The term Universal Design initially originated in the field of architechture design as a way to describe creating building designs that incorporated features that helped accommodate those with disabiities and also were useful to those without disabilities.  Consider how helpful having automatic doors are when your hands are full or how nice it is to have slopped sidewalks at corners if you are pushing a stroller.  These are all benefits of UD.  The same idea can be applied to the classroom when we begin to make accommodations that are often availble to student with disabilities to all students in the classroom.  Creating videos with closed captioning, having electronic textbooks that have an e-reader feature can be very helpful if one needs to view a video where having the sound on might not be appropriate or if they need to read a chapter while driving to and from school.

Technology has allowed for more incorporation of UD into the classroom.  Below I present a table of just a few common classroom issues that might benefit from a UD approach.  I present a low-tech, medium-tech, and high-tech approach.