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Design for Access to Enhance Accessibility—and Engagement
How can creating eLearning that offers more options andaccess to more learners save time for instructional designers and developers?
It’s not a riddle; it’s an argument for Universal Design for Learning, designing eLearning using what UDL experts ThomasTobin and Barbi Honeycutt call “plus-one thinking.”
Plus-one thinking means that, for every interaction betweena learner and something—the instructor, the material, another learner,or something else—an additional option is provided. What might this look like?
- In addition to presenting material astext-plus-photos, offer a short video
- In addition to presenting an audio track for avideo, offer a transcript or closed captions
- In addition to offering text on a screen insidean LMS, offer a downloadable file
- In addition to asking learners to providewritten responses to assessment questions, offer them a game or a simulation
- In addition to presenting required content in avideo, allow learners to read an article or review electronic “flashcards” on amobile device
Tobin and Honeycutt recommend starting in content areaswhere learners are frequently confused. “Think of the places in the coursewhere learners always: 1) have questions, 2) get things wrong on tests andassignments, and 3) request explanations in different terms. Apply ‘plus one’design to these elements: add one choice, alternative, or means ofself-regulation in each place identified,” they write. “Plus-one thinking helpsto focus one’s design efforts to the places where they are likely to have thegreatest impact for learners.”
Principles of UDL
Universal Design for Learning, or UDL, is a mindset, anapproach to design that is based on three principles:
- Present information in different ways
- Provide multiple ways for learners to engagewith information and apply it
- Offer learners multiple ways to demonstratelearning or mastery
UDLencourages instructional designers to think of at least two ways to presenteach new piece of information. If the primary method is text—lecture notes, astudy guide—the secondary format can be audio. If the primary format is avideo, the secondary can be a transcript. “UDL doesn’t ask us to creatematerials to anticipate every possible use,” Tobin and Honeycutt write. “Justto ‘design for the extremes.’”
Doing this opens up the benefits of multimodal learning: Peoplelearn better when they can consume content in more than one way. (See “Capture Learners’ Attention with Multimodal eLearning.”) Having choices and somecontrol over how they engage with content is also motivating for learners.
Offering multiple ways to demonstrate mastery might be thehardest of the principles to implement, according to Tobin and Honeycutt. “Lookat the objectives for assignments and think of whether students must use aparticular format in order to demonstrate those objectives, or if they canaccomplish the same tasks in different ways,” they advise.
How can UDL save development time?
Providing “accommodation” often requires making a specificchange to remove or mitigate a barrier to an individual’s access. If a class isheld in a building whose entrances all have stairs, an accommodation for alearner who uses a wheelchair might mean holding the class in a differentbuilding. In eLearning, an accommodation might mean disabling timers on somecontent so that a learner can spend more time completing an exercise. But withaccommodation, the emphasis is on the individual: one change, done one time,for one person.
Since learners are diverse and their needs are diverse, thepotential need for accommodations can be enormous—and daunting. That’s why manyinstructional designers have negative associations with the very concept—theysee accommodation as something that takes a lot of extra time and benefits onlyone or a very few individuals.
UDL is a better way to improve access.
It grew out of the concept of universal design, which emphasizes physical design—of buildings,environments, and objects—that is useful to as broad a variety of people aspossible. For example, a design with curb cuts and ramps provides access topeople who are walking, biking, using wheelchairs, pushing baby strollers, orriding skateboards. When buildings are based on universal design, fewerindividuals will need accommodations; fewer barriers mean that more people canaccess the building—and the services it houses.
In the same vein, if eLearning is designed with multiplemodalities—and thus fewer barriers to access—fewer individuals will needaccommodations to access the material. Modifying eLearning when someonerequests an accommodation—adding captioning or simplifying a complex text, forexample—can be expensive and time-consuming; UDL helps avoid that.
UDL is about much more than providing access to learners whohave disabilities, though. All learners are more engaged when they have choicesand control over how, when, and where they learn, and many people who do nothave disabilities benefit from features like captions and content that isavailable on multiple devices.
- Multimodal learning supports learners’preferences and gives them flexibility. A busy person who wants to watch avideo on the train or after the kids are asleep can use captioning and keep thesound off, for example.
- Offering eLearning that is not tied to aspecific software tool or format and that can be consumed on a laptop, tablet,or smartphone frees learners to consume it when and where they want.
- Offering material in multiple formats means morelearners will understand the content, since they can review it in a couple ofdifferent ways.
- Showing learners’ progress or providing timeestimates for each topic or section offers learners more control over theirscheduling.
Learners who can access eLearning on their own terms arelikely to be more engaged, spend more time with the material—and learn and retainmore.
Summit on eLearning accessibility
Interested in learning more? Join The eLearning Guild for aneLearning Accessibility Summit on May 17 and 18. Eight live online sessions willexplore ways to design and create accessible eLearning content.
