Why Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Matters: Creating opportunities for inclusive, equitable education

This book offers a timely and valuable exploration of Universal Design for Learning as a persuasive response to widening global educational inequalities. By connecting theory, policy, and practice, it demonstrates how UDL’s flexible, learner-centred principles can aptly support inclusion, accessibility, and equity across diverse and crisis-affected educational contexts.

Prof. Dr. Roberta Facchinetti
Chair of English Language and Linguistics
University of Verona, Italy


“Why Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Matters” brings together a broad range of international scholarship to demonstrate both the ethical urgency and the practical power of UDL in contemporary education. Combining rigorous theoretical grounding with rich case studies, the volume spans higher education, assessment, language teaching, informal and technology-enhanced learning, and lifelong education for migrants and older adults. Hartle and Tenca’s edited collection shows how learner variability can be embraced as a pedagogical resource rather than a problem. The book offers educators, researchers, and policymakers a compelling, research-informed vision of inclusive and equitable education, while providing concrete strategies for removing barriers to learning in diverse global contexts.

Franca Poppi
Professor of English Linguistics and Translation
University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy


The book provides the most up-to-date investigation to date of an exciting yet still underexplored area of education: Universal Design for Learning. The breadth of topics covered is impressive. Welcome inclusions are chapters on the application of UDL to the teaching of second languages other than English. A must-read for 21st century educators at all levels!

Prof. Dr. Andrea Nava
Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy


Hartle and Tenca's volume offers a compelling exploration of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Through case studies spanning disability, assessment practices, and foreign language teaching, the book shows how UDL shifts attention from accommodating individual learners to redesigning institutional settings around learner variability. Rather than offering a single solution, the volume positions UDL as an evolving framework for negotiating equity in increasingly diverse educational contexts. As such, it is especially valuable for researchers and practitioners seeking to balance inclusion with rigor in contemporary education.

Prof. Luciana Pedrazzini
Department of Languages, Literatures, Cultures and Mediations
Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy