Designed for Difference: Technology Through a UDL Lens

Use CAST UDL Guidelines 3.0 to examine how technology can reduce barriers, widen access and support learner agency without lowering the learning goal.

• Start with variability, not the app — Identify barriers in the learning environment before choosing a technology response.
• Technology and engagement — Use digital choice, relevance and collaboration to support purposeful engagement rather than novelty.
• Technology and representation — Use digital media and accessible formats to support perception and meaning-making without creating multimedia overload.
• Technology and action & expression — Widen the ways learners interact, create and communicate while keeping evidence aligned to the goal.
• Design the barrier out — Apply a practical UDL technology audit to a lesson before learners encounter the barriers.
• Support access without creating dependency — Distinguish enduring accessibility supports from temporary scaffolds and use each intentionally.
• Build agency around technology support — Help learners recognise, select and evaluate the supports that help them reach a learning goal.