No Contest Communications

My Kwantlen Polytechnic University colleague Seanna Takacs, PhD, has coauthored “Storying Universal Design for Learning” (with coauathors Lilach Marom, Alex Vanderveen, and the late Arley Cruthers Mcneney). It is a terrific book that “compiles post-secondary student voices on accessible teaching practices and universal design for learning (UDL) components that have been integrated into their classes. Students reflect on meaningfulness and engagement, accommodation plans, course design, and instructor supportiveness. This guide offers suggestions for teaching to support instructors in building more accessible classrooms.”

No Contest has been following the UDL movement for a long time, establishing a real-time newsfeed on the topic a year or so ago.

From the book’s introduction:

The traditional core of education is that the curriculum is at the centre of learning. UDL turns this assumption around and puts the learner at the centre. Instead of labelling the learner as disabled, underachieving, or in need of special services, we define the curriculum in terms of how adequately it can accommodate and support the diversity of learners.

This is from Arley’s marvellous Preface:

This resource aggressively centres the experiences and voices of disabled, neurodivergent, and chronically ill students. It takes the stance that even if UDL did not offer a single benefit to typical and abled students, it would still be worth doing. Disabled, chronically ill, and neurodivergent students deserve access to education. The world needs their knowledge. Our universities are better for their presence.

And yet, often instructors see accommodation as a special privilege rather than a right. Many universities require a formal diagnosis (and a lot of hoop jumping) to even access accommodations. Accommodations are for disabled people, many believe.

However, there is no clear line between “disabled” and “abled.” People can slide in and out of that category throughout their life. Having a diagnosis is also a privilege. Some diagnoses cost thousands of dollars to be assessed. Others are considered rare, and doctors are reluctant to look for them. Many neurodivergent people go through their whole lives not knowing that their struggles are because of neurodivergence.

In our study we found that many of the students who we interviewed received an ADHD diagnosis early into their university career when the workarounds and “hacks” that allowed them to thrive in high school no longer work. What if they didn’t have to fail before getting a diagnosis?

The book is freely accessible online.