Call for Book Chapters: "Why Universal Design for Learning (UDL) matters: creating opportunities for inclusive, equitable education"

Vernon Press invites book chapter proposals for a scholarly edited volume on the topic of Universal Design for Learning (UDL).  

Why UDL matters 

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a pedagogical model, which was developed by the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST). It provides a flexible framework, which, precisely because of its adaptability may be tailored to meet local educational contexts. UDL is particularly relevant in an inclusive vision of learning, and helps each learner to develop in the most advantageous way possible.  

Inclusive education is also a key element in the UN Sustainable Development Goals Report (United Nations 2022), which tracks global progress towards the seventeen goals defined in 2015 for 2030. Their fourth goal, in fact, specifies the need to ‘ensure inclusive and equitable education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’ (p. 11). UDL seeks to remove barriers to learning and to promote multiple access to knowledge and skills for learners of every type.  

Our volume seeks to explore UDL questions and foster increased visibility and awareness of the existing gaps in access to education. We hope that this will lead to further implementation of UDL, involving both learners and educators at various levels and in various contexts. 

Proposals could be related (but not limited) to the following topics: 

• Universal Design for Learning in practice 
• UDL in multilingualism/plurilingualism 
• UDL in multicultural settings 
• Focus on Higher Education contexts: Universal Design for Instruction 
• Accessibility and inclusion for everyone: removing barriers to learning 
• Learning design: spaces and ecologies
• Intersectional and evolving notions of dis/ability and its implications for distance education 
• Digital technologies for learning and teaching approaches 
• Access to knowledge and educational resources 
• Professional development for teachers (pre-service and in service): awareness of accessible, inclusive tools 
• Inclusive, accessible assessment: formative or summative 
• Usability of educational resources 
• Developing democratic citizenship 
• Equity, quality and transparency in education 
• Support for learners with dis/abilities across educational domains including informal or lifelong learning in a UDL framework 
• UDL for student or teacher mental health and wellbeing 

Deadline 

We invite submissions of chapter proposals of maximum 300 words (The complete chapter will be approx. 6,000 words in length). If interested, please submit your proposal to Sharon Hartle  at sharon.hartle@univr.it

Deadline for proposal submission: 30th September 2023