"Empathy Is the Anchor": Universal Design for Learning as Design Thinking

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session 1
  In Roundtable Session: Accessible Instruction and Universal Design for Learning: Research and Practice

Abstract

This paper reports findings of a six-week virtual class in the summer of 2020 for 45 educators which integrated Universal Design for Learning (UDL) with design thinking. Our approach grounds UDL in empathy, beginning design with developing understanding of student perspective. Nine months later, we conducted focus group interviews with participating classroom teachers, asking teachers how (and if) they incorporated UDL and design thinking elements into their teaching practice during the pandemic year. The teachers indicated that empathy was the anchor for their practice. Teachers reported shifts in their own deficit thinking, connecting these shifts to the focus on designing from empathy in the course. They also described UDL as a flexible process based on accessibility.

Authors

• Rachel Lambert, University of California - Santa Barbara

• Kara Louise Imm, City College of New York - CUNY

• Sunghee Choi, University of California - Santa Barbara

• Rachel Schuck, University of California - Santa Barbara

• Avery McNiff, University of California - Santa Barbara