Accessible Dartmouth Initiative
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Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Institute
UDL Course Grant
Past Programming
2023 Global Accessibility Awareness Days @ Dartmouth
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The Accessible Dartmouth Initiative, a collaboration between The Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning, Student Accessibility Services, and Learning Design and Innovation (ITC) began as a three-year pilot program designed to strengthen Dartmouth's educational model to better meet the needs of neurodiverse learners and help all students succeed in the classroom.
The first program of the initiative, a course redesign grant, engages faculty in redesigning courses to incorporate the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). The national organization CAST defines UDL as "an educational approach based on the learning sciences with three primary principles—multiple means of student engagement, multiple means of representation of information, and multiple means of student action and expression." In addition to supporting student learning, UDL benefits instructors by building accessibility into the fabric of a course, thereby minimizing the need for individual student accommodations and adjustments.
The Accessible Dartmouth Initiative aims to integrate UDL into the Dartmouth curriculum to better meet the needs of all students, including neurodiverse students – those who learn differently due to conditions such as ADHD, autism, dyslexia – as well as first-generation college students, international students, English language learners, and students of other marginalized identities.