UDL Helping Learners Learn

The first time I heard of UDL was in the Spring of 2011. At first I thought they were talking about UL (Underwriters Laboratories) This is the group that safety tests many items in the US. That is why you often so the label that I have on the right side of my introduction. Boy was I wrong. While UL is a very worthwhile group providing a very beneficial service, it is not the topic of this blog post. This post is discussing Universal Design for Learners.

You have probably heard of things being ADA compliant, or compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act. It is why there are cutouts at curbs, handicapped parking, requirements for elevators in buildings, closed caption, and many more requirements to make things accessible for the handicapped. UDL is very similar to the ADA. Although it is not a requirement, it is growing in popularity as education continues to educate all students, regardless of their physical or mental differences.

As UDL grows in use throughout the country, so does the ease of integrating it into your classroom instruction. Living in these technologically booming times, there are a number of resources available to instructors to assist in creating a UDL classroom. One such device is the iPad. In this post, I will look at a number of apps that can be used to help teachers be more UDL compliant.

App	Price	Description
AudioNote Lite	Free	AudioNote Lite is an app that can support a broad range of students who need to record audio of what is spoken in the classroom but who also need to create visuals to understand and interpret what is being said. So this app has the ability to take notes, record audio, draw and highlight important information in the notes.
DAF Assistant	$12.99	DAF Assistant can be used by people who stutter to control their speech fluency, slow down speech rate, increase confidence level, and develop good speaking habits. It is known fact that people with stuttering problem usually speak better when do it together with another speaker. This, so called "chorus effect", causes significant increase in speech fluency. Delayed auditory feedback and Frequency-shifting Auditory Feedback simulate chorus effect by changing your own voice.
Decible	$0.99	Decible is an app that can measure the volume in your classroom. If you have students who are sensitive to noise, use this tool to measure the room sounds and as a reminder to other students just how loud things are getting. Very useful for students with Asperger's Syndrome or Autism.
Expressive	$25.99	Expressive is an entry to mid level, easy to use, and powerful app that allows children and adults with a speech impairment or a communication disorder to express their wants and needs through the use of pictures. It does not matter if an individual is having difficulty communicating due to autism, apraxia, stroke or any other communication disorder, Expressive will give that person the ability to express themselves through the use of pictured images and corresponding audio..
Grace	$37.99	Grace is a non-speaking, simple picture exchange system developed for people with Autism to communicate their needs independently. Users can select pictures to form a semantic sentence which they can then share, by tilting the iPhone or iPod touch to create a full screen view, and pointing at each card to hear the listener read each word. The cards are large enough on iPad not to need the full screen view. With practice, the user learns to attempt their own vocalisations with the pictures serving as a back-up or prompt. The goal of the Grace App is to encourage independent social interaction with the user taking control of what they want to say.
iCommunicate	$49.99	iCommunicate lets you design visual schedules, storyboards, communication boards, routines, flash cards, choice boards, speech cards, and more. It is customizable to your needs. For use with nonverbal students to aid in their communication.
iMean	$4.99	iMean is an app that is dedicated to text and the subtleties of expression and immense developmental potential that using text and formulating thoughts offers many people on the autistic spectrum.
iSign	$4.99	iSign is an ANIMATED phrase book of 800 American Sign Language (ASL) gestures. Each of the gestures is modeled with a 3D character and completely animated. The vantage point for each sign was chosen so that the user can see the details of the hand positions. These are the ASL signs, not finger spellings.
iSpeak Spanish	$1.99	iSpeak Spanish is an app that helps teachers work with the non English speakers in their classroom. In Iowa we have a growing number of Hispanic students. This app does not make a teacher a fluent speaker of Spanish, but it helps those who do not speak any.
iSpeech	Free	iSpeech is an app that allows the user to type in text and listen. iSpeech converts text to speech with the best sounding voices anywhere. Simply enter any text and iSpeech will instantly read the words.
iTranslate	Free	iTranslate is the first real Universal Translator. Have students who do not speak English or are not fluent in the language. iTranslate can assist a teacher in communicating with these students. Although not all languages are available, more are being added all the time.
Prologuo2go	$189.99	Proloquo2Go provides a full-featured augmentative and alternative communication solution for people who have difficulty speaking. It provides natural sounding text-to-speech voices (CURRENTLY AMERICAN, BRITISH and INDIAN ENGLISH ONLY), high resolution up-to-date symbols, powerful automatic conjugations, a default vocabulary of over 7000 items, advanced word prediction, full expandability and extreme ease of use.
UDLinks	Free	UDLinks is an app is for teachers and parents to search for content specific online teaching resources aligned with Universal Design for Learning. Users can complete a "Class Profile" narrowing the resources by content, grade level and topic. When prompted, questions in the profile tool narrow the search further by asking questions aligned with UDL. In the resources section of the app, teachers can search for lesson plans, multimedia, practice, games, tutorials or by topic and unique search terms. As users navigate the resources, they can save as favorites, share and view on their mobile device. The app also has a section for Universal Design for Learning linking teachers and parents with resources shared directly on the CAST website.
YesNo HD	$3.99	YesNo HD was designed with one purpose in mind - To provide an easy to use, affordable way for a nonverbal student with autism and motor planning issues to communicate with those around them. The App includes customizable buttons with text and pictures.

This is a short list of possible applications to help techers create UDL lessons and UDL classrooms. Each app has a number of different uses and non are perfect for every situation. UDLinks would be a great starting point as it is going to aid teachers in using tools they may not know exist.

Hopefully this post has given you a little insight into the world of UDL. If interested in learning more, please visit the Center for Applied Special Technology website for more information.