Universal Design in Education
This section provides information for educators and students on Universal Design. It contains information on academic and Continuous Professional Development (CPD) courses and other learning opportunities that provide students and professionals with the wide range of skills required to incorporate the Principles of UD into the development of products, services, Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) or buildings. These are mixture of programmes with a specific UD focus and where UD is integrated throughout the course content.
We work with a wide range of educational institutions and professional associations to support the teaching of Universal Design and its examination in professional courses. Follow the link in this section to find out about our work in the areas of:
- Third level education - including our curriculum materials for educators and our annual Universal design Grand Challenge student competition
- Second level education
- Continuous Professional Development - including work in progress with both the RIAI and the Irish Computer Society
- Resources for educators
Some examples of UD curriculum may be found by following the links in each of these sections.
The Resources section contains information on a wide range of books and journal articles on learning and teaching Universal Design for students, educators and researchers.
Courses under each of these disciplines are split into two broad categories: Academic Courses that lead to a graduate or post graduate qualification and Continuous Professional Development courses which comprise of training seminars.
The CEUD does not accredit or specifically recommend any of the following courses. These details are provided only to assist those seeking to locate courses. All details known at the time of writing have been included.
The information on academic and continuous development courses and other learning opportunities is periodically reviewed to ensure it is up-to-date. Please contact us should you find this not to be the case.
Universal Design and inclusion are key to achieving the right to education and training as enshrined in the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), the first legally binding instrument to contain a reference to the concept of quality inclusive education and training. This clearly articulates the importance of Universal Design as the preferred approach to an inclusive society. We are pleased to present this revised paper which describes the current educational policy landscape in Ireland, and proposes a ‘whole systems’ approach to inclusive education. This paper has been updated following the Centre’s collaboration with the Higher Education Authority (HEA) on the recent Path 4 Phase 1 funding call.
PATH 4 Requirements
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an extension of, and is underpinned by Universal Design. “UDL is a set of principles for curriculum development that give all individuals equal opportunities to learn, including Students with Disabilities. UDL aims to improve the educational experience of all students by introducing more flexible methods of teaching, assessment and service provision to cater for the diversity of learners in our classrooms.
Universal Design in Education (UDE) focuses on whole system design so that the physical and digital environments, the educational services and the teaching and learning can be easily accessed, understood and used by the widest range of learners and all stakeholders, in a more inclusive environment. This document outlines requirements for submission of proposals under the Path4 scheme which was launched in June 2022. However, they can also be used to ensure that submissions to other funding strands also incorporate Universal Design in Education.
