By Abigail Higgins
Instructional Technologies Committee
PDF Version of Spring 2026 Tips and Trends
Overview and Definition
Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an approach to instructional design positing that learning experiences should be designed from the ground up to be accessible to and inclusive of all learners. It is based on the broader principle of Universal Design (UD), originally tied to product and building design, which suggests that rather than removing barriers after the fact, designs should omit them from the start. In UD, this might mean planning a building entrance with a ramp instead of stairs. In UDL, an example might be creating instructional videos with usable captions, benefiting users with hearing impairments or in distracting environments. The UDL Guidelines, published by educational nonprofit CAST, suggest three categories through which instructors should offer multiple options for diverse learners: engagement, representation, and action and expression. This provides the flexibility in learning styles and interactions enabling students to acquire knowledge in the ways that suit them best.
Why Do You Need to Know?
Employing UDL principles in library instruction benefits users with disabilities and specialized learning needs. Ensuring digital teaching materials such as research guides, PowerPoints, tutorials, videos, and other resources are accessible helps users navigate content without needing assistive technology or other interventions. Moreover, with existing federal guidelines mandating accessibility, keeping UDL in mind will help librarians create content that is legally compliant and does not require remediation.
However, UDL goes beyond simple accessibility, encompassing a broader recognition that students approach learning from different cultural backgrounds, viewpoints, and life experiences. UDL encourages clarity, flexibility, and support, which is especially significant for academic libraries, which encounter a wide range of learners. This approach suggests learners flourish when goals are clear, language and assumptions are unbiased, content is customizable, and students are challenged and supported within structured pathways. Unlike traditional college course instruction, much library instruction happens in the one-shot or asynchronous context, where librarians may not be familiar with the specific needs or prior knowledge of the students they teach. Designing learning experiences and tools in such a way that they meet students where they are benefits all learners by making learning more approachable and transparent.
Current Applications in Libraries and Higher Education
Current applications of UDL within library instruction vary, depending on the type and format of teaching involved. Even one-on-one interactions such as reference interviews and consultations can be reframed as scaffolded, accessible experiences, where librarians go out of their way to reduce barriers to student learning. Reducing the use of jargon, giving students autonomy in how they access resources and tools, bridging cultural difference by sharing information in multiple ways and through diverse examples, and offering more streamlined scheduling processes and accommodation requests can reduce students’ anxiety around these transactions and promote deeper learning (Cornwell 2024; Loewen et al. 2024).
In large-group settings such as information literacy (IL) workshops and courses, instructors can apply many of these same principles. Librarians may keep language simple and explain new terms, use culturally diverse teaching examples, utilize a range of formats (text, video, audio, etc.) as they teach, and offer students flexibility in the roles they take in classroom participation. Class goals should be transparent, desired outcomes explicit, teaching materials available to students, and clarification provided throughout.
Pionke and Rutledge (2021) discuss UDL alongside Universal Design for Instruction (UDI). UDI focuses explicitly on guiding principles within an instruction context, offering practical suggestions such as those above for instruction librarians to employ in the classroom. For example, within the one-shot context, UDL can be helpful and may entail small teaching practices such as welcoming students, using polling software to increase interaction options, making it easy to reach out for help, and having clear learning goals resulting from structured lesson plans (McMullin 2022).
UDL also meshes nicely with asynchronous instructional settings, including the digital learning objects that such teaching contexts often necessitate. Offering workshops in online, hybrid, or asynchronous formats allows learners the flexibility they may need to engage with library instruction on their own time, at their own pace, and in alignment with their individual schedules (Dale & Harlow, 2024). Self-paced learning benefits students with learning differences as well as adult learners with busy schedules.
Interactive tutorials, designed through software such as LibWizard, can help instructors apply UDL principles such as scaffolded or chunked learning; accessible content; clear guidelines, goals, and feedback; and multimedia interactions – which can then be utilized as standalone modules or within a flipped classroom approach (Ruggiero 2024). Webb & Hoover (2015) utilized UDL guidelines to transition a biology LibGuide to an interactive tutorial using visual, auditory, kinesthetic (or interactive), and textual elements. They then also took the extra step of assessing the tutorial’s usability through tests by students with learning disabilities. UDL-based tutorials and librarian presence can encourage students to reach out for help, reflect on their own learning, and access resources in multiple modalities, especially when integrated into a campus learning management system (LMS) (Hays & Handler 2020).
Even static learning objects like LibGuides and other forms of research guides can employ UDL-based practices such as accessible design and interactive features, uniform appearance, and offering multiple methods of engagement with library help options (Kehoe & Bierlein 2024). Learners benefit from flexible, accessible, inclusive, and thoughtfully-designed resources across format and context.
Potential Hurdles
For multimedia content such as videos and online tutorials, providing equitable access to students may require additional software and technical know-how. Videos and audio need captions or transcripts, adding another step to creation. However, existing accessibility guidelines stipulate this accommodation regardless. Many production tools, such as Panopto, Camtasia, or Adobe products, incorporate captioning features. Additionally, some free tools for ensuring digital accessibility are available, such as the WAVE web accessibility evaluation tools, and Springshare or LMS platforms like Canvas may have built-in accessibility checkers. Still, at times, libraries may need to purchase new tools, and designers will have to learn new skills.
Providing multiple means of engagement with content may also mean more work for librarians. If content is replicated across formats, each step requires intentionality. For example, presenting content within a single tutorial in video, text, and interactive learning objects requires scripting materials that overlap enough to accomplish shared learning goals, without being overly redundant, so learners remain engaged. Lesson plans, likewise, need to create flexibility and choice, and librarians need to think beyond their own background and experiences, demanding time and effort. Ultimately, however, this output can reinforce student learning by creating more scaffolded learning experiences.
Conclusion
Application of UDL in the library instruction context is a growing trend. Much of the relevant library literature of the last 5 years comments on the lack of current integration of UDL into IL instruction; however, the literature also argues that the two are a natural fit. Librarians regularly teach audiences with a wide range of backgrounds, experiences, preconceptions, and learning needs. Especially with the growth of neurodivergent students within higher education, designing learning experiences that meet students where they are can only enhance library instruction’s impact. Already, librarians often take steps to make complex concepts simple and understandable to students, and IL instruction best practices encourage offering students a range of opportunities for engagement. With accessibility mandates in place as well, much of the work of UDL-based instruction is already theoretically underway in many libraries; it needs, however, to be formalized and made more explicit. Regular reflection, rubrics for assessment, and incorporation of student feedback, coupled with greater intentionality in librarians’ adherence to UDL guidelines, can help librarians move toward a more rigorous implementation that will help academic librarians cultivate students’ IL skills.
Tools Discussed
CAST Universal Design for Learning Guidelines, version 3.0
References
Cornwell, Mary Margaret. 2024. “Reaching All Researchers: Working with Student Disability Services to Create Accessible Research Services.” In Universal Design for Learning in Academic Libraries: Theory into Practice, edited by Danielle Skaggs and Rachel M. McMullin. ACRL.
Dale, Jenny, and Samantha Harlow. 2024. “From Theory into Practice: Using UDL to Move Library Instruction and Support Online.” In Universal Design for Learning in Academic Libraries: Theory into Practice, edited by Danielle Skaggs and Rachel M. McMullin. ACRL.
Hays, Lauren, and Katelyn Handler. 2020. “Good Design Is Universal: Using Universal Design Principles to Promote Self-Regulated Learning in Learning Management Systems When Teaching Information Literacy.” Journal of Library & Information Services in Distance Learning 14 (2): 127–40. https://doi.org/10.1080/1533290X.2020.1828219.
Kehoe, Lauren, and Iris Bierlein. 2024. “Applying Universal Design for Learning to LibGuides.” Choice 360, June 17. https://www.choice360.org/libtech-insight/applying-universal-design-for-learning-to-libguides/.
Loewen, Hannah, Gwendolyn B. Peart, Bethany Radcliffe, and Garrett B. Trott. 2024. “UDL and the Reference Interview.” In Universal Design for Learning in Academic Libraries: Theory into Practice, edited by Danielle Skaggs and Rachel M. McMullin. ACRL.
McMullin, Rachel M. 2022. “Universal Design and Library One-Shot Instruction.” Public Services Quarterly 18 (3): 177–89. https://doi.org/10.1080/15228959.2021.2009406.
Pionke, Jj, and Lorelei Rutledge. 2021. “Using Universal Design for Instruction to Make Library Instruction Accessible.” Reference & User Services Quarterly 59 (3/4): 161–64.
Ruggiero, Madeline. 2024. “Implementing UDL Using an Interactive LibWizard Tutorial to Reach the Needs of Community College Students.” In Universal Design for Learning in Academic Libraries: Theory into Practice, edited by Danielle Skaggs and Rachel M. McMullin. ACRL.
Webb, Katy Kavanagh, and Jeanne Hoover. 2015. “Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in the Academic Library: A Methodology for Mapping Multiple Means of Representation in Library Tutorials.” College & Research Libraries 76 (4): 537–53. https://doi.org/10.5860/crl.76.4.537.
Further Reading
Keeping Up With…Universal Design for Learning
Publication Information
Tips and Trends, written by Instructional Technologies Committee members, introduces and discusses new, emerging, or even familiar technology which can be applied in the library instruction setting. Issues are published 4 times a year.
©2026 ACRL Instruction Section. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. If you reuse this work, please attribute to the author(s) and include a link to the ACRL Instruction Section’s website.
Cite this article: Higgins, Abigail. 2026. “Universal Design for Learning.” Tips and Trends. ACRL Instruction Section, Spring. https://bit.ly/tipsandtrendssp26
