Creating an Inclusive Campus Through Universal Design for Learning

It’s time to rethink disability accommodations in higher education. While essential for ensuring access, accommodations should not be seen as an end in themselves. Colleges and universities must move beyond mere compliance with legal requirements and focus on empowering students with disabilities to achieve long-term success.

Currently, accommodations like extended deadlines or extra time on exams address immediate academic challenges but do not prepare students for the broader, real-world challenges they will face beyond the classroom. Accommodations are a crucial first step toward creating an inclusive environment, but they should serve as the beginning of a broader mission to equip students with the tools they need to thrive in academic, professional and social settings.

The goal should be to foster skill development, independence and long-term success. While accommodations provide access, universities must go further by helping students develop essential life skills such as self-advocacy, time management, coping strategies and resilience. Focusing on these areas ensures that students are not just earning a degree but thriving in all aspects of life.

Legal compliance is important, but it’s only the baseline. Higher education institutions should aim to be leaders in inclusion, not just followers of legal mandates. This shift requires viewing disability support as a foundation for student empowerment, equipping them with lifelong strategies to succeed both academically and professionally. This includes integrating disability services with career counseling, mental health services, instructional design, pedagogy and other aspects of campus life to ensure a holistic approach.

For instance, while flexible deadlines or extended test times are necessary, they don’t help students develop critical skills like time management or productivity in high-pressure environments. Instead of simply extending deadlines, universities should offer workshops or mentoring on organizing schedules, breaking down tasks and setting achievable goals—skills crucial for both academic and professional success.

In the professional world, students with disabilities will often need to advocate for themselves, manage their time and solve problems with few institutionalized accommodations. Universities can prepare students for this by creating opportunities to build these skills during their college years. Self-advocacy training, for example, can be a vital component of disability services. Teaching students how to effectively communicate their needs in academic and professional environments can empower them to navigate situations where structured accommodations may not exist.

Time management and coping skills are equally important. Accommodations often include flexible deadlines or exam extensions, but these don’t prepare students for the fast-paced environments they will encounter postgraduation. Workshops, coaching and stress-management training can help students balance academic and personal responsibilities, building resilience—an essential quality for success beyond college.

Resilience and problem-solving skills are fundamental for all students, but students with disabilities face additional challenges that require creative solutions. Universities should prioritize helping these students develop strategies to overcome setbacks, manage stress and maintain mental and emotional well-being. By offering resources like workshops and peer support networks, universities can create environments where students practice problem-solving in a supportive setting and build a toolkit of strategies for future challenges.

In addition to fostering life skills, universities must integrate disability services more holistically into campus life. Career centers should collaborate with disability services to support students as they prepare for internships, job interviews and the transition to the workforce. This partnership ensures that students with disabilities gain the confidence and skills they need to succeed in the job market.

Teaching centers also play a critical role by providing faculty with tools to better understand and address students’ needs. Accommodations should be incorporated into course design in ways that promote inclusion without lowering academic standards. Faculty development programs can train instructors on designing accessible courses using principles like universal design for learning (UDL), which emphasizes flexibility in teaching and assessments to meet diverse needs.

Universities must recognize that true support for students with disabilities goes beyond accommodations. The real goal should be to empower students with skills and strategies that allow them to thrive in any setting. This requires a shift from compliance-based approaches to a more holistic, development-focused model. By helping students build essential skills such as self-advocacy, time management, resilience and problem-solving, universities can prepare all students—not just those with disabilities—for long-term success inside and outside the academy.

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In a recent article in The History of Education Quarterly, Scott M. Gelber, a leading historian of education at Wheaton College, traces how colleges have dealt with learning disabilities since the early 1960s. Initially, colleges provided minimal support, urging students with learning disabilities to work harder and adopt more disciplined study strategies. Over time, legal and institutional pressures required faculty to offer accommodations, but many professors were skeptical of the legitimacy of these diagnoses, fearing that accommodations would compromise academic standards.

Gelber exposes an ongoing tension between the responsibilities of students, instructors and institutions. Each plays a critical role in balancing accessibility, fairness and academic integrity, but the interplay of these roles creates challenges as they navigate legal requirements, pedagogical standards and individual students’ needs.

Students with learning disabilities are expected to take an active role in managing their accommodations, including registering with the disabilities office, providing documentation and requesting accommodations from instructors. However, many struggle with self-advocacy or feel stigmatized and the challenge lies in ensuring they receive proper support while fostering their independence. This tension becomes particularly clear when students seek accommodations like extended deadlines or flexible attendance policies, which can blur the lines of responsibility and raise concerns about whether students are held to the same standards as their peers.

Instructors are responsible for implementing accommodations while maintaining academic standards. They may feel conflicted when accommodations such as flexible deadlines or alternative assessments seem to compromise course integrity. Instructors are responsible for delivering content and assessing mastery and accommodations that alter participation or deadlines can generate concerns about fairness. Many instructors, feeling unprepared to assess what accommodations are appropriate, experience tension between supporting students and upholding course rigor, especially when accommodations seem to conflict with the learning objectives.

Institutions, under the Americans With Disabilities Act and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, are legally required to ensure students with learning disabilities have equal access to education. This includes providing reasonable accommodations and educating faculty about their obligations. However, institutions face the challenge of offering accommodations that are fair but do not fundamentally alter the course. They must also respect faculty autonomy, leading to conflicting priorities. Disabilities offices often struggle to provide timely support for both students and instructors and many universities do little to train faculty on how to work with students with disabilities or implement flexible teaching methods like universal design for learning.

Tensions often arise when communication breaks down. Students may feel hesitant to approach faculty, fearing stigma, while faculty may feel unsupported and pressured to lower standards. Institutions, legally bound to facilitate accommodations, sometimes fail to provide adequate resources or training, leaving instructors unsure how to navigate complex requests.

These tensions often lead to misunderstandings. For example, a student may request an extension due to a flare-up of symptoms, but without understanding the impact of the disability, the instructor may view this as an attempt to avoid responsibility.

To address these issues, all three parties—students, instructors and institutions—must collaborate to find a balance that respects everyone’s rights and responsibilities. Universities should offer more robust training for faculty, focusing not just on legal compliance but on inclusive teaching and flexible course design. They should also provide students with the tools to develop self-advocacy, time management and communication skills. Finally, disabilities offices must ensure that accommodations are tailored to individual courses and support students’ long-term development, avoiding one-size-fits-all approaches that exacerbate tensions.

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As Gelber’s essay argues, creating a more inclusive and equitable learning environment for students with learning disabilities not only benefits those students directly but also enhances the educational experience for all learners.

Many accommodations originally designed for students with learning disabilities—such as detailed syllabi, organized lectures, frequent assessments and flexible evaluations—have proven to be effective teaching strategies for a wide range of students. These practices, grounded in universal design for learning, make the classroom more accessible, flexible and responsive to diverse needs. By incorporating these principles, instructors can foster an environment where all students thrive.

Universal design for learning: A framework that ensures courses, materials and assessments are accessible to all learners. It recognizes the diversity of students’ needs, strengths and preferences and aims to offer flexibility in how they engage with content and demonstrate their understanding. universal design for learning is built around three core principles:

1. Multiple means of engagement: Instructors should offer various ways for students to engage with the course material and stay motivated, catering to different learning preferences and needs.
2. Multiple means of representation: Instructors should present information in varied formats—visually, orally and through hands-on activities—so students with different learning styles and abilities can access content effectively.
3. Multiple means of action and expression: Instructors should provide different assessment options—essays, presentations, projects or portfolios—so students can demonstrate mastery in ways that align with their strengths.

Here are some practical ways to implement universal design for learning principles:

• Detailed syllabus: A clear syllabus outlining course structure, assignments, due dates and expectations helps all students, not just those with learning disabilities. It provides a road map for managing time and anticipating tasks, reducing anxiety. A detailed syllabus promotes better organization and self-directed learning, fostering a transparent and inclusive learning environment for everyone.
• Well-organized lectures: Logically structured lectures with clear signposts, outlines and summaries aid students with learning disabilities by making it easier to follow the material and understand connections between concepts. This structure also benefits all students by reducing cognitive load, allowing them to focus on deeper engagement and critical thinking rather than simply decoding information.
• Frequent, formative assessments: Low-stakes quizzes and in-class activities help students with learning disabilities monitor their understanding and get timely feedback. These assessments benefit all students by promoting a growth mindset and allowing regular progress checks. Instructors can also adjust their teaching based on these assessments to better address areas of confusion.
• Access to lecture notes and slides: Providing lecture notes and slides helps students who struggle with note-taking, attention or memory issues. This practice also supports all students by offering resources for review, allowing them to engage with the material more fully during class without worrying about capturing every detail.
• Reduced time pressure on tests: Extended time on exams accommodates students with learning disabilities who need more time to process and recall information. However, reducing time pressure also helps students who experience test anxiety or need extra time to articulate their thoughts, resulting in more accurate assessments of student knowledge.
• Multiple forms of assessment: Offering diverse assessment options, such as essays, presentations or creative projects, allows students with different strengths to demonstrate mastery without being unfairly penalized for challenges related to traditional testing. This approach benefits all students by recognizing individual learning styles and providing a more comprehensive evaluation of their abilities.

Universal design for learning principles, originally designed to accommodate students with learning disabilities, benefit the entire student population. Practices like multiple assessments, well-organized lectures and accessible resources reflect good teaching strategies that foster a more inclusive, flexible and effective learning environment. By adopting these methods, universities can enhance the quality of instruction, meet the needs of all students and maintain high academic standards.

Accommodations designed for students with learning disabilities do more than support those students—they elevate the overall educational experience. These practices promote best teaching practices that cater to a wide range of learners, making instruction more equitable and inclusive. By embracing UDL principles, universities not only fulfill their responsibility to students with disabilities but also create a stronger, more dynamic educational environment for everyone.

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If faculty are to implement universal design for learning principles and other best teaching practices, they need more than a basic understanding—they require comprehensive training, hands-on support and meaningful incentives. Universal design for learning emphasizes creating flexible, accessible learning environments, a shift from traditional methods that demands new skills, frameworks and resources for effective implementation.

Most faculty members, having received little formal instruction in pedagogy during graduate training, are often unfamiliar with universal design for learning or broader strategies like active learning and formative assessment. These concepts are new to many and require both theoretical understanding and practical application.

Universities must offer regular workshops that introduce faculty to UDL principles, teaching them to design flexible curricula that cater to diverse learning needs. These workshops should cover practical strategies for inclusive course materials, accessible technologies and varied assessment methods. A more formal approach might involve certification programs in pedagogy, equipping faculty with the skills to transform their teaching practices.

However, theoretical knowledge alone isn’t enough. Faculty members need direct, individualized support to integrate these strategies into their specific courses, each of which has unique content, objectives and student demographics. Teaching and learning centers should provide instructional designers who can work one-on-one with faculty, helping them apply universal design for learning principles to syllabi, assignments and classroom activities. Regular check-ins with instructional designers allow faculty to troubleshoot challenges and fine-tune new methods without compromising student engagement or learning outcomes.

Without clear incentives, overworked faculty juggling teaching, research and service obligations are unlikely to prioritize new teaching strategies. Therefore, universities must invest in recognition programs that reward pedagogical innovation and provide grants for course redesign. Integrating teaching innovation into tenure and promotion decisions will further encourage faculty to adopt universal design for learning and other best practices.

Creating a culture of pedagogical innovation is essential. Faculty must feel that innovative teaching is recognized, valued and supported by their institution. Departments should actively encourage participation in professional development and provide resources for course redesigns that prioritize inclusivity and accessibility.

In the end, fostering a more inclusive approach to teaching and assessment benefits everyone. When faculty are empowered to teach in ways that reach all learners, the quality of education improves across the board. By investing in training, hands-on support and institutional incentives, universities can create a learning environment where every student—regardless of background, ability or learning style—can thrive.