The aim of this overview is to bring to your attention the first project mentioned which is the ‘Develop a National Charter for the Implementation Universal Design in Tertiary Education (UD for 3 Charter).’

While the rise in discourse about universal design and UDL practice in tertiary education has risen markedly in recent years, there is often misconceptions about what universal design is (as distinct from UDL), a lack of national understanding about what areas of further and higher education we can apply UD approaches to, and what that would look like in practice. 

This project involves utilizing the UCD Toolkit for Inclusive Higher Education Institutions (under revision in tandem with this project) as the background to this development. The accompanying Toolkit will support ETBs and HEIs to measure their progress against 4 pillars and create a reflective action plan for future development in this area. The pillars in the toolkit address teaching & learning, student services, physical- built environment and IT/ Digital accessibility. 

The charter/toolkit will also address the systems and policies which underpin these pillars, and the output will clearly demonstrate how the implementation of universal design supports ETBs and higher education institutions to align with other national targets such as those concerning retention and learner success. 

Widening the scope from student centred learning, this charter will explore how a universal design approach can help us to support a diverse staff profile to succeed in FET and higher education. It is envisaged that on completion of the project, institutions would be encouraged to formally adopt the charter as something they are working towards, and that organizations like AHEAD could play an important national role in supporting institutions to adopt and work towards it. 

The project team also envisages this output being important in the future shaping of institutional policies and practices regarding student success and UDL.

This National Charter group has a lot of interest and input from colleagues across 10 HEIs, AHEAD, THEA and the IUA. An invitation has been extended to the USI to join this collaboration.