What is the relationship between Assistive Technology and Universal Design?

Understanding the Relationship between Assistive Technology and Universal Design

To better understand the difference and the relationship between assistive technology (AT) and Universal Design (UD) we must first understand their definitions.

Assistive technology in the digital age goes beyond eyeglasses, canes, and wheelchairs. The more high-tech kind includes newer technologies that made a particularly dramatic impact on education.


The following are good examples of AT designed for a specific set of individuals:
- For people with physical disabilities, there are alternative keyboards and electronic mobility switches.
- For individuals with visual impairment, there are text-to-speech readers and computer screen enlargers.
- For those with hearing disabilities, there are signing avatars and electronic sign language
dictionaries.
- For people with learning disabilities there are spell checkers and calculators.

With the availability of this computer-based AT, overcoming barriers to educational access, progress and participation is made easier. ECTACenter

Universal Design for Learning (UDL), on the other hand, is relatively new to education and learning. This is why there's a lack of differentiation and clarity regarding its role in education, and how it addresses individual differences and disabilities. By definition, however, UDL is a process of designing products or structures that will help reduce the barriers among individuals, with disabilities or otherwise. This is why it has to be flexible, variable, universal and inclusive.

Based on the definition, AT and UD are two different things. But they can be made to complement each other or provide support, especially in the learning environment.

The relationship between Assistive Technology and Universal Design for Learning 

Take, for example, a student studying history. Because the resources are predominantly text-based and the assessment requires lots of writing, students with visual disabilities would struggle to complete the course. Looking at the situation on an AT perspective, the problem can be considered an individual concern. But, on a UDL perspective, the problem is perceived as relative to the environment. If the curriculum is delivered through digitally, universally designed media, students will have access to a flexible curriculum. Digital text for students with dyslexia. Digital videos or images, complete with descriptions and captions, for students with language-based disabilities and are deaf.

In a webinar participated by special education directors, and sponsored by Presence Learning, one speaker outlined the commonalities between Assistive Technologies and Universal Design for Learning (UDL). One of these is about the potential of AT “to be part of the initial planning and design of learning settings” of UDL. After all, it provides the resources necessary for UDL to expand.

She further explained the relationship of UDL as multiple means of Representation, Engagement, and Expression with AT Tools for Access. Representation in UDL is made more accessible to students with learning disabilities through the use of AT tools for access that depict “concepts through visual support”. Getting students engaged in the classroom with the means of using access tools for learning and other means that will make a curriculum engaging. Expression in UDL will be made easier through the use low to high-tech communication devices that will enable students to express themselves “through pointing, through gesturing, through eye gaze”.

It is possible to use AT and UDL separately, but they work better when combined, especially with AT used at the start of the UDL process.