Defining UDL Technology
In my past books, I think I did not do a good enough job explaining what UDL technology is. UDL stand for universal design for learning. That can be defined as a philosophy. The problem with that is a philosophy can be defined as black and white. You draw a line, and everything is either UDL or not UDL. Universal design for learning technology is more than that to the students that it helps and to me. There is no red line that cannot be crossed or clear black and white definition.
To understand this, we have to look at the past to see how we got here. I was one of the first special education students in the modern system of special education. I was the first to do everything. In the 1970s when I was in special education nothing resembles what you see today. There was not testing in special education or testing out. They could simply put people in special education. The idea of testing out was not fully formed yet. There were no special education programs based on populations within a public school that came later. There was one special education class for several grades. The idea of teaching the curriculum did not exist yet. Each student had an individual education plan. That means everyone did something different and that often meant worksheets. Special education students spent much of the day segregated from regular education.
Fast forward to today, and nothing of those facts are true anymore. Most special education students spend most of their day in regular education classes. Everyone is required to learn the same curriculum. Students with a disability are group appropriately based on age and disability. Individual Education Program means accommodations to a curriculum not lack of one. As the special education students moved from a segregated environment to the regular classes, the philosophy of how to teach the has to migrate with them.
This took 40 years to get special education to where it is today. It is hard to believe it took 20 years to get the basics of special education to work. Then in the late 1990s, I was one of the first inclusion teachers in the country. I was treated like a glorified teacher assistant and told by regular education teachers that I was not a “real teacher.” My story is not isolated. It has taken 20 years to get special education students into the regular classroom. When I say we have the greatest generation of teachers ever, I am no throwing words around. What I see every day at work is nothing short of amazing. Without knowing the past, it is hard to understand just how good things are and how hard people worked to get here. That brings us to the biggest lie ever told in education “it has always been done this way before.” No, it definitely has not.
Universal design for learning in the minds of many special education teachers is the regular education version of special education. For me as someone that was an unwilling part of a forgotten desegregation movement, it is freedom. Special education teachers believe in multisensory teaching with the belief that “whatever works.” Universal design for learning just articulates that in better words than “whatever works.” Technology is the next level of individuals with disabilities.
How do you get someone to do something that they are not able to do or at least struggle to do well? The answer is technology. If you cannot learn because you cannot read technology can help contain the problem so that it does not affect other areas. UDL technology is about opening doors for people that need help but are unlikely to be able to ask for it. Technology is the biggest change in this century of education. So much is possible with technology that is just not possible without it.
Most special education teachers would not define UDL technology in the same terms that I do. However, technology means opportunities for those in the profession. Parents see technology as a new form of hope for their children with a disability. I believe that UDL technology can bring hope, answers, and success where there currently is enough to go around.
The term assistive technology includes a wide range of technology. The new generation of technology is mainstream and used by the masses. Word prediction is on your mobile phone. No one is called an iPhone assistive technology. Word prediction originated as assistive technology. So, did the speech to text, text to speech and many other features that you have them you buy a mobile phone. The technology is being universally used. The technology is on every operating system, and web browser as well. Most of the people using it do not have disabilities.
The term UDL technology is separate from assistive technology and from the term universal design for learning. The term encompasses assistive technology and universal design for learning. However, it is not perfectly defined by either. UDL technology includes items that would not perfectly fit under the term assistive technology. Universal design for learning is a philosophy that helps define UDL technology. Universal design for learning is a philosophy and technology is a tool that can be used to work under a philosophy. However, most people that use UDL technology are not a student in a classroom trying to reach an academic goal. Everyday people that fill out a calendar do not define themselves as a student with an executive function issue. The technology is simply a mainstream tool that helps them. Both assistive technology and universal design for learning help explain the term UDL technology but do not completely define the term.
Definition: UDL Technology
Modern technology that is used to help individuals with disabilities and other challenges to function, succeed, perform tasks in various settings.