{"id":20397,"date":"2025-05-15T07:21:49","date_gmt":"2025-05-15T14:21:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lumenlearning.com\/?p=20397"},"modified":"2025-12-09T11:18:51","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T19:18:51","slug":"designing-for-everyone-how-udl-principles-help-lumen-learning-support-accessibility-from-the-start","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lumenlearning.com\/designing-for-everyone-how-udl-principles-help-lumen-learning-support-accessibility-from-the-start\/","title":{"rendered":"Designing for Everyone: How UDL Principles Help Lumen Learning Support Accessibility from the Start"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By: Kiersten Sparks, Course Product Manager (Lumen Learning)<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In honor of Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), I wanted to share a behind-the-scenes look at how the Course Product Managers here at Lumen Learning approach accessibility and inclusion during the course design process. One of the things I appreciate most about working on Lumen\u2019s courseware is that accessibility isn\u2019t something we tack on at the end\u2014it\u2019s something we build into the course from the very beginning, before it ever launches.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the most important frameworks that guides this proactive accessibility work is Universal Design for Learning (UDL). UDL is a research-based approach to teaching that promotes flexible, inclusive design to support the many different ways students learn (CAST, 2018). It focuses on reducing barriers and improving access for all learners\u2014not just those with formal accommodations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One simple but powerful way we incorporate the principles of UDL involves improving the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">structure and clarity<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of content. Specifically, we:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Break up long blocks of text into shorter, more concise sections,<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Use clear and descriptive headers to organize the content, and\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Format important information into bulleted or numbered lists whenever possible.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><strong>Why this matters for screen reader users<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For students who are blind or have low vision and use screen readers, these design choices make a significant difference. Screen readers navigate content linearly, reading from top to bottom. Without structure, it can be difficult for users to skim, find specific information, or understand how ideas relate to one another.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By incorporating descriptive headers, we enable screen reader users to navigate quickly by jumping between sections using keyboard shortcuts. Lists are announced as \u201clist of three items,\u201d for example, which helps students understand the quantity and type of information they\u2019re about to hear. Shorter paragraphs make it easier to stay oriented and reduce the cognitive load of parsing large chunks of uninterrupted text.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong>But the benefits don\u2019t stop there<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">These same improvements help many other learners, too. Neurodivergent students\u2014such as those with ADHD\u2014benefit from the reduced overwhelm and clearer flow throughout the content. Busy students managing jobs, family, and coursework appreciate how quickly they can locate key information when they only have a few minutes between responsibilities.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here\u2019s a quick example of what this looks like in action:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here\u2019s a short segment from a section on time management. Before, this information was presented in one continuous paragraph, which is hard to parse through when skimming the content. It\u2019s also not as easily navigable for screen reader users, who would need to listen to the whole paragraph again to review it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-20400 size-full\" title=\"Fixed vs flexible time paragraph\" src=\"https:\/\/lumenlearning.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-15-at-10.20.05\u202fAM.png\" alt=\"Paragraph. Sometimes it helps to take a look at your time and divide it into two areas: fixed time and free time. Fixed time is time that you have committed to a certain area-it might be school, work, religion, recreation or family. There is no right or wrong to fixed time and everyone's is different. Free time is just that-its free. It can be used however you want to use it; it's time you have available for activities you enjoy. Someone might work 9 am-2 pm, then have class 3 pm-4:30 pm, then have dinner with family 5 pm-6 pm, study 6 pm-7 pm and then have free time from 7 pm=9 pm. Take a look at a typical week for yourself. How much fixed time do you have? How much free time? How much fixed and free time would you like to have?\" width=\"1538\" height=\"352\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lumenlearning.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-15-at-10.20.05\u202fAM-200x46.png 200w, https:\/\/lumenlearning.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-15-at-10.20.05\u202fAM-300x69.png 300w, https:\/\/lumenlearning.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-15-at-10.20.05\u202fAM-400x92.png 400w, https:\/\/lumenlearning.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-15-at-10.20.05\u202fAM-600x137.png 600w, https:\/\/lumenlearning.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-15-at-10.20.05\u202fAM-768x176.png 768w, https:\/\/lumenlearning.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-15-at-10.20.05\u202fAM-800x183.png 800w, https:\/\/lumenlearning.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-15-at-10.20.05\u202fAM-1024x234.png 1024w, https:\/\/lumenlearning.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-15-at-10.20.05\u202fAM-1200x275.png 1200w, https:\/\/lumenlearning.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-15-at-10.20.05\u202fAM-1536x352.png 1536w, https:\/\/lumenlearning.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-15-at-10.20.05\u202fAM.png 1538w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1538px) 100vw, 1538px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In contrast, here it is broken into a box whose title functions as a header, and uses lists to present the examples. Here, the screen reader user would be able to jump between the header and the bulleted list, opting to stop on either just the first-level bullet points to skim, or read through all of them, navigating backward and forward through the bullet points as they wish. This format is also generally easier to skim than the original, even for those who do not use screen readers, making it more readable and accessible for all students.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-20399 size-full\" title=\"Fixed vs flexible time\" src=\"https:\/\/lumenlearning.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-15-at-10.18.40\u202fAM.png\" alt=\"image of a slide showing the differences between fixed time and flexible time\" width=\"1562\" height=\"1082\" srcset=\"https:\/\/lumenlearning.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-15-at-10.18.40\u202fAM-200x139.png 200w, https:\/\/lumenlearning.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-15-at-10.18.40\u202fAM-300x208.png 300w, https:\/\/lumenlearning.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-15-at-10.18.40\u202fAM-400x277.png 400w, https:\/\/lumenlearning.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-15-at-10.18.40\u202fAM-600x416.png 600w, https:\/\/lumenlearning.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-15-at-10.18.40\u202fAM-768x532.png 768w, https:\/\/lumenlearning.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-15-at-10.18.40\u202fAM-800x554.png 800w, https:\/\/lumenlearning.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-15-at-10.18.40\u202fAM-1024x709.png 1024w, https:\/\/lumenlearning.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-15-at-10.18.40\u202fAM-1200x831.png 1200w, https:\/\/lumenlearning.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-15-at-10.18.40\u202fAM-1536x1064.png 1536w, https:\/\/lumenlearning.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Screenshot-2025-05-15-at-10.18.40\u202fAM.png 1562w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1562px) 100vw, 1562px\" \/><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When we design with accessibility in mind\u2014early and intentionally\u2014we don\u2019t just meet minimum standards. We create better, more inclusive learning environments for <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">everyone<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">References:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">CAST (2018). <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.2.<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Retrieved from <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cast.org\/impact\/universal-design-for-learning-udl\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">https:\/\/www.cast.org\/impact\/universal-design-for-learning-udl<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By: Kiersten Sparks, Course Product Manager (Lumen Learning) In honor of Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), I wanted to share a behind-the-scenes look at how the Course Product Managers here at Lumen Learning approach accessibility and inclusion during the course design process. One of the things I appreciate most about working on Lumen\u2019s courseware is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[798,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-equity","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lumenlearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lumenlearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lumenlearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lumenlearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lumenlearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20397"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lumenlearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20562,"href":"https:\/\/lumenlearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20397\/revisions\/20562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lumenlearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lumenlearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lumenlearning.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}