2. THE PROCESS OF UNIVERSAL DESIGN
Universal design is a concept that tries to change the aim of the classroom.
Instead of the teacher aiming at the “common student” it has been proven
that there is no such thing. So universal design takes its principles and
applies them to all of them to the product or environment in order to
maximize learning for the individual student. The UD process is not only
used in the classroom but is also used on other environments and
products to benefit other people who may have different needs than the
“average” person.
3. UNIVERSAL DESIGN PRINCIPLES
The universal design principles basically provide guidance for the use of UD in the
design of products and environments. There are technically seven principles to the
UD principles though many people like to generalize some of them together in
order to create 3 broad principles that you would 100% need to create a UD
product or environment. Those being representation, action/expression, and
engagement. These principles basically that the design of a UD product or
environment needs to be accessible to all making sure that it is both simple and
easy to use for anyone no matter what disability they may have. Also making sure
that it takes little physical effort but still leaving a bit of room for error in use of
the product or environment.
4. UNIVERSAL DESIGN IN SCHOOLS
Universal design is becoming a concept that is being used in schools a lot more than
before. Though the one downfall it does have is the amount of time that teachers
need to put into implementing UD into their classroom. This is when it is helpful
for the administrators to get involved and encourage teachers to use this system
in their classroom as well as recognizing the extra work they are doing when
implementing this into their classroom. When a teacher is implementing this their
main goal is really to have everyone in their class on the same level as each other
using tactics such as experiments and hands on learning as opposed to reading
straight out of a text book. There are also many teachers that think that all the new
technology that is coming into schools can really help with UD learning, giving
students the new opportunity to work hands on the current subject they are
working on as well as getting to learn how to use the technology they have.
5. GUIDELINES OF UNIVERSAL DESIGN
The guidelines that are put on universal design are basically there to give options to
teachers to help them make sure that all of their students are achieving to their
optimal ability. The guidelines are projected towards making sure that both the
highest and lowest performing student are doing the best that they can as far as
learning the current subject. To my understanding the guidelines are just an
expansion on the principles of universal design. Giving the teachers a different
ways to expand on representation, expression, and engagement. These guidelines
provide options for perception, language/symbols, and comprehension for the
representation principle. They also offer options for physical action, expressive
skills, and executive functions for the expression principle. Then for the
engagement principle it offers options for recruiting interest, selfregulation, sustaining effort, and persistence. These are all very important when
implementing UDL into a classroom and I think these are guidelines every teacher
needs to follow for it.
