The curb cuts encountered in daily walks around the neighborhood and door handles in place of door knobs are examples of universal design in architecture. Built into the design is an accommodation that can benefit users with a wide variety of abilities. Curb cuts benefit not only individuals in wheelchairs but bicyclists and parents pushing strollers. Door handles benefit not only those with neuromuscular
weakness or discoordination but those trying to enter a room with arm- loads of groceries. Universal design for learning (UDL) builds in such accommodations.
In the same fashion, by designing instruction to accommodate a wide variety of learners at the outset, instructors have a chance to ben- efit all learners, and the accommodations that once seemed burden- some become standard operating procedure. The Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) describes three components of UDL: mul- tiple means of representation for information acquisition, multiple means of expression for demonstrating what one knows, and multiple means of engagement to increase the motivational incentive across a variety of participants.
Honors directors have several online information resources available for use in faculty support, which are summarized in Table 1. As Sheryl Burgstahler observes, employing strategies such as captioning video or other presentation forms not only provides the hearing-impaired stu- dent with access but also assists students whose first language is not English, who may have a learning disability, or who may simply be lis- tening in a noisy environment.
The National Collegiate Honors Council proclaims in its character- istics of a fully developed honors program that honors programs should be incubators for educational innovation. In fact, the first characteris- tic is that it should be “set up to accommodate the special needs and abilities of the undergraduate students it is designed to serve” (NCHC). Honors programs must extend the consideration of special needs beyond intellectual giftedness by considering the disabilities, hidden and otherwise, that characterize increasing numbers of undergradu- ates both in and out of honors. Effective outreach and support of stu- dents with dual exceptionalities provide an excellent opportunity for challenging the status quo and fulfilling these fundamental character- istics as articulated by NCHC. Doing so requires engagement of both the faculty and the students; improving the rate at which students with disabilities are invited to participate in honors is a first step, but only the first step, in promoting that engagement.
Clearly, the honors program is no substitute for the office for dis- abilities; however, cooperation and communication between these offices have great potential. Collaborative faculty development with fol- low-up opportunities for reflection on and conversation about these issues would do much to broaden the concept of honors education and enhance its accessibility, not only to the next Einstein but to all students who are eager to achieve.
Notes
1Some of the examples provided here were no longer as cited when
this paper was undergoing final preparation for publication in 2010. As a methodological note, these results, based on a study of 2007 website content, should be interpreted as one snapshot of a changing landscape.
Table 1. Online Resources for Universal Design in Higher Education
Center and URL
Association for Higher Education & Disability <http://www.ahead.org> Center for Applied Special Technology
<http://www.cast.org> Ohio State University, FAME: Faculty & Administrator Modules in Higher Education <http://www.oln.org/ILT/ ada/Fame>
University of Connecticut, FacultyWare <http://www. facultyware.uconn.edu> University of North Carolina, Universal Design Education Online <http://www.udeduca tion.org/teach/teaching_tech niques/index.asp>
Washington University DO-IT Center <http://www.washing ton.edu/doit> Resources Professional development, workshops, conferences, publications. Professional development, publications, products for web access and electronic readers. Online modules on disability rights, universal design, web accessibility, college writing, climate assessment.
Instructional freeware: repos- itory of inclusive instructional strategies with juried ratings. Primarily a site for universal design in architecture, this page offers teaching techniques that accommodate teachers and students with disabilities and unique learning styles.
Resources for a wide variety of college issues: classrooms, laboratories, webpages, libraries, and student services. Materials may be duplicated.
2The original work of Hans Asperger was lost to World War II Vienna
and remained unknown until reprinted by Uta Firth in 1991.
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