scholar: have been
both an Accessibility Services manager and a
faculty member
• Was involved in large scale UDL
implementation from 2011 to 2016 across a
campus – experienced this process in its full
complexity
• Have also been Academic Lead/ Program Head
at UPEI and RRU, and have needed to guide
contract faculty around inclusive teaching and
the use of UDL.
• Act as an Inclusion and UDL consultant with
colleges and universities in Canada.
• My research and scholarship focuses on UDL/
social model/ critical disability studies
• I will be drawing from these multiple and
varied perspectives
• In many ways, I live and experience the issue
of silos in accessibility in most aspects of my
practice.
5. Getting to know you: Insights into your UDL journey
• We will take a few minutes to
explore your own personal
positioning in this reflection on
accessibility and inclusion in higher
education/ importance of
multidisciplinary approaches to
accessibility.
• We will use Menti to explore these
perspectives (www.menti.com).
• Please mention what your
professional lens is and what
interests you in the notion of
innovative multidisciplinary/
interdisciplinary approaches to
accessibility in higher education.
6. Section 1: Examine the areas of tension in
current approaches to transforming
accessibility and inclusion in higher and further
education
Reflecting on the lack of sustainability in the present
model of disability service provision in higher education
7. What is not working in the current disability service
provision model?
• Whole room interactive
discussion ( 5 minutes)
• This is a small enough group
for us to be able to chat
informally.
• Please then share with the
room your concerns about
the sustainability of current
models
8. Six facets of a quickly changing landscape
• This is triangulated date which has emerged from my four years of advocacy
in my former role as head of accessibility on a large Canadian campus
• Changing demographics/ volumes of demands for services
• Fast changing shift in definitions/ explosion of diagnoses
• Urgent need to integrate the social model of disability in teaching and
learning/ urgency of shifting to a ‘barrier analysis’ approach
• Need for sustainable practices (individual sustainability, sustainability of
teaching practices, institutional financial sustainability)
• Growing power of the student voice
• A fast-spreading concern for social justice in higher education
9. Should inclusion and accessibility still be defined in
terms of impairment/ disability?
• Once we shift to social model approaches to inclusion and adopt practices that
reflect this mindset, there is growing unease around medicalized and restrictive
practices in service provision.
• Once a ‘barrier analysis’ approach is adopted, it becomes clear that many other
diverse learners experience barriers to learning that are similar to those encountered
by students with disabilities.
• Intersectionality is discussed in the literature but is rarely acknowledged in a service
provision model that is siloed and fragmented
• There is currently no real effort to bring in the full spectrum of diverse learners into
the discussion when examining accessibility; the discourse on accessibility is
hermetic
• Yet models and practices that translated the social model in action are pertinent to
a very broad spectrum of diverse learners.
11. Key take away
• It is crucial to reframe our
understanding of accessibility
and inclusion, as current
practices are narrow and
restrictive, based on a deficit
approach, lead to a
fragmented format of service
provision, and are
unsustainable.
12. Section 2: Explore the usefulness of an
ecological lens to update and modify
strategic approaches to access and
inclusion on campuses
Adopting a theoretical lens that supports multidisciplinary
innovation in accessibility in higher education
13. Finding a suitable theoretical lens
• Accessibility and Inclusion in higher education represent an area where there is little
theoretical clarity.
• People talk about ‘inclusion’ but actually use diametrically opposed theoretical
stances: medical model, welfare model, social capital theory, social model of
disability, Human Rights model, etc.
• Even then, most scholarship focuses solely on the socio-economic or pedagogical
aspects of inclusion and their impact on leaner outcomes.
• The strategic and organizational aspect of change management (how do we get our
campuses to do things differently?) is entirely absent from the current discourse on
inclusion.
• And yet it is this strategic dimension which is the most problematic. It is this
dimension which is condemning projects to failure and is stalling change.
• This perspective requires a fresh theoretical lens.
14. Ecologicallens to frame the implementationof transformative
approachesto accessibilityand inclusionin higher ed
• I suggest in my research that
it is urgent the field adopt
ecological theory to examine
the process of change all
institutions are faced with
when it comes to
• What is ecological theory?
• Why is it pertinent in this
organizational context?
15. Towards ecology: a narrative overview
• The process of change in higher education when it comes to inclusion and accessibility
usually has little to do with the direction of the change itself – it is mostly focused around the
politics of change
• Higher education is a multi-layered, complex, and stratified/ hierarchical environment
• Much depends on who is placed in charge of the process of change. Who is the driver of
change?
• What are there existing relationships/ their credibility with other stakeholders?
• When campuses seek to shift towards social model approaches, inclusive design, or Universal
Design for Learning (UDL), the key question is “who will introduce and lead this agenda?”
• Accessibility Services? Teaching and Learning Services? Specific department or discipline?
Instructional designers? Senior administration?
• Through my own experiences with inclusive design/ the implementation of UDL, ecological
mapping has become increasingly significant to understand the complexity of the task.
16. Need for an ecological lens on UDL
implementation across institutions
Fovet (2021)
17. Who will be/ should be in driver seat in
your institution?
• Take 3-4 minutes to discuss
among colleagues the group/
unit you see as responsible for
the promotion of change on
your campus in relation to
accessibility/ inclusion (inclusive
design, UDL, multidisciplinary
approaches to service
provision).
• We will return to the large
group to share our thoughts.
18. Key take away
• The implementation of innovative multidisciplinary approaches to inclusion is
not just about pedagogical design.
• Campus-wide adoption of new stances/ wide, progressive strategies to
accessibility is a process of management of change. It requires strategic
organizational planning.
19. Section 3: Section 3: Examine the
specific multidisciplinary collaboration
that must be generated
Who are we not currently involving in accessibility
and inclusion on higher education campuses?
20. Interactive dialogue: Who is missing at the table?
• Take a few minutes with your
colleagues to discuss who on your
campus should be involved in UDL
adoption but is currently missing at
table?
• Why are they not involved in this
process?
• How would you be able to facilitate
their involvement?
• What immediate action will you need
to take for this to become possible?
• We will return to the whole group for
discussions.
21. Who is missing at the table?
• Staff supporting International
students
• Staff supporting Indigenous
students
• Staff supporting racialized
students/ culturally diverse
students
• Staff supporting socio-
economically challenged students
• Staff supporting first generation
students
• Staff supporting life-long learners
22. Momentum in numbers
• When ‘pitching’ improvements in accessibility
and the implementation of inclusive design/
UDL to senior administration, numbers will
matter.
• Important to tally various segments of the
student population who can benefit from this
change and to bring these groups into the
momentum for increased accessibility in the
classroom.
• Need for a change in mindset from folks in
accessibility
• Urgency of bringing in colleagues and of
changing our discourse to be pertinent to
other professionals
• Reflects a wider reality of intersectionality
within the field of disability itself
• Relevance of #disabilitytoowhite
• In this neoliberal landscape, numbers =
momentum!
23. Involving students
• Looking at change in inclusive
approaches from a student
perspective: an ambivalent process
• Example of UDL implementation and
of the ‘transitional friction’ that
occurs.
• Urgency of involving students in this
process of change
• Currently there is very little
scholarship or research on students
as partners in the process of shifting
accessibility practices and processes
away from medical/deficit model
24. Key take away
• There is an urgent need to reconsider strategically which stakeholders need to
be involved in accessibility and inclusion in the post-secondary sector. The
historical reliance on accessibility services is now obsolete.
25. Section 4: Examine, lucidly and
pragmatically, the remaining hurdles to
this process of change.
Adopting a theoretical lens that supports multidisciplinary
innovation in accessibility in higher education
26. Acknowledging campus power dynamics
• There are very specific campus
power dynamics which come in
the way of the work we wish to
do towards multidisciplinary
and intersectional work on
accessibility .
• What are some of the campus
power dynamics that have
hindered your work with
multidisciplinary work, or broad
approaches to accessibility
(with approaches such as UDL)?
27. Supporting campus stakeholders as they
transition to a new mindset
• Everyone wants a clear and logical roadmap
• It does not exist
• Campuses are complex and contradictory environments where often opposite
policies co-exist
• For a number of years to come we will have to straddle two systems and
make our staff comfortable with this
• It is not an excuse to maintain status quo
• It must be embraced and navigated with comfort
28. Acknowledging campus power dynamics
• Hierarchical issues in the power relationship the stakeholders entertain
• Breaking these hierarchical issues: examining power and its implications in terms of
who begins the dialogue around accessibility, barriers, and inclusive design
• Beyond silos: recreating a way to engage among each other across campuses
• Pragmatic lens: Easier, for example, to engage with faculty from the position of
instructor
• Eroding the ‘two solitudes’: faculty are not always unwilling to adapt; they may
simply be under-resources and overs-solicited – Important to debunk perpetuated
myths
• Resources must be formatted in a way that is congenial to various stakeholders, and
not onerous [e.g. 2 minute videos from colleagues]
• Acknowledging academic freedom and its implications
29. Funding models are changing but perpetuatedeficit
model approaches
• It will be difficult to fully
implement change and widen
the impact of
multidisciplinary approaches
until funding models have
evolved.
• In the mean time it is usually
a matter of supporting staff in
being comfortable ‘sitting
between two chairs’ in terms
of funding models
30. Identifying blind spots
• Ensure there are no blind spots
in the work that you embrace in
your multidisciplinary approach
to inclusion and diversity
• Mental health remains a ‘no go
area’ even for long term UDL
advocates/ rarely tackled by
access inclusive design scholars
and advocates.
• Indigenous education is also an
area which is entirely ignored by
scholarship on accessibility.
31. Acknowledging the need for other pedagogical facets
in teaching and learning
• Inclusion and accessibility are not the be all and end all in higher ed teaching
and learning
• The COVID pandemic has provided us with examples of fully inclusive and
accessible that did not ‘work’ for students
• This is particularly true of the online and hybrid model where other essential
pedagogical components are also needed
• Notion of ‘personalized learning’ in online teaching is increasingly important
and may not be achieved by accessibility/ inclusive design alone. A course
can be fully accessible and not engaging to a student.
• There are core teaching objectives which sometimes clash with accessibility/
inclusion imperatives but must remain central to our teaching and learning
concerns: example of team work/ social constructivist approaches.
32. Key take away
• Change will not occur overnight and it is important to remain lucid and
pragmatic in the ways we tackle change.
33. Section 4: Reflect on how to attain authentic
interdisciplinarity
Going beyond multidisciplinarity: interdisciplinarity as a
sustainable new mindset/ workplace model
34. Interdisciplinarity vs. multidisciplinarity
• Multidisciplinary approaches
imply service providers return
to their own field eventually
• An interdisciplinary vision of
broad support for
accessibility and inclusion in
higher education implies the
creation of permanent teams
and units.
36. References & Resources (contd.)
Bashan, J., Blackorby, J., & Marino, M. (2020) Opportunity in Crisis: The Role of Universal Design for Learning in
Educational Redesign. Learning Disabilities: A Contemporary Journal 18(1), 71-91.
https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1264277.pdf
Chita-Tegmark, M., Gravel, J. W., Maria De Lourdes, B. S., Domings, Y., & Rose, D. H. (2012). Using the Universal
Design for Learning Framework to Support Culturally Diverse Learners. Journal of Education, 192(1), 17–22.
https://doi.org/10.1177/002205741219200104
Dickinson, K. J., & Gronseth, S. L. (2020). Application of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Principles to Surgical
Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Journal of surgical education, 77(5), 1008–1012.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsurg.2020.06.005
Fovet, F. (2021a) Developing an Ecological Approach to Strategic UDL Implementation in Higher Education.
Journal of Education and Learning, 10(4).
Fovet, F. (Ed.) (2021b) Handbook of Research on Applying Universal Design for Learning Across Disciplines:
Concepts, Case Studies, and Practical Implementation. IGI Global
Fovet, F. (2020) Universal Design for Learning as a Tool for Inclusion in the Higher Education Classroom: Tips for
the Next Decade of Implementation. Education Journal. Special Issue: Effective Teaching Practices for Addressing
Diverse Students’ Needs for Academic Success in Universities, 9(6), 163-172.
http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/journal/paperinfo?journalid=196&doi=10.11648/j.edu.20200906.13
37. References & Resources
Fovet, F. (2019) Not just about disability: Getting traction for UDL implementation
with International Students. In: Kate Novak & Sean Bracken (Eds.) Transforming
Higher Education through Universal Design for Learning: An International Perspective,
Routledge.
James, K. (2018) Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as a Structure for Culturally
Responsive Practice. Northwest Journal of Teacher Education, 13(1), Article 4.
Kennette, L., & Wilson, N. (2019) Universal Design for Learning: What is it and how do
I implement it? Transformative Dialogues: Teaching & Learning, 12(1)
Kilpatrick, J.R.., Ehrlich, S., & Bartlett, M. (2021) Learning from COVID-19: Universal
Design for Learning Implementation Prior to and During a Pandemic. The Journal of
Applied Instructional Design.
https://edtechbooks.org/jaid_10_1/universal_design_forS
Sheik Mohamed, S.A., & Sivakumar, R. (2020). Inclusiveness in Higher Education
through Universal Design Learning – UDL. Think India Journal, 22(45), 23-26.
https://thinkindiaquarterly.org/index.php/think-india/article/view/19702
38. Contact details
• Frederic Fovet (PhD.)
• Assistant Professor, School of Education, Thompson Rivers University
• ffovet@tru.ca
• UDL and Inclusion Consultant
• Implementudl@gmail.com
• @Ffovet
• www.implementudl.com