How to Use UDL in Instructional Design

By Marianne Meindertsma
Project management and workplace-learning professional focused on making work clearer, more effective, and slightly less chaotic.

9-minute read

Line drawing of stick figures thinking together with a light bulb in a think bubble.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) helps instructional designers plan for learner variability before it becomes a barrier. It does not require a separate course for every learner or three versions of every resource. It asks designers to keep the learning goal clear, anticipate predictable barriers, and provide purposeful ways for learners to engage with information and demonstrate progress.

That approach matters in classrooms, online courses, and workplace learning. A learner may encounter a barrier due to a disability, language background, prior knowledge, attention, technology, time, or the conditions in which learning occurs. UDL treats this variability as an ordinary design condition rather than an exception to handle after launch.

What UDL means for an instructional designer

The non-profit organization CAST (Center for Applied Special Technology) developed UDL as a framework for designing learning goals, materials, activities, assessments, and environments. The current CAST UDL Guidelines organize the framework around three principles: multiple means of engagement, representation, and action and expression (CAST, 2024). These principles serve as design lenses, not a checklist of media to add.

Universal design and UDL are related but not identical. Universal design is the broader idea of creating environments and products that are usable by as many people as possible. UDL applies inclusive-design thinking specifically to learning and seeks to optimize teaching and learning by proactively designing curricula to accommodate the natural variability of all learners (Rose et al., 2005). Its purpose is not simply to make content available; it helps learners build agency and make meaningful progress toward a defined goal.

The three UDL principles in plain language

Line drawing of a brain with zig zag lines to indicate activation

Earlier UDL literature often describes the three interconnected brain networks: affective, recognition, and strategic. CAST still uses these ideas to organize engagement, means of representation, and action and expression. They work best as a practical design model, not as three isolated systems that explain every learning difference.

Multiple means of engagement asks “why” a learner would begin, persist, and invest effort. Designers can strengthen engagement by making the purpose relevant, offering meaningful, manageable choices, supporting collaboration, and helping learners monitor progress. A crowded menu of options can create more difficulty than it resolves.

Multiple means of representation asks “what” learners will perceive and make sense of information. Useful options may include a captioned demonstration, a transcript, a labeled visual, a worked example, definitions of unfamiliar terms, or an explanation that connects new information to prior knowledge. Simply duplicating the same explanation in several formats does not guarantee understanding.

Multiple means of action and expression asks “how” learners will navigate the experience, practice, communicate, and show what they know. Options might include keyboard-compatible interactions, guided practice, planning tools, models of successful work, or different response formats when the format is not part of the learning goal.

The CAST Guidelines are organized vertically around the three UDL principles and horizontally into three rows: Access, Support, and Executive Function. Access focuses on removing immediate barriers to participation. Support addresses the scaffolds learners may need to sustain engagement and build understanding. Executive Function focuses on helping learners regulate emotions, develop knowledge, plan strategically, and act with increasing agency.

Visit the CAST download page to access CAST’s official UDL Guidelines 3.0 graphic organizer and explore the principles, guidelines, and design considerations in greater detail.

UDL and accessibility work together

Accessibility and UDL overlap, but neither replaces the other. Accessibility removes barriers that prevent people with disabilities from perceiving, operating, understanding, or interacting with content. It includes essential practices such as captions, meaningful link text, keyboard navigation, alternative text for informative images, sufficient contrast, and logically structured headings.

UDL takes a broader view of the learning experience. It examines whether learners can understand the goal, connect with the purpose, use appropriate supports, practice effectively, and demonstrate the intended learning. Accessibility is therefore a foundation for UDL, not merely a reactive compliance step. A course cannot be considered well designed under UDL if its essential content or interactions remain inaccessible.

Accommodations may still be necessary at times. For example, a learner might require assistive technology, an alternative document, or additional support that shared designs cannot provide. Although UDL can reduce common barriers and lessen the need for some individual adjustments, it does not eliminate the organization’s responsibility to offer accommodations.

A line drawing of a lightbulb and brain shaking hands

A practical example

Imagine you are designing workplace training for a new customer relationship management system. The goal is for employees to accurately enter customer records and follow the required workflow. A UDL-informed design might include:

A concise statement of the task, quality standard, and the reason the workflow matters.
A captioned screen demonstration with a transcript and a step-by-step job aid.
A practice environment where learners can try the task, receive targeted feedback, and repeat difficult steps.
Examples of common errors and a model of a correctly completed record.
Keyboard-accessible controls, readable contrast, clear focus order, and instructions that do not rely solely on color or sound.
A realistic performance check in which every learner completes the required system task.

Notice what remains constant: the performance goal. A narrated explanation may be optional, but accurately completing the system workflow is not. If an assessment aims to measure oral presentation skills, a written response changes the construct being assessed. UDL offers flexibility around unnecessary barriers while protecting the knowledge or performance the objective actually requires.

Apply UDL throughout the design process

UDL should begin during analysis and planning, but it must continue through development, implementation, and evaluation. No matter which design model you use, follow these steps throughout the project:

Analysis: Identify goals, learner contexts, technologies, and probable barriers.
Design and development: Select purposeful options, accessible formats, practice, supports, and assessments.
Implementation: Confirm that learners can find, operate, understand, and use the options provided.
Evaluation: Examine participation, performance, learner feedback, accessibility problems, and where supports should be revised.

What a UDL-informed design process looks like

A CAST project involving self-paced professional-development modules for adult education instructors offers a practical example of applying UDL from the start. Before developing the modules, the project team conducted a needs assessment that included reviewing existing research and gathering information through interviews, surveys, and online focus groups. Participants included instructors, administrators, coordinators, community-group facilitators, and state-level directors. The team then developed data-informed personas to examine how differences in experience, available technology, internet access, scheduling, and familiarity with adult learning could affect participation.

The findings helped the team identify accessibility and relevance as two priorities. To improve accessibility, the modules used predictable formats, consistent terminology, clear icons, shorter sections, highlighted concepts, captioned videos, downloadable transcripts, descriptive links, and offline-accessible materials. To improve relevance, the designers incorporated adult-education scenarios, interviews with practitioners, and activities learners could immediately apply in their own classrooms. This example demonstrates that UDL is not something added after a course has been developed. It begins with understanding the learners, their working conditions, and the barriers created by the proposed learning environment (Bastoni et al., 2024).

A starting checklist for your next project

State the learning or performance goal in observable terms.
Identify barriers in the materials, activities, environment, technology, and policies.
Use interviews, surveys, observations, or other learner research to identify constraints.
Consider whether learners have sufficient time, reliable internet access, appropriate devices, and the technical confidence required to use the learning experience.
Make essential content and interactions accessible from the start.
Provide more than one meaningful route when a single route creates an unnecessary barrier.
Keep choices aligned with the goal and explain when to use each option.
Use authentic scenarios, practitioner perspectives, and opportunities for immediate application to make the learning relevant.
Provide downloadable or offline resources when continuous access to technology or the internet isn't guaranteed.
Use examples, prompts, practice, feedback, and fading supports to build independence.
Test with diverse learners and assistive technologies before launch.
Measure whether the design improved access, participation, and performance. Then revise.

Sick figure holding a giant pencil in the air

Common misunderstandings to avoid

UDL does not specify learning styles

While learners may have preferences, designers should not label individuals as fixed visual, auditory, or kinesthetic learners or tailor instruction solely to these labels. Instead, provide different formats that enhance the content, task, context, and access requirements.

UDL is not about offering endless choices

Each option requires additional instructions, navigation, production effort, and may increase cognitive load. Provide only those options that help achieve the goal and eliminate likely barriers. Remove choices that are decorative, redundant, or hard to maintain.

UDL maintains high rigor by distinguishing core challenges from unrelated obstacles

Support tools like scaffolds, examples, accessible formats, and practice help learners without lowering standards.

UDL is not a technology feature

CAST’s early work explored how emerging technologies could expand educational opportunities for learners with disabilities. That work eventually contributed to UDL's development as a broader framework for designing inclusive learning environments. Technology offers flexibility, but inaccessible platforms can hinder learning. UDL strategies are driven by the learning goal and the learner’s context, not by a set of tools.

Benefits and limitations

Research reviews typically show positive results for UDL-based practices; however, evidence varies by setting, learner group, intervention, and research design (Rao et al., 2014). Therefore, precise wording is crucial. UDL can enhance access, participation, and learning, provided the chosen options effectively target real barriers and stay aligned with the goals. The framework alone does not guarantee better results.

Purposeful structure can reduce unnecessary mental effort. However, adding narration, animation, text, menus, and activities at the same time may increase cognitive load. Designers should favor clear organization, concise explanations, useful options, and progressive support over an abundance of media.

Common implementation challenges include time, skill, platform constraints, inconsistent facilitation, superficial checklist use, and uncertainty about which options matter. Start with one high-value course or task, identify the most consequential barriers, test with representative learners, and improve the design using evidence. UDL is a cycle of intentional design and revision, not a one-time certification.

Finally, UDL takes additional time, cost, and effort to analyze learners and design and develop learning materials, and requires more time during implementation "due to the multiple sources of teaching materials and interactions" (Kang et al., 2018).

Conclusion

Stick figure holding a lit light bulb in the air with gears in motion by his head.

UDL gives instructional designers a disciplined way to plan for variability without losing focus. Begin with a clear goal, make the experience accessible, anticipate barriers, and include only the options and supports that help learners progress. The strongest UDL designs are not those with the most formats or features. They are those in which more learners can participate, practice, and demonstrate meaningful learning without unnecessary obstacles.