National AccessAbility Week: Universal Design for Learning

This week Canada is celebrating National AccessAbility Week – an opportunity to highlight the work of the people and groups removing barriers and reflect on the work yet to do to make Canada a more accessible, inclusive home for all. 

Here at the Library, we’re continually working to improve the experiences of all students, faculty and researchers that use our spaces and resources. One such area that two of our librarians have recently focused on is instruction design practices.  

Mike Chee, liaison librarian, and Kari Weaver, learning, teaching and instructional design librarian, recently published “Using the Instructional Design Process to Effectively Apply UDL to OER: Considerations, Limitations, and Best Practices” to discuss the increasing importance of using the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework when creating open educational resources (OER) both within the Library and when supporting instructors. 

"Incorporating accessibility into instruction can make sense in theory but can be challenging in practice. By tying UDL considerations to an intentional instructional design process, OER can accessibly offer options aligned with UDL best practice both for first intended use, as well as any subsequent uses by others. This approach has benefits beyond OER and can help with the accessibility of all instructional materials," says Chee. 

The book chapter highlights the value of instructional design best practice, and the importance of having a clear process that considers the variability of how students engage with learning materials from the outset of any project. 

With expertise in how people learn, the Library’s Instructional Design team supports the creation of OER for Library instruction in collaboration with subject matter experts in the Library and partner academic support units across campus. These materials, found in our Online Learning Object Repository (OLOR), are accessible, engaging, learner-centered, and designed with UDL principles in mind.  

Read the book chapter now on UWSpace to learn more about applying instructional design best practices to support the universal design of OER.