Inclusive Instructional Design

Do you design for disability or diversity? Wondering what’s the difference? Inclusive Instructional Design is a mindset that helps us design to meet the needs of all learners.

The Inclusive Design Research Center (IDRC) defines Inclusive Instructional Design (or IID) as “design that considers the full range of human diversity with respect to ability, language, culture, gender, age and other forms of human difference.”

Inclusive Design has 3 core values –

1. Awareness is recognizing and acknowledging the myriad ways learners are diverse
2. Compassion is seeking to include the needs of people different from ourselves
3. Togetherness is collaboration and sharing our successes to continually improve our processes.

As educators, we can apply these core values in our planning today through 3 subtle mind shifts.

1. Recognizing and acknowledging the diversity and uniqueness of our learners
2. Using inclusive processes in design and tools in delivery
3. Enabling a broader impact in the lives of learners, their families, and society

Recognizing & Acknowledging Diversity

One big point jumped out at me here. I’ve read the research, the books, attended the webinars, been bombarded with emails on diversity in the classroom. What resonates with IID for me is the mindset and willingness to look for hidden diversity.  The ways learners vary that aren’t being talked about in the media.  We must empower our students to recognize their own unique learning patterns, advocate for themselves, and actually use the scaffolds designed into instruction.

It’s also recognizing that some learners may feel voiceless and not respond to a teacher’s initial offers of support. Many students just yearn to be recognized and acknowledged for who they are, but they have lost faith in the educational system.

Using Inclusive Processes and Tools

Inclusion is an education buzzword that sells books and funds research. As educators, we already know that teaching to the middle is not equitable or effective. We’ve heard about student voice and choice since our first day of education classes. 

But in trying to reach our students on the fringes, how often do we plan in a vacuum guided by our own lived experience? The slogan “nothing about us without us” goes back over 500 years in politics but is equally applicable in today’s classrooms.

I’ll be perfectly transparent – I am not dyslexic. I’m a linear thinker who did not have the same experience in school as my friends and students with dyslexia. But I’ve listened to hundreds of people over 20 years who are dyslexic. Their felt needs and input inform my design.

Inclusive processes and tools go deeper that retrofitting existing curriculum with accommodations. It’s valuing the lived experience of people different from ourselves. My brother had undiagnosed learning differences which made his school experience vastly different from my own. Our race, culture, socioeconomic status, access to technology, and parents were the same. He did not have a voice in his own education and still does not understand his own learning struggles. Few people valued how he felt or considered how he learns best. Sadly, 50 years later, our students who learn differently often do not have a place at the design table.

Enabling Broader Beneficial Impact

Do you long to make an impact? Almost certainly or you wouldn’t be an educator seeking to support students with learning challenges. Using inclusive design, “a rising tide lifts all boats”. Also known as the curbcut effect, designing for inclusion usually benefits more than just the specific group targeted. (For an interesting diversion, skim the list of electronic curbcuts from the product design world and how these benefited a wide range of unintended users worldwide!)

By taking advantage of human diversity up front in the planning and design process, IID seeks to build an adaptive, responsive learning experience that empowers each learner to choose their own learning path.

Universal Design for Learning is often a method or way of doing, whereas Inclusive Instructional Design is a thinking. It’s not technology that creates barriers, it is casting a wider net in the design process that reaps the greatest rewards for learners and truly society as a whole.

“Inclusion benefits everyone, it should be everyone’s concern. In this digitally transformed reality that we live and work in – where consumption does not consume, and space has no limits – there is no downside to inclusion and it is possible to make room for us all.” – Jutta Treviranus, director of IDRC

Classroom Implementation

How can you implement this in the classroom? Intentionally seeking the input of your students and colleagues – particularly the quiet ones who struggle in silence. Many do not expect their opinion to be valued or their struggles recognized, so they won’t respond when you ask for input. Seek them out privately in a way that is comfortable for both of you.

Consider simple design choices which will impact more than just your target audience.

• Make a classroom brand kit to streamline and automatize decisions like fonts, colors, and layout. 
• Simplify your organization.
• Be direct and explicit in directions and assignments.
• Provide multiple modes of delivery, such as turning on closed captions in all videos.
• Develop a library of icons and use them consistently through your classroom, LMS, and assignments.

Most importantly, take heart! You can do this, and your students and their future selves will thank you!!