- Home
- Disability Categories
- Autism
- Deaf-Blindness
- Deafness
- Emotional Behavioral Disorder
- Hearing Impairment or Deafness
- Cognitively Disabled
- Multiple Disabilities
- Orthopedic Impairment
- Other Health Impairment
- Specific Learning Disability
- Speech and Language Disability or Impairment
- Traumatic Brain Injury
- Visual Impairment and Blindness
Universal Design for Learning
Universal Design for Learning is important for students with deaf-blindness for many reasons:
- As the UDL framework is developed and applied for all students,it will need to rely on and incorporate the collective knowledge and expertise of professionals, families, and individuals with deaf-blindness. The field of deaf-blindness intrinsically understands that everyone learns differently and that a “one- size-fits-all” curriculum doesn’t support authentic learning. Expertise based on this understanding is essential as the UDL framework is put into practice to provide accessible, responsive, motivating, and meaningful learning environments.
- Professionals who work with students who are deaf-blind spend time and energy ensuring that their students have access to the curriculum. But, even when students with deaf-blindness have basic access to learning, the curriculum may still fail to provide goals, concepts, or experiences that are worth learning. The constant, tiring act of retrofitting an inadequate curriculum is made unnecessary when the UDL framework is adopted because the needs of learners with deaf-blindness (and all other learners in the class) are considered from the start. The framework helps learners with deaf-blindness by ensuring that they have access to a curriculum that will prepare them for meaningful lives and support from educators who consider their unique needs.