UD for Adult Education Step 4

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Apply the Universal Design Review

Once you have identified your qualified individuals, your educational goals for them, and the way they will be assessed, it is time to review your plan to ensure you are maximizing the accessibility of the overall experience. This review process based in the principles of Universal Design created by Ronald Mace and his team (1997) provides program designers a systematic way to assess each component of your adult education experience regardless of its type or scope.

To apply the Universal Design Review, work through the following outline:

  1. Can all qualified individuals complete activity/course/program in an equally effective way?
    • Yes – advance to 2
    • No – revise activities and begin again
  2. Can all qualified individuals complete activities independently?
    • Yes – advance to 3
    • No – revise activities for maximum independence and advance to 3
  3. Can presenter(s) respond to qualified individual differences immediately?
    • Yes – advance to 4
    • No – develop new/additional resources and return to 1
      • if no in reevaluation, solve barrier issue and go to 4
  4. Is all activity/course/program complexity necessary to support activity/course/program goals?
    • Yes – advance to 5
    • No – simplify unnecessary complexity and advance to 5
  5. Does the program provide qualified individuals with all necessary information to complete required and optional activity/course/program activities?
    • Yes – advance to 6
    • No – ask if this information is fundamental to being qualified for the program?
      • Yes – advance to 6
      • No – add necessary information to content, then advance to 6
  6. Do all activities support learning through discovery?
    • Yes – advance to 7
    • No – ask if learning through discovery can be reasonably added?
      • Yes – add learning through discovery, and reevaluate by returning to 2
      • No – advance to 7
  7. Does assessment of program activity/course/program support qualified individual goal mastery?
    • Yes – advance to 8
    • No – ask if all assessments are appropriately fitted to the goals?
      • Yes – create a recommended remediation step for qualified individuals, then advance to 8
      • No – revise, then advance to 8
  8. Are activities and assessments designed for varied delivery modes?
    • Yes – advance to 9
    • No – consider developing activities and/or assessments for other delivery modes and evaluate them separately before advancing to 9
  9. Are physical and digital resources appropriate for all qualified individuals (e.g.: are they “accessible”)?
    • Yes – advance to 10
    • No – remediate physical space and/or digital resources for accessibility before advancing to 10
  10. Yay! You are finished with your UD review and have done what you can, at this time, to reach all qualified individuals. Schedule a future full revision and review of this activity/course/program per your institution’s review schedule.

Continue to Quiz: You have now completed this course and are ready to take the quiz, for which you have unlimited attempts. Please click Mark Complete to be advanced to the quiz. If you are not automatically directed, simply click on the quiz in the navigation menu, found on the left side of your screen.