Univeral Design for Learning is a process

After reading about the principles of Universal Design for Learning I am impressed and inspired by the way that technology can offer equity and access to students who require alternate modalities for learning. Although I am not in a classroom this year, I have worked in self contained special needs classrooms for three years, teaching students with autism, learning disabilities and emotional/ behavioral disabilities. My co-teachers and I worked collaboratively to provide child-centered curriculums that met the needs of each of our students however applying UDL in our classrooms would've allowed us to apply greater flexibility in our curriculum and teaching because of computer technology. Computers afford multiple means of variation by way of presentation, assessment and engagement, finding ways for all students to learn the given material in the way that’s most effective for them. In our classrooms one of our primary goals has been to empower our students to be their own self advocates, understanding how they learn best so that they can ask for what they need as they continue their educational and professional journeys. UDL seems like an incredibly efficient way to achieve these goals.
I really appreciated that David Rose spoke about UDL as an approach and a journey and that as of yet, there is no perfect example. As I idealistically thought of the ways that UDL could improve the quality of education for my students I also had to recognize that the schools I worked in didn’t allot funds for computers or technology. There was one computer in each classroom and the internet sometimes didn't even work. If it did, it was really slow. We would use the computer to adjust font size and spacing when creating handouts and we would use student names in assignments to engage them in the content but we were limited in technological resources. Most of the time we drew and wrote on poster board so that we could utilize color and adjust size and spacing during our lessons. We didn’t have access to smart boards. We didn’t have the funding necessary to provide all the necessary technology nor administrative support. A main concern of mine is teacher training. As I would love to implement all of these wonderful resources in my classroom, I am still of the technologically phobic and would need to feel adept and confident before utilizing technology to this capacity in my classroom.

Yamit Sasson