Making learning design accessible to a diverse set of learners

The human mind in general and how it learns, in specific, has been a realm of fascination and delight for me, for many years now. We used to think that the whole subject of learning new things ends once we finish our formal education and enter the workplace. Of course, now we know that the truth couldn’t be further from there. Learning for life is a deeper reality than earlier considered.

Either way, whether approaching formal academic education or professional learning, the truth about how our mind absorbs new information remains the same. More importantly, the challenges around those learning are also similar - the primary one amongst them being how to make learning accessible to everyone. When I think about the building blocks of learning, I start with accessibility. How will a person learn if the knowledge or skill being learned is difficult to access?

What does accessibility mean in the context of learning design? This is one of the first questions I ask as an instructional designer. For me, the Universal Design for Learning or UDL has always provided a comprehensive yet simple framework to help answer this question. In this three-part series on UDL, I hope to share some of the key features of UDL and how it has helped me in my journey as an instructional designer over the years.

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