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The U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs has awarded CAST two five-year Cooperative Agreements to establish two national centers to further develop and implement the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS).
The NIMAS guides the production and electronic distribution of digital versions of textbooks and other instructional materials so they can be more easily converted to accessible formats, including braille and text-to-speech.

Conclusions

In most aspects of our society human diversity is considered
the norm; it is now time for this consideration to be applied
to all aspects of instruction and learning. Applying the principles
of UDL in educational practice will support the achievement of
all students by providing:



(a) Appropriate goals for learning and performance,



(b) Flexible and supportive digital materials usable with new
electronic tools for access and learning,



(c) Flexible and diverse methods while applying appropriate challenges
and support, and



(d) Accessible and flexible assessments that measure what needs
to be measured.

Students, regardless of their strengths and weaknesses, deserve
no less.

Effective Classroom Practices

Universal Design for Learning is not a replacement for effective
classroom practices. Educators who are interested in learning
about classroom practices designed to provide support to individual
learners within inclusive environments may be interested in overview
documents that have been posted to the NCAC Web site. The selection
of these classroom practices was based on reviews of effective
practices known to be suited to inclusive learning environments
(King-Sears, 1997). The following documents will be supported
with additional information related to UDL:

(a) Explicit Instruction,

(b) Differentiated Instruction,

(c) Curriculum-Based Evaluation,

(d) Peer Mediated Instruction and Intervention,

(e) Classroom Management, and

(f) Strategic Instruction.

Curriculum Enhancements

The following documents from the NCAC Web site provide information
about a number of technology related curriculum enhancements
that can support the implementation of UDL in the classroom:

(a) Anchored Instruction,

(b) Modified Text,

(c) Text-to-Speech,

(d) Manipulatives,

(e) Virtual Reality/Simulations,

(f) Technology Tools,

(g) Concept Maps, and

(h) Models.

In school environments today, assistive technologies, universal
design, and UDL must co-exist, since no single solution provides
all of the accessibility and supports necessary for learning.

Universal Design for Learning extends the concept of universal
design to the field of education. It denotes the process of creating
general education curricula (including the standards, materials,
methods, and assessments of which they are comprised) that are
conceived, designed, developed and validated to achieve results
for the widest spectrum of students, including those with disabilities,
without the need for subsequent adaptation or specialized design.

Rose and Meyer (2002), authors of Teaching Every Student in the
Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning, explain that that
our students have many kinds of intelligence and many ways of
learning. Further, they describe how specific techniques matched
to the principles of Universal Design for Learning can support
diverse learners. For example, to support recognition learning,
teachers should provide multiple, flexible methods of presentation.
To support strategic learning, they should provide multiple,
flexible methods of expression and apprenticeship. To support
affective learning, teacher should provide multiple, flexible
options for engagement. These three categories of support provide
the foundation for the three principles of UDL.

Universal Design for Learning looks not to the student but to
the curriculum itself. The underlying assumption is that by using
flexible media, options can be embedded within the curriculum
so that adjustments may be made to meet the needs and preferences
of each learner. This built-in flexibility reduces, but does
not eliminate, the need for assistive technologies. Students
with visual difficulties who access the computer via screen magnification
will still need their tools. However, the role of assistive technologies
and the way people view them will shift as UDL curricula become
more available.

Some barriers have existed for so long, that most educators no
longer even see them. Further, some educators have grown accustomed
to viewing many barriers as obstacles to be overcome by those
who are willing to try just a little harder. Unfortunately, many
educators fail to see the difference between the types of learning
challenges that improve learning opportunities for most learners
while serving as significant barriers to learning and performance
for so many others.

To achieve the Secretary's goal of NCLB, and particularly to
extend NCLB to include students with disabilities, the general
curriculum must be strengthened. It must be strengthened by making
it fully accessible to all students, and by including within
it the research-based practices that will achieve results for
students who have disabilities. Such a curriculum is universally
designed.

A universally designed
curriculum is a curriculum that has been specifically designed,
developed, and validated to meet the needs of the full range
of students who are actually in our schools, students with a
wide range of sensory, motor, cognitive, linguistic, and affective
abilities and disabilities rather than a narrow range of students
in the "middle" of the population. Such a curriculum
is essential not only to align NCLB with IDEA, but to achieve
the laudable goals of both. (Rose, 2003, p.1)

Inactive listening is simply being present when someone is speaking, but not absorbing what is being said

Selective listening is hearing what you want to hear or what you expect to hear instead of what is being said.

Active listening is hearing what is said, concentrating on the message and absorbing it.

This is one of the most complex types of listening. It involves actively listening, interpreting what is being said and observing how it is being said.

Students need to receive instruction on how to become effective listeners, especially students diagnosed with learning disabilities. It requires conscious planning by the teacher to include listening activities and practice by the student

We know that sound waves enter through our ears, but how does our brain turn what we hear into something that we can understand and process?

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