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Candace Cortiella: So the Universal Design for Learning movement actually has its roots in the universal design concept that was born in the field of architecture. Correct?
Dave Edyburn: Yes, that’s true.
Candace Cortiella: And that was again, as you said, to stop retrofitting buildings and public places in order to provide access for people with physical or sensory disabilities for example, and to build those accommodations into the architecture from the beginning.
Dave Edyburn: Yes. I mean the best examples of that that you mentioned are the curb cuts. That by providing those for everyone, it’s not just people with wheelchairs that can benefit, it’s kids on rollerblades and bicycles and parents with baby buggies and things -- that understanding disability and the special needs of a person with disability made a better design for everyone.
An example of sensory UDL is we have control panels on our computers that are built into the whole operating systems, so if you need the text enlarged because Grandma can’t read the email from her granddaughter, we can zoom the text on the whole screen to get it to a comfortable size.
And so the idea here is that as we start to understand and appreciate differences, we can make these supports available to everyone. Now it’s just a matter of knowing when I need it. How do I access it? How do I turn it on? Which again is probably a very good cost model in the sense that we’re doing it upfront so we’re not paying retrofitting cost later, which is not as satisfactory because it’s delayed, costlier, etc. That metaphor is very important as we think about curriculum and student performance.
Candace Cortiella: Is today’s high-tech world beginning to diminish the need for assistive technology, specifically for students with learning disabilities?
Dave Edyburn: That’s a very timely question as we think about how the world is changing around us. I think it goes back to the question about does assistive technology and Universal Design for Learning. My sense here is that traditional assistive technology may cause a stigma for students with learning disabilities because in middle school and secondary school, they don’t want to be different. So this individualized approach has never proven itself in the sense of being able to deliver timely interventions that help kids do the task we’re asking them to do in school.
So I think Universal Design for Learning has great promise in terms of trying to build in digital supports, both into the curriculum — and again we’re going to need to see more digital curriculum — but as we have these flexible learning environments, the digital supports would be available for everyone.
I think part of the challenge is things that were formally special [are now mainstream]. A good example is something called word prediction. When I type the letter T, the computer thinks I maybe spelling the word “the” as the most frequent “t” word. And so we would provide that on the screen and if that’s that word I want, I can press one key and it auto-completes.
Last fall, Google released a product like that where they have word prediction for everyone. And so now is that a special education product? Is that an assistive technology anymore because now Google has it and we can all use it? And I think that’s a very interesting challenge to our paradigm that assistive technology is special only for some while we have to engage in these very elaborate evaluation models to get you the right stuff as opposed to being supports built in much like we find in text messaging that uses word prediction on our cell phones.
So I think this is both the peril and the promise of what we’re talking about — that it requires us to have a very insightful [understanding] of where an individual struggles and then knowing how to build solutions that provide that support. And then it really doesn’t matter what we call it. The emphasis has to be on, “Can you do the task? Can we make this easier for you and make you more effective, save you time?”
I think parents would agree that this is not the experience they have when they try to help their child with homework. It’s difficult. It’s a battle. We don’t have the right tools. We’re constantly struggling. It’s not a positive experience. So I think that illustrates how much more we have to do in terms of trying to find the right tools, and get them to the right individuals, and get them to a point where they would be willing to engage in reading, writing — tasks that they normally find difficult and would like to avoid.
Candace Cortiella: Thank you for spending time with us to discuss this important area.
Dave Edyburn, Ph.D., is a leading expert in assistive technology (AT) for students with disabilities. Dr. Edyburn is the founder and editor of Special Education Technology Practice, a journal for technology practitioners, as well as many other products focused on using the power of technology in special education and to improve educational opportunities for children, youth, and adults with disabilities. He is also a professor in the Department of Exceptional Education at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee.
This transcription was made possible by a grant from the American Legion Child Welfare Foundation.
