Educational Development Digest: October 2024

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By Elizabeth Harsma, Program Director for Technology Integrated Learning, Minnesota State

In last year’s Educational Development Digest, Jess Schomberg, Librarian at Minnesota State University, Mankato and I shared a two-part series on applying Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and antiracist teaching. If you’d like a review:

• Part one is an overview of Universal Design for Learning, and
• Part two shares 10 strategies for connecting UDL with antiracism and technology tools.

Gratitude to Andratesha Fritzgerald whose book Antiracism and Universal Design for Learning: Building Expressways to Success (2020) inspired and informed our work.

The UDL framework was originally developed to guide learning design to support all students, and in particular, students with disabilities. The guidelines can be applied to any discipline or domain, in teaching, working, research, and beyond (CAST, 2024).

In July 2024, CAST released the UDL Guidelines 3.0. The new guidelines build on previous iterations and intentionally include practitioners and scholars who were not previously recognized.

This is an impactful update to the framework, as the 3.0 guidelines include:

“Putting UDL in conversation with other asset-based approaches and theoretical frameworks — including pedagogies that center, value, and sustain learners’ cultural and linguistic practices — and making their intersections and complementary nature more explicit.”

The new UDL Guidelines 3.0:

• Emphasize identity as part of variability
• Acknowledge individual, institutional, and systemic biases as barriers to learning
• Emphasize the value of interdependence and collective learning, and
• Shift to learner-centered language

The UDL Guidelines 3.0 intentionally infuse culturally responsive and sustaining, antiracist, and other anti-oppressive teaching methods throughout. These updates also align the guidelines with Disability Justice principles such as intersectionality, collective access, and recognizing wholeness (Sins Invalid, 2019). In sum, the new guidelines provide concrete strategies to support equitable and accessible learning.

Here I share selected UDL 3.0 considerations as examples of how the framework intersects with and complements disability justice and anti-oppressive pedagogies:

Multiple Means of Engagement

• 7.3 Nurture joy and play
• 8.4 Foster belonging and community
• 9.2 Develop awareness of self and others

Multiple Means of Representation

• 1.3 Represent a diversity of perspectives and identities in authentic ways
• 2.4 Address biases in the use of language and symbols
• 3.3 Cultivate multiple ways of knowing and making meaning

Multiple Means of Action and Expression

• 4.1 Vary and honor the methods for response, navigation, and movement
• 5.4 Address biases related to modes of expression and communication
• 6.5 Challenge exclusionary practices

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I want to emphasize that although I’ve selected these considerations as examples, asset-based and anti-oppressive teaching methods are infused throughout the new guidelines. Feel free to browse the UDL Guidelines 3.0 or join a related NED short course:

• Equity and Technology (available in 2025, this course focuses on UDL)
• Disability Justice I (starts October 7, but look for another opportunity in 2025)

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By Brock Behling, Program Director for Instructional Technology, Minnesota State

Beginning April 24, 2026, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Title II regulations will require compliance with 12 additional success criteria that were added to the new Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.1 AA) standards for digital content.

This applies to content shared inside a D2L Brightspace course as well as publicly facing information. Minnesota State must ensure that communications, websites, documents and digital tools are accessible to all. To meet these guidelines, educators and staff can leverage a combination of automatic accessibility checkers and manual checks in commonly used platforms like Microsoft Office and D2L Brightspace.

Understanding the differences in the new WCAG 2.1 AA standards

Just like before, the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) provide a framework for making web content more accessible. These standards cover areas like:

• Perceivability: Information must be presented in ways that all users can perceive.
• Operability: Interface and navigation must be operable for users with disabilities.
• Understandability: Content should be easy to understand for most individuals.
• Robustness: Content should be accessible through a wide range of devices, including assistive technologies.

However, the 12 new criteria offer additional guidelines that further support access on mobile devices with improvements to responsive design, content layouts, and motion and gesture controls to name a few, as well as additional cognitive disabilities support with additional non-text contrast guidelines, labels in names, status messages, and text spacing explicit requirements.

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Using Automatic Accessibility Checkers

Limitations of Automatic Checkers

While Microsoft and Brightspace’s tools are highly effective for identifying some accessibility barriers, they can’t check everything needed for authoring accessible content. For example, it cannot assess whether the alternative text is descriptive or if multimedia content is appropriately captioned or even if table column or row headers are correctly identified. This is why manual checks are also necessary.

Manual Accessibility Checks in Office or Brightspace

To supplement the automatic checker, consider the following manual checks:

• Alt Text Quality: Ensure that all images, charts, and non-text elements include meaningful descriptions in the alt text field.
• Relying on Color Alone: Verify that information is not distinguished by color alone, charts and highlighting or adjusted text often need additional indications for assistive technologies to identify the different formatting attributes.
• Logical Heading Structure: Confirm that headings are structured logically, using heading styles and table formatting guides
• Descriptive Links: Ensure that hyperlinks use unique descriptive text rather than vague phrases like “click here.”
• Multimedia Content: Verify that all videos include accurate captions and transcripts.

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By implementing these checks, you are helping to create an inclusive, supportive learning environment for all students! Your effort in meeting the new WCAG 2.1 AA standards is not only a regulatory requirement starting in 2026 but also a commitment to inclusivity in education.

By combining the strengths of automatic accessibility checkers and through manual reviews, we can ensure our content is accessible to all learners! As you apply accessible design elements into your content creation and delivery, your expertise will grow and your role as an accessibility ally, champion, or mentor may change, but please stay involved in the various communities of practices to help support your work and that of others as we are all striving for fully inclusive learning opportunities.

The Network for Educational Development’s accessibility resource page has a wonderful archive of past professional development opportunities for improving access. There is a new offering about Inclusive Video Conferencing that demonstrates practical application of the WCAG principles through remote connections.

Join a Community of Practice

We have a cross-functional team of accessibility allies open to anyone interested in joining, who meet-up monthly to share their expertise and support each other in their accessibility efforts.

Minnesota State has a membership to Quality Matters which provides access to their dedicated Accessibility and Usability Resource site (AURS) which has great resources for individuals getting started, and we also partner with the Online Learning Consortium as another professional organization that supports accessibility efforts through their continued professional development webinars.

Your contributions to Minnesota State and to the global accessibility community will have impacts on the future of education. Thanks for your dedication and for continuing to be an accessibility a11y! 

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By Megan Babel, ASA Communications Coordinator, Minnesota State

You might have noticed the Minnesota State annual required trainings through ELM now include a course on “Digital Accessibility Foundations.” This course introduces the topic of disabilities and the legal requirements for higher education with a focus on reducing stigma and ableist attitudes. Attention to this material and efforts to incorporate the learning into daily work will help us to achieve a more equitable environment for our students and employees.

Those looking to further expand their knowledge of digital accessibility can also participate in Network for Educational Development (NED) accessibility-themed webinars and short courses. One exciting opportunity is an International Association of Accessibility Professionals (IAAP) webinar series that is $2,500 for non-members, but is provided to Minnesota State faculty, staff, and students at no cost, called:

Introducing the State of Higher Education Accessibility Series: Your Gateway to Digital Inclusion

New this year, Minnesota State provides organizational membership to the IAAP at no cost to faculty, staff, and students. The IAAP supports organizations and professionals with accessibility training, certifications, and networking to build skills and support organizations that incorporate accessibility into their services, products, and infrastructure.

Those interested in receiving the IAAP’s full benefits like access to certifications, educational resources, conferences, and more can sign up using the interest form on the IAAP page of ASA Connect.

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