尤物视频

What does it mean to teach in ways that are inclusive of students with disabilities?

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a teaching framework that aims to make learning accessible to all students. According to SFU instructors who apply this framework, UDL can take many forms but the common thread is attention to diverse student needs.

Political science professor and SFU Accessibility Committee member Mark Pickup knows firsthand the impact of supporting learner needs. The SFU Accessibility Committee builds on the accessibility commitments in the Equity Compass and supports the ongoing work of implementing SFU鈥檚 2024 Accessibility Plan, which helps SFU meet its regulatory and legal requirements under the BC Accessibility Act.  

鈥淎s a PhD student, I had a medical condition that required me to complete my comprehensive exam with voice recognition software. That was unheard of at the time and so without the willingness to support that, I wouldn鈥檛 be where I am today. The reality is that we are never going to be 鈥榙one鈥� applying the principles of Universal Design for Learning. It鈥檚 an ongoing challenge and it鈥檚 going to feel uncomfortable at times. But we need to keep going, we need to keep listening to our students, we need to keep talking to Centre for Accessible Learning staff and we need to keep trying things that don鈥檛 always work鈥攂ecause otherwise we will be excluding people who have a lot to offer the university and ultimately society.鈥�

Creating a culture of compassion and flexibility

Coleman Nye, gender, sexuality, and women's studies professor and author of a faculty guide to UDL, Creating an Accessible Learning Environment, says that although the path toward inclusion is not a short one, a few small changes can go a long way when it comes to reducing barriers for students with conditions such as anxiety.

鈥淚 have terrible anxiety and so I understand first-hand how debilitating that can be. One of the most important ways I support my students with anxiety is by creating a culture where they understand it鈥檚 okay for them to fail, to be vulnerable and to be flawed. A simple way I do this in my large lectures is by starting class with a drawing exercise that they complete with their eyes closed. The drawing is always somehow related to the lecture content and they get a quarter of a point for completing it鈥攂ut the idea is for them to delight in something that can鈥檛 be done well. Another important strategy for helping reduce student anxiety is by building flexibility into all my deadlines. I find it鈥檚 a real game-changer for reducing their stress and not hard to implement. Canvas has a timestamp so you can just look and see whether the assignment was submitted within three days after the deadline.鈥�

Nye's guide was created with funding and support from Transforming Inquiry into Learning and Teaching (formerly ISTLD).

Education lecturer Susan Barber echoes the importance of flexibility.

鈥淚 try to build flexibility into my teaching by providing students with multiple types of assignment options. This allows students who experience anxiety to have some control over managing the barriers to their learning and creates the conditions for them to thrive and shine. The key for me is to provide them with clear criteria about what I need from them, so that I can ensure the course learning goals are also met.鈥�

Supporting students with ADHD through course design

To support students with ADHD, Nye has also made some major course design changes.

鈥淥ne area I鈥檝e really focused on to support students with ADHD is structuring my lectures and content more meaningfully. For example, I now create short lecture videos that focus on explaining one core idea. This chunking allows students to engage with and process the contents at a much more manageable scale. At the course level, I鈥檝e also changed my courses into a blended format, so that we can spend in-class time engaged in collaboration and active learning鈥攚hich is more engaging and impactful than traditional lectures for students who have attention challenges.鈥� 

Balancing instructor workload

Though redesigning courses to be more inclusive can require a time investment, criminology lecturer Danielle Murdoch notes that these changes can lead to long-term time savings.

鈥淭here鈥檚 a temptation to think that designing for inclusion is going to create more workload for instructors and my experience is that this is not always the case. One strategy that has really helped make my workload more manageable is being intentional about my assessments. For example, I used to have weekly timed quizzes in various courses which meant I was spending a lot of time adjusting time requirements depending on students鈥� accommodation needs. One of the insights I gained from working with the Centre for Educational Excellence was to take a step back and question my learning objectives. In doing so, I realized I didn鈥檛 need the quizzes to be timed to motivate students to engage with the course content each week, which freed up the time I was spending to manually adjust the quiz settings for students. This means not only am I able to offer a more inclusive learning environment, but I'm doing so in a way that is efficient workload-wise and doesn鈥檛 compromise course rigor.鈥�

Inclusion to foster critical thinking  

According to education professor and SFU Accessibility Committee member Inna Stepaniuk, UDL offers a powerful path forward 尤物视频 and society.

鈥淚t is well documented that people think, engage and learn in different ways鈥攁 truth affirmed by both lived experiences and findings from the learning sciences. Universal Design for Learning builds on this foundation. When learners are provided with culturally sustaining access to participate in and demonstrate their learning, everyone benefits. No one lives the same life. Homogenization is not the answer to the complex, intersecting challenges we face today. Diversity of thought and voice is. We need to foster critical thinkers whose capacities to dream and innovate are not confined by rigid standards and narrow conceptions of what it means to learn and to be.鈥�

Recommendations at a glance:

• We need to keep trying things that don鈥檛 always work鈥攂ecause otherwise we will be excluding people who have a lot to offer the university and society 鈥� Mark Pickup
• A few small changes can go a long way when it comes to reducing barriers for students with conditions such as anxiety 鈥� Coleman Nye
• Inclusion can mean building flexibility into teaching by providing students with multiple types of assignment options 鈥� Susan Barber
• Revisiting learning objectives can reveal opportunities for making courses more inclusive in ways that save time for instructors - Danielle Murdoch

• Designing more inclusive learning environments can foster the critical thinking students need to tackle complex challenges  鈥� Inna Stepaniuk
  

More opportunities for supporting accessibility  

• Last chance to register: Explore how to make your courses more accessible by attending CEE鈥檚 May 30 workshop, .
• Read Coleman Nye鈥檚 UDL Guide 尤物视频 faculty: Creating an Accessible Learning Environment
• Join SFU鈥檚 accessibility advisory committee  
• Share your input on barriers to accessibility at SFU via Equity, Diversity and Inclusion's SFU Accessibility Feedback page