Abstract: After a decade of advocacy across North American campuses, it can be fairly asserted that Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is finally having an impact on the inclusion of students with Disabilities across campuses. It is helping shift instructors and departments away from medical model approaches to students with Disabilities, and facilitating the adoption of the social model of disability in classroom practices. In 2020, however, the COVID pandemic forced campus closures and an overnight shift to online instruction and assessment across the world. Many have argued that this pivot has helped increase awareness of accessibility and has developed inclusive design as a mindset among instructors. Equally numerous are researchers and practitioners who feel that the pandemic has weakened institutions’ commitment to inclusion, made accessible learning more difficult to achieve, and generally hindered the development of UDL in Higher Education. This interactive session will lead the audience in assessing to what extent each of these assertions might be true, and how campuses can draw important lessons from these experiences, in relation to UDL implementation. The presentation draws from multiple interactive workshops which have been offered to UDL advocates and faculty throughout the pandemic. It presents the analysis of phenomenological data gathered throughout these professional development sessions.

1. UDL Implementation in Higher Education
during the COVID crisis:
Has the Drive Suffered Setbacks or Been
Aided by the Pandemic Pivot?
Mobilize for Action, March 1st, 2022
Pacific Rim Conference on Disability and Diversity
Frederic Fovet, School of Education and Technology
Royal Roads Univerity
#PacRim2022

2. Personal introduction as it pertains to my
methodology
• Currently Associate Professor in Education at Royal Roads University in BC,
Canada
• Previously Director of the Office for Students with Disabilities at McGill for 4
years
• Given the mandate on that campus to widen the use of UDL
• Continue to act as consultant to colleges and universities on matters of
accessibility and Universal Design for Learning
• Heavily involved in UDL promotion in HE in Canada (Program Chair for the
first three Pan-Canadian Conferences on UDL in 2015, 2017 and 2019)
• Research portfolio heavily focused on the strategic implementation of UDL
both in HE and in the K-12 sector

3. Context
• In the decade prior to the pandemic there had been a significant uptake
globally in UDL implementation in HE
• Constant growth in the US (http://udloncampus.cast.org/home )
• Significant increase in UDL initiatives in Canada
• Also increasing activity around the world:
• UDL implementation in HE in Ireland through the work of AHEAD (2021)
• Efforts in Belgium through the activities of SIHO (2021)
• Momentum in Norway with the work of Universell (2021).
• Exceptional work around UDL has also been showcased in Spain and led by
the DUALETIC Project (2021) and Fondacion Once.

4. Context (Contd.)
• Beyond the Global North context, there has also been increased interest and
exploration around UDL in Global South countries (Dalton et al., 2019; Sheik
Mohamed & Sivakumar, 2020)
• The COVID pandemic has had a profound effect of disruption on the entire HE
sector globally.
• It has disturbed established processes around the inclusion of diverse
students.
• It has made communication betwen the various stakeholders much more
complex
• It has pushed faculty into new roles and towards new classroom practices.
• It therefore seems important and urgent to gauge the impact the pandemic
has had on the global momentum for UDL implementation.

5. What does the literature tell us?
- Some inherent reflection around inclusive design among faculty during the COVID
pivot, but not necessarily always consciously UDL (Fitzpatrick et al., 2021)
- Not all diverse students’ experiences were negative over this period (Smith, 2020)
- Lots of UDL strategies being discussed during the COVID pandemic, even if these are
not always framed as UDL practices (O’Keefe, 2020)
- Many instructors reporting insurmountable challenges in shifting to online
instruction and assessment (Barton, 2020)
- Some literature from the K-12 sector presents the COVID crisis as an exceptional
opportunity for UDL implementation and growth (Basham et al., 2020)
- Some position papers argue for the relevance of UDL in this context (Dickinson &
Gronseth, 2020)

6. Methodological stance
• A three-pronged methodological process:
• Discussions with accessibility personnel and UDL advocates/ stakeholders in
qualitative interviews
• Wider dialogue with inclusion and UDL advocates in interactive virtual events
throughout the pandemic
• Discussions with instructors, instructional designers and accessibility
personnel about MH and inclusive design in HE that was impacted by the
pandemic and unfolded it within it

7. Interactive activity - How has the COVID pandemic
changed attitudes towards inclusion/accessibility and
UDL implementation?
• We will use Menti to quickly poll you as participants.
• I will generate the Menti code synchronously as otherwise it resets if not used immediately
• Visit www.menti.com and use the code that will be generated during the session
• Do you feel that the COVID crisis has:
• (1) improved awareness of accessibility/inclusion and supported wider UDL adoption?
• (2) made accessibility/inclusion more challenging, and has been detrimental in terms of UDL
implementation?
• I will not switch screen, in the interest of time but will share with you what comes up in the
polling activity
• I will add the slides to my presentation when I share the deck (Twitter and LinkedIn)

9. Observations and Analysis
• Some gains/ facilitators
• Instructors have globally embraced
their role as designers of the
leanring experience
• They are increasingly aware of the
impact of bad design on student
experience
• They are more receptive than ever
to the relevance of UDL
• There have been more widely and
openly shared resources related to
UDL
• Some new hurdles
• The UDL discourse is more diluted
and less easy to identify
• Some confusion between UDL
strategies and simple technology
integration
• The reflection around UDL is
perhaps not as systematic as it can
be – engagement in particularly
has generally been ignored during
the pandemic. Focus has been on
‘multiple means of representation’
and ‘multiple means of action &
expression’

10. Observations and Analysis (contd.)
• Some gains/ facilitators
• Noticeably growing international
dialogue around UDL. Ironically, there
has been less travel but more
opportunities for the global sharing of
knowledge (e.g. launch of the ADCET
platform in Australia)
• More advocacy related to UDL from
the student body itself
• Widespread understanding that many
of the lessons learnt during the COVID
pandemic in relation to UDL need
integrated into f2f teaching in the
post-pandemic landscape
• Some new hurdles
• There have not always been adequate
points of contact for faculty seeking to
adopt UDL strategies – most key
stakeholders have been oversolicited and
exhausted
• Instructors themselves are more
receptive to UDL but also burnt out and
less open to innovation. COVID
exhaustion is real.
• Many students feel that despite growing
UDL efforts, there have also been
significant accessibility issues (proctoring
practices for example).

11. Outcomes
• A disrupted landscape where nothing functions in the way it did before Covid
• This means opportunity for change but also exhaustion and resistance
• Faculty are making more autonomous decisions about innovative classrom practices,
often in just-in-time manner. They are more likely than ever to encounter UDL
• Some grave mistakes, but some creative solutions – UDL has been a useful lens to
rapidly and effectively assess wins and mistakes
• Importantly, faculty are more willing than ever to accept and embrace their role as
designers of the learning experience
• There is an explicit desire to identify the lessons learnt during the COVID pandemic
so as to be able to integrate them effectively into classroom practices
• The application of UDL as a lens for reflection on access has been limited to some
categories of students. Many diverse learners who could benefit from the use of
UDL have been left out of the reflection – international students, Indigenous
students, first generation students in particular.

12. Discussion
• Danger of the thirst for a return to ‘normality’
• Danger of a pendulum swing in large HE organizations which tend to want to return
to the status quo
• The status quo in HE was not ideal. Pre-COVID, there were singificant resistance to
UDL; there was also a great deal of haziness in instructors’ understanding of what
UDL represents; there was some hesitation too as to which stakeholder should drive
UDL implementation across campus (Senior administration? Teaching and learning
centers? Accessibility centers? Instructional designers?)
• This is a key moment in the process of UDL implementation in HE: campuses have
the opportunity to capitalize on these experiences or to revert back to their pre-
pandemic ambivalent positioning vis-à-vis UDL
#PacRim2022

13. Discussion
• Caveat: Pre-existing tension around the strategic process of UDL adoption in HE
• There were organizational issues related to UDL adoption across campuses, before
the pandemic
• Often UDL adoption has been over-focused on evidencing pedagogical benefits; it
has neglected management of change from a strategic and organizational
perspective (Fovet, 2021)
• There has also been a lot of confusion as to which stakeholder should be in charge of
the implementation drive. This often leads to territoriality.
• There is a need to plan UDL implementation with an eye on an ecological
understanding of the contextual variables that come into play
• The COVID pandemic has not eliminated these strategic hurdles. The process of
management of change needs to be proactively mapped out – even more so now
#PacRim2022

14. References
• AHEAD (2021) Creating inclusive environments in education and employment for people with
disabilities. https://www.ahead.ie/
• Barton, D.C. (2020) Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on field instruction and remote teaching
alternatives: Results from a survey of instructors. Ecology and Evolution, 10, 12499– 12507.
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.6628
• Basham, J.D., Blackorby, J., & Marino, M.T. (2020) Opportunity in Crisis: The Role of Universal
Design for Learning in Educational Redesign. Learning Disabilities: A Contemporary Journal 18(1),
71-91. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1264277.pdf
• Dalton, E., Lyner-Cleophas, M., Ferguson, B., & McKenzie, J. (2019). Inclusion, universal design and
universal design for learning in higher education: South Africa and the United States. African
Journal of Disability, 8. https://doi.org/10.4102/ajod.v8i0.519
• Dickinson, K. J., & Gronseth, S. L. (2020). Application of Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
Principles to Surgical Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic. Journal of surgical education,
77(5), 1008–1012. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsurg.2020.06.005
• DUALETIC Project (2021) educaDUA. https://www.educadua.es/inicio_eng.html
• Fondacion Once (2021) Inclusion in the new higher education model.
https://ciud.fundaciononce.es/en/about-congress

15. References (contd.)
• Fovet, F. (2021) Developing an Ecological Approach to the Strategic Implementation of UDL in Higher
Education. Journal of Education and Learning, 10 (4). : https://doi.org/10.5539/jel.v10n4p27
• Kilpatrick, J.R.., Ehrlich, S., & Bartlett, M. (2021) Learning from COVID-19: Universal Design for Learning
Implementation Prior to and During a Pandemic. The Journal of Applied Instructional Design.
https://edtechbooks.org/jaid_10_1/universal_design_forS
• O’Keefe, L., Rafferty, J., Gunder, A., Vignare, K. (2020, May 18). Delivering high-quality instruction online
in response to COVID-19: Faculty playbook. Every Learner Everywhere. https://edtechbooks.org/-jgJ
• SIHO (2021) Towards Genuinely Inclusive Universities. https://www.siho.be/en/towards-genuinely-
inclusive-universities
• Sheik Mohamed, S.A., & Sivakumar, R. (2020). Inclusiveness in Higher Education through Universal
Design Learning – UDL. Think India Journal, 22(45), 23-26.
https://thinkindiaquarterly.org/index.php/think-india/article/view/19702
• Smith, C. (2020). Challenges and opportunities for teaching students with disabilities during the COVID-
19 pandemic. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Perspectives in Higher Education, 5(1), 167-173.
https://edtechbooks.org/-cHBv
• Universell (2021) National Coordinator of Accessibility of Higher Education in Norway.
https://www.universell.no/english/

16. Contact details
• Frederic Fovet (PhD.)
• Associate Professor, School of Education and Technology, Royal Roads University
• Frederic.fovet@royalroads.ca
• @Ffovet
• www.implementudl.com
#PacRim2022