It’s the time of year for me to meet with new and continuing students about their disability related accommodations. As of 1/14/16, I have emailed 121 Accommodation Notices. That number is sure to rise as the semester ramps up.

Speaking with students who have various barriers to their education always starts me thinking about Universal Design (UD). Designing buildings and courses that are welcoming and accessible to everyone is no simple task. But, UD can become second nature in an institution and make everyone feel welcome, valued, and included. The Do-IT Center at the University of Washington has a Promising Practices document online. It makes for interesting reading.

Done properly, UD would eliminate many of the built-in exclusionary factors that some students face today:

• The blind student in your class who cannot see the required video would have auditory description already embedded and ready to use.
• Your student in a wheelchair wouldn’t have to push past 5 desks to get to the accessible table. Which, by the way, she had to request weeks before classes even started.
• All of the auditory files, video chat, webinars, and video blog posts will have captions readily available… and accurate!
• Screen readers like JAWS will be able to read 100% of our electronic content.
• Maybe right now your students have the option of taking your brick and mortar class remotely because you record all of your lectures and post to Moodle. Unless those lectures are captioned prior to posting not all of your students will have that option. Imagine how excluded that student feels; how insignificant he must feel.

Exclusion comes in many forms. They all hurt; they all affect the good work we try to accomplish with our students.

As always, I am at your service. Do not hesitate to contact me with questions and suggestions. Thanks for reading.