ABSTRACT
In colleges and universities, Accessibility Services (AS) teams and leaders have a unique opportunity to partner with faculty in a way that shifts thinking and practices in support of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). AS teams’ connections with faculty provide a unique vantage point to influence the shifts in thinking essential to the systemic integration of applying UDL in higher education. While faculty conversations usually focus on the important work of planning and responding to individual accommodation requests, AS can leverage these faculty moments to reframe the responsive work of accommodation planning to the proactive work of designing learning. Rather than sharing strategies and toolkits, AS should focus on clarifying the differences between accommodation, accessibility, and UDL; articulating five shifts in mindset necessary for UDL thinking; and building connections with institutional resources supporting teaching and learning development. In this way, AS can build organizational capacity to reframe how we think about learners, learning variability, and planning ahead for all. This prepares and supports faculty to be leaders of UDL implementation and realizes the UDL goal of developing expert learners. It also distributes agency for UDL integration in higher education from the AS office to those with primary responsibility for teaching and learning – faculty. In this chapter, the authors will explore the reasons behind this revised approach to UDL leadership and share practical ideas of how AS can make this shift.
