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Designing for Everyone: Inclusive Strategies in Online LearningNetworking Project Presentation by Ana Baños

Introduction

Designing for neurodiversity & cognition

What do we mean by Inclusive Design?

Teach accessibly and teach accessibility

Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

A Simple ID Workflow

Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT)

Relevance to Online Learning

Final Takeaways

Cooperative Learning

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References:

CRT: Relevance and Representation

Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT): An approach that centers learners’ identities, languages, and lived experiences to make content relevant and empowering. It diversifies materials, examples, and interactions so every student can see themselves in the learning.

• CRT connects learning to students’ lived experiences, languages, communities, and identities.

• Online, this means: diverse voices and materials, inclusive imagery/language, community-grounded prompts, and reflection.

• Toolkit framing: inclusive online teaching are intentional practices across course design, interactions, discussion, assessments.

Final Takeaways for Instructional Designers

• Design for variability: add one extra way to access and/or respond; caption videos; include alt text and transcripts; allow flexible pacing (CAST; Hogle).

• Make it culturally meaningful: use diverse sources; add a short inclusive syllabus note; ask prompts tied to students’ lives (McKenna et al.).

• Build belonging: set up guided group work with roles and simple rubrics; add short instructor videos and check-ins (Hogle).

• Reduce cognitive load: use plain words, uncluttered pages, and clear progress; let learners turn supports on/off; co-design with neurodivergent users (Washington; Brandon).

• Institutionalize accessibility: model accessible materials and also teach a quick 10-minute accessibility skill (Méndez).
• Use a repeatable process: plan with the UDL Design Cycle and note what worked using the UDL Reporting Criteria (Rao; UDL-IRN).

References used

CAST. (2018). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.2. https://udlguidelines.cast.org Hogle, P. (2019, March 20). Improve UX with accessible, inclusive eLearning design. Learning Guild. https://www.learningguild.com/articles/improve-ux-with-accessible-inclusive-elearning-design Hogle, P. (2019, October 9). Deploy tools & strategies to “humanize” online learning. Learning Guild. https://www.learningguild.com/articles/deploy-tools-strategies-to-humanize-online-learning Méndez, R. (2025, March 4). Teaching accessibly and teaching accessibility: The key to equitable education. OLC Insights. https://onlinelearningconsortium.org/olc-insights/2025/03/teaching-accessibility/ McKenna, K., Kaiser, L. M. R., Murray-Johnson, K., & Gupta, K. (2025, January). Inclusive online teaching: A toolkit. ACM eLearn Magazine. https://elearnmag.acm.org/featured.cfm?aid=3664611 Rao, K. (2024). Inclusive instructional design: Applying UDL to online learning. In Journal of Applied Instructional Design (JAID) (EdTechBooks collection). https://edtechbooks.org/jaid_10_1/preparing_teachers_f Washington, J. (2025, September 8). Designing for all minds: Practical ways to support learners with dyslexia, ADHD & other cognitive differences. Learning Guild. https://www.learningguild.com/articles/designing-for-all-minds-practical-ways-to-support-learners-with-dyslexia-adhd-other-cognitive-differences Brandon, E. M. (2024). Microsoft’s new inclusive design toolkit is designed for the brain. Fast Company. https://www.fastcompany.com/90859704/microsofts-new-inclusive-design-toolkit-designed-for-the-brain (Meyer, A., Rose, D. H., & Gordon, D. (2014). Universal Design for Learning: Theory and practice. CAST.

What do we mean when we say inclusive design?

Inclusive design is proactive barrier removal combined with the addition of flexible pathways so all learners can access, engage, and demonstrate learning. Online settings can sometimes amplify both opportunities and risks (flexibility vs. isolation, tech barriers). The goal today is to address these risks by showcasing inclusive strategies that leave no student behind.

We’ll use a balanced lens:

• UDL (access & variability)
• CRT (relevance & representation)
• Collaboration (belonging & social presence)

UDL: The Access Backbone

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a proactive design framework that builds multiple ways to engage with content, access information, and show learning from the start, reducing barriers for the widest range of learners. In practice, UDL treats accessibility as good UX, not an afterthought. Some examples of UDL Design:

• Add more than one way for learners to access & respond (e.g., captions + transcript; text + infographic; video + summary).

• Use plain language, left-aligned text, and check color contrast.

• Provide multiple ways to show learning (recorded audio, slide deck, short write-up, annotated image).

• Chunk content; include progress markers and allow users to “mark complete” any work they complete.

Use a repeatable process (so it sticks)

• Plan with a quick cycle: Set clear goals, decide how you’ll check them, then choose the teaching methods and materials (all while planning for different learners).

• Right-size the format: Chunk tasks; use asynchronous time for prep/practice and live (sync) time to connect, coach, and clarify.

• Coach with feedback: Give specific, timely, mastery focused feedback so students know what’s working and what to try next.

• Pick tools for supports: Choose tech that helps learners: text-to-speech, speech-to-text, graphic organizers/checklists, and multimodal creation (text, audio, video).

Write down what worked: Briefly document your design and results so you can improve next time (use a simple UDL checklist or the UDL Reporting Criteria).

Design for different brains

• Don’t guess or label people. Make the course easy to read, easy to move through, and easy to pause and return to. Use short chunks and quick reviews. These are simple things that help everyone.

• Keep the workload in line with how much focus it takes.

• Identify what the learner needs to accomplish right now, keep instructions clear, and co-design/collect feedback to keep the task manageable.

• Easy change: use plain language, left-aligned text, strong color contrast, clear progress markers, optional audio narration, and simple “choose-your-path” activities.

Introduction

This presentation will also explore some current ideas around neurodiversity, humanized online learning, and cognitive-inclusive UX. The goal: To provide practical strategies that can be used immediately. Author: Ana Baños

This presentation explores three complementary approaches to inclusion in Instructional design for eLearning:

• Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
• Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT)
• Collaborative Learning

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Importance to online learning

Bottom line: inclusion isn’t an add-on. It’s how we design.

Inclusion increases engagement, retention, and satisfaction (Hogle, 2019) and is a core part of quality instructional design (standards, UX, ethics). Online learners are diverse and often feel “unseen,” so intentional inclusive design helps reduce barriers like isolation, low bandwidth at home/older devices, language differences, disability, and heavy executive-function demands (McKenna et al., 2025; Washington, 2025).

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Collaborative Learning: Build belonging

Collaborative Learning: Structured peer-to-peer interaction where learners co-construct knowledge through discussion, feedback, and shared tasks. Done well, it builds social presence and belonging. These are key drivers of motivation and persistence online.

• Collaboration humanizes online learning and reduces isolation.

• Practical moves: structured discussions, transparent rubrics for peer feedback, low-stakes group tasks, and short video presence touches.

• “Humanizing tools” buffet: VoiceThread, Padlet, screencasts, micro-videos that are used intentionally to build instructor presence and community.

Teach Accessibly and teach accessibility

• Teach accessibly: captions, alt text, shared slides in advance, flexible assessments.
• Teach accessibility: add a 10-minute micro-lesson on alt text, color contrast, or captions in your course.(Méndez, 2025).

• Both are needed for equity and workforce relevance.