UDL, JEDI & Accessibility

Three important fields are interwoven throughout teaching and learning: UDL, JEDI, and Accessibility.

1. Universal Design for Learning (UDL)

2. Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI)

3. Digital Accessibility

Each of these deserves its own introduction.

Universal Design for Learning

UDL is an inclusive strategy for developing expert learners, with no discrimination, specifically regarding a person’s potential barriers, be it abilities, experiences, or resources. UDL considers how everyone learns in conjunction with all aspects of a learning environment: from design to facilitation. UDL is an accessible, flexible, and purposeful approach for designing, building, and facilitating a learning environment that fosters expert learners without the need for further adaptation.

An overview of the UDL framework is provided on our Introduction to Universal Design for Learning page.

Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion

JEDI is an acronym that refers to issues—including actions, concerns, and developments—around Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. JEDI promotes a respectful, connected culture where past injustices are addressed, corrected, learned from, and not repeated, all while work continues to make certain that everyone is valued, is allowed to engage, and has an equal opportunity for success. JEDI extends in multiple directions: across media, workplaces, classrooms, playgrounds, governments, scientific investigations, and more. Here we concentrate on embracing JEDI in the classroom. As is the case for Universal Design for Learning, there is no checklist for JEDI. Instead, it is more of a framework for approaching classroom environments, interactions, activities, and resources.

Accessibility

Accessibility refers to the quality in which opportunities are afforded to everyone in an equitable manner. When looking at environments and experiences—including communications—in terms of accessibility, we want to know whether they are available and useable by as many people as possible without remediation or accommodations. Accommodations may still be required in some instances, but our goal is to build and maintain a learning experience that can be perceived, used, understood, and translated across users, technological platforms, and time.

Authoring Universally Accessible Materials

All faculty are asked to take an individual responsibility in maintaining a digitally accessible environment. See Creating Universally Accessible Materials: Expectations of Faculty for the initial steps JHU is asking us to take.

Going beyond the initial steps and expectations, further guidance is provided on the Authoring Accessible Materials page.