Tips and Resources

UDL Guidelines

In April of 2008, CAST developed Guidelines for Universal Design for Learning in order to address the request from the field for guidelines to help concretize applications of UDL principles and practices.

These Guidelines articulate the range of options that curriculum developers and Book Builder authors should consider when designing flexible books and media that reduce barriers and provide robust supports to all learners. Like UDL itself, these Guidelines are flexible and should be mixed and matched in your book creation as appropriate. The UDL Guidelines are not meant to be a "prescription" but a set of strategies that can be employed to overcome the barriers inherent in most existing books and curriculum.

For tips on using the UDL Guidelines in your authoring, please see: CAST's UDL Guidelines - How you can embed suggestions from the Guidelines into your Book Builder Book! By Jenna Wasson Gravel.

The UDL Guidelines can be found here: http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/udlguidelines

Be sure to explore the research section to see how each Guideline and associated "checkpoint" are supported by research from the fields of education, psychology, and cognitive neuroscience that has been amassed over decades by many different researchers in many different universities and laboratories. This research can guide your book content authoring and the development of effective, flexible, UDL supports for your readers.