Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

Explore an example from higher education

Reflect on the following example from higher education.

Session/Trimester 1: a reactive approach

A lecturer convenes a course with 400 students, offering both on‑campus and online tutorials. Each week, 20–30 students email to say they missed class due to illness, unexpected circumstances, or work commitments. They ask how they can access the learning they’ve missed. The lecturer responds by sending tutorial slides and offering to answer questions.

This reactive approach takes significant time and energy. It also places pressure on students who worry about falling behind when missed content contributes directly to assessments. Slides alone provide only fragments of what occurred in class; students miss the explanations, examples, and peer discussions that build deeper understanding. These barriers disproportionately affect students navigating health issues, crises, or financial constraints that force them to prioritise paid work over attendance.

The key takeaway: reactive support isn’t seamless. It can also create stress and workload.

The lecturer wondered, what if predictable barriers like these were reduced before students encountered them and before staff needed to respond individually?

Session/Trimester 2: a proactive approach

The following trimester, the lecturer convenes the same course with a new cohort of 400 students. They can predict that not all students will be able to attend the live classes and will need equitable access to learning. This trimester, they record one of the online tutorials each week and upload the recording to the learning management system.

Instead of dozens of weekly emails about missing class, the lecturer receives courtesy messages from students explaining their absence and confirming they will catch up by watching the recording. Student feedback informed them that students knew that even if something unexpected happens, they will still have access to the learning, reducing stress in those moments. For those attending live classes, the recordings also become a valuable study aid, helping support their note‑taking or enabling them to revise aspects of the tutorial they were unsure of.

The key takeaway: proactive design reduces barriers for all.

By proactively reducing a predictable barrier, the lecturer has created a more inclusive, flexible learning environment that benefits the entire cohort. Proactively considering how a diverse range of students can access, participate, and truly engage in learning can reduce barriers and strengthen opportunities for all. This way of thinking is what a universal design for learning approach is all about.

Explore an example from Vocational Education and Training (VET)

Reflect on the following example from Vocational Education and Training (VET).

Term 1: a reactive approach

A trainer is delivering a blended trade qualification where they will demonstrate practical tasks. They demonstrate the task and describe the key features, however, they find students forget the skills and processes quickly once the demonstration is complete. This is especially the case where a task may involve multiple steps or complex processes. As a result, students often feel anxious or frustrated when engaging in the practical activities themselves and need lots of support from the trainer who must re-demonstrate various aspects to individual students and groups.

Key takeaway: reactively managing barriers within the task increases the energy and effort required for trainers and students.

The trainer wondered, what if predictable barriers like these were reduced before students encountered them and before staff needed to respond individually?

Term 2: a proactive approach

A trainer is delivering a blended trade qualification where they will demonstrate practical tasks for students to learn from. Recognising that it can be challenging for students to remember complex skills and processes without scaffolded support, the trainer records the demonstrations of practical tasks and provides visual guides alongside written instructions. Having access to these means students can revisit the materials before attending workshops, reducing reliance on memory and supporting their preparation for practical activities. Having the recording and visual guides to complement the written descriptions of the skills and processes means that there are multiple entry points for learners to perceive and engage with the tasks being demonstrated. The trainer finds that students are more comfortable engaging in the practical tasks and that the trainer spends less time repeating the initial demonstrations and more time assisting students to refine specific aspects of the practical tasks.

The key takeaway: proactive design enhances opportunities to perceive, understand, and engage with new skills and knowledge

Explore the relevance of UDL to higher education

UDL has become an increasingly prominent focus in Australian higher education as national policy, funding reforms, and advocacy have converged to push universities toward more proactive, systemic inclusion. The Universities Accord process brought about strong discussion about increasing access to learning for students, including people with disability. In parallel, the Australian Government has quadrupled the Disability Support Fund (DSF) and, for the first time, made UDL implementation an eligible funded activity. This policy shift signals a move away from reliance on individual reasonable adjustments, which can only be implemented for eligible students, toward proactive, curriculum‑level design which seeks to reduce barriers to learning and strengthen learning opportunities for the whole student cohort.

Sector-wide stocktakes, such as the ACSES Insights Report on Disability in Higher Education (2026) , further highlight the need for consistent, transparent institutional approaches to inclusion and identify UDL as a key mechanism for reducing structural barriers across universities. For example, proactively considering the accessibility of university documents and teaching and learning materials.

In higher education, UDL is applicable not only to teaching and learning, but to the culture, environment, systems and processes across institutions. The goal is for higher education to be equitable, inclusive, and accessible for all by anticipating learner diversity and reducing barriers in the environment. Recent frameworks such as the UDL Campus Implementation Criteria available via CAST remind us that higher education can continually improve to reduce systemic barriers and increase opportunities for all.

Higher education includes a broad diversity of students including recent and non-recent school leavers, students who may be first in their family to attend higher education, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, varying socio-economic and culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, people with disability, neurodivergent learners, people from remote, rural or isolated areas, and various other identities and perspectives which intersect in different ways. Anticipating systemic barriers and proactively reducing these can mean more equitable opportunities where students’ diverse experiences are welcomed and valued.

Explore the relevance of UDL to the VET sector

In the Vocational Education and Training (VET) sector, Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is increasingly relevant as providers respond to growing learner diversity, evolving regulatory expectations, and the need to support successful workforce participation. VET serves one of the most diverse learner populations in Australia, including learners with disability, First Nations learners, culturally and linguistically diverse learners, neurodivergent learners, mature-age learners, and those balancing work, family, and caring responsibilities. The relevance of UDL has been further strengthened by the introduction of the 2025 Standards for Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) , which place a strong emphasis on learner-centred practice, accessibility, diversity, inclusion, and support throughout the learner journey.

UDL aligns closely with the 2025 Standards for RTOs by providing a framework for designing learning experiences that are flexible, engaging, and responsive to learner variability from the outset. VET often includes workshops, laboratories, simulated environments, work placements, apprenticeships and traineeships and UDL is relevant across these learning environments, supporting participation and access throughout the learner journey. UDL can help VET practitioners (trainers, assessors, and learning designers) design assessment approaches that maintain the integrity of competency requirements while providing multiple opportunities for learners to demonstrate their skills and knowledge. This supports equitable participation without compromising training package or regulatory requirements. VET registered training providers often focus on learner progression, retention, completions and successful transitions to employment. By reducing avoidable barriers, UDL can support learner engagement, persistence and completion, contributing to better educational and employment outcomes. By embedding UDL across the learning experience, VET providers can create more inclusive and supportive pathways that foster learner confidence, persistence, and success while maintaining the vocational relevance and industry authenticity that are central to high-quality VET.

Acknowledgements

This page was reviewed and developed by Elizabeth Hitches, University of Queensland, with special thanks to Mr John Fardoulis, TAFE NSW and Trina Bianchini, TAFE SA, for VET insights and perspectives.