DPR News

Institution-wide approaches to embedding Universal Design with Dr Kevin Merry

22 Sep 2022
Photographed l-r: Professor Stephen Byrne, Olive Byrne, Dr Kevin Merry, Asha Woodhouse and Professor Paul McSweeney.

We welcomed Dr Kevin Merry from De Montfort University to UCC this week. He gave an insightful session on De Montfort's journey, shedding some light on how they have enabled a University-wide adoption of Universal Design for learning and teaching practices to ensure accessibility and inclusivity. It was a timely workshop as we currently work on developing our five-year strategic plan here at UCC and consider how Universal Design will play a part.

Specifically, Kevin gave insights on how entire universities can adopt accessible, inclusive, and equitable approaches to learning, teaching and assessment and, in so doing, bring about educational culture change. In 2015, De Montfort University adopted Universal Design for Learning (UDL) institution-wide in response to its exceptional level of learner diversity. UDL is an approach that incorporates a variety of options to allow it to be accessible and inclusive for diverse groups of learners possessing a wide variety of learning needs and preferences.

 

Sessions like Kevin's help us build a greater understanding of the small changes we can ALL make that compound over time to impact the student experience significantly.

 

Thanks to the Inclusive UCC project team and CIRTL for making this event happen. If you're interested in learning more, why not check out the training that Inclusive UCC is running.

Leas-Uachtarán agus Cláraitheoir/ Deputy President & Registrar

First Floor, West Wing, Main Quadrangle, UCC, T12 YN60

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