Donata Kończyk Paweł Wdówik Podgorica 13/11/13

 functioning in special places (e.g.special schools, special sheltered workshops, special places for living);  own responsibility to go through all the barriers separating from mainstream life.

Recognizing the rights of persons with disabilities to be involved in all aspects of social life, many countries imposed legislation to regulate the responsibility for making these aspects accessible.

Modern legislations (e.g. Americans with Disabilities Act 1990,UN Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities 2006) have moved this responsibility to the governments or businesses, or any other public or private entities. But still, the process is the same: to define barriers, remove them by adapting environment or using assistive technologies allowing to break these barriers.

Assistive technologies improved access to the MANY FIELDS, INNCLUDING EDUCATION, but, like ramps in buildings, these technologies were expensive, awkward to use and they isolated learners from their peers.

Recognizing the right of persons with disabilities to access to education, many educational institutions created the special units responsible for removing existing barriers and offering the necessary support.

The responsibility for access was moved to this institutions. Lecturers, or any other decision makers did not feel responsible for guaranteeing the access to their fields or products.

The main tools guaranteeing access are:  Special units for students with disabilities  Process of adaptation to the needs of students with disabilities.

today they are diverse

 Build in accessibility from the start ◦Curb cuts ◦Ramps and automatic door openers ◦TV closed captions  Everyone benefits from a more flexible, user-friendly environment  Fix the environment, not the individual

Find examples of universal design in your own environment. Consider one or more of the work, daily activity, or home environments and find examples of universal design within the environment. How do these architectural and product prepered, that were designed to meet the needs of individuals with disabilities, benefit others?

Just as Universal Design in architecture has benefited all people with access to buildings and products, Universal Design for Learning makes learning accessible to all by applying similar basic principles.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a set of principles and techniques for creating inclusive classroom instruction and accessible course materials. “ ” teaching technology

1.Instructors represent information and concepts in multiple ways (and in a variety of formats). 2.Students are given multiple ways to express their comprehension and mastery of a topic. 3.Students engage with new ideas and information in multiple ways.

UDL takes the best practices of teaching, including differentiated instruction, and offers a framework that can help teaching staff plan more effectively from the start so they don’t have to “retrofit” their lecture after a problem occurs.

We think that the universal desing and universal design for learning is currently the best way of thinking and acting to ensure for all students, staff members get full access to the academic life.

Thank you