"Engaging Students with Disabilities Using Universal Design Principles for Instruction"

Donna lange
Associate Professor
RIT/NTID
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Universal design in education is an approach to designing course instruction, materials, and
content to benefit people of all learning styles without adaptation or retrofitting. Modifications for students, especially for those with disabilities, are built into the curriculum, not merely added later on as needs arise. Universal design provides equal access to learning, not simply equal access to information. Simply stated, Universal Design is just good teaching!

During this presentation, participants will experience what it is like to be a deaf student in a
mainstream college class followed by a discussion on the challenges deaf students face in the classroom and the Universal Design principles that could be used to improve the instruction and learning not only for the deaf student but for all students in the class. Online resources being developed by the NSF ATE Center, DeafTEC (www.deaftec.org) to improve existing teaching practice by providing better access to instruction for deaf and hard-of-hearing students in mainstream STEM classes will be shared.