Accessibility in learning design is fundamentally about equity amongst all students. The first step to achieving this equity is recognizing that barriers arise for some students not only because of disability, but due to design. In the material, Kat Homes (2019) explains that “disability is a mismatch between a person’s abilities and their environment”. This statement conveys idea that disability is an accessibility issue rather than a cognitive one. Viewing disability from this perspective shifts the responsibility from the learner to the designer in order to meet diverse needs by reshaping learning environments. By using the Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework, educators can design accessible and inclusive learning experiences that accommodates learner diversity and removes barriers.

The UDL framework emphasizes that accessibility should not be an afterthought, but the core part of a design process. As a tennis coach, I mostly teach group lessons, and through reading this module I’ve realized that us coaches must apply these principles on court just as much as they do online or in a classroom. Each student of mine within a group has different strengths, learning preferences and physical abilities. By intentionally designing these lessons to account for diversity, us coaches can create a learning environment where every player feels that their learning is properly supported. For example, when putting players into drills I both describe and demo the skill, offering multiple ways to engage. Doing this I am applying UDL principles like multiple means of representation, action and expression.