Inclusion in the post-secondary sector: not quite there yet!

There has obviously been monumental progress achieved over the last two decades in the area of inclusion in the post-secondary sector.  Most of these efforts, however, have been directed at addressing the needs of students with disabilities, and have been developed using a deficit model view which perpetuates the myth of the ‘traditional learner’.

A shift is currently occurring as the sector realizes that (i) students with disabilities are not the only non-traditional learners, (ii) there is a wide spectrum of diverse learners in post-secondary education, (iii) teaching and learning has thus far been teacher-centric and has perpetuated the fictional notion of ‘teaching to the curve’, and (iv) diverse learners actually represent a now very vocal majority that demands a culture change.

This realization comes with significant repercussions in relation to leadership, strategic planning, and management of change within the post-secondary sector.  The development and implementation of frameworks for inclusion, such as Universal Design for Learning, have thus far been left to accessibility services – a move so inherently contradictory that it can only lead to the failure of these initiatives.  It is time for senior administration in post-secondary institutions and governmental departments to develop policies that will be sustainable, systemic, and sufficiently sophisticated to address the complexity of change in what are large and complex organizations. 

Besides, if diversity is more than just about impairment, the natural conclusion which flows from this newly gained awareness is that a variety of services and stakeholders must necessarily be involved in the process of implementing UDL – specifically all stakeholders who support the needs and the perspective of international students, second language learners, first generation students, Indigenous students, students facing socio-economic challenges, LGBTQ2S+ learners.  

It is in this context that I am delighted to be collaborating with SIHO, in Belgium, to offer an 8 webinar series entitled ‘Inclusive Universities’ which is running from December 2020 to July 2021 and which aims to highlight and address many of these challenges.  The series celebrates successes with regards to Inclusion in the field of post-secondary education, assesses current hurdles, and highlights very specific opportunities that will be immediately relevant to participants and their respective institutional contexts.    For more details on the webinar series, please visit: https://www.siho.be/en/towards-genuinely-inclusive-universities .  The Support Centre Inclusive Higher Education (SIHO), based in Belgium, serves both policy makers and higher education institutions in the development and implementation of equity and inclusion measures for inclusive higher education.  It is involved in the development of UDL on a European Union scale.

Join us on Thursday, 14 January 2021, from 15.30 to 17.00 CET for the second of these webinars; the topic this month is “Universal design as an institutional approach: international good practices”.  It will introduce case studies from universities where a universal design for learning (UDL) strategy has been embedded at institutional level. The webinar will discuss European examples of institutional implementation of inclusive practices, notably UDL, across curriculum development, teaching and learning. A number of examples of cross-campus implementation in North America will also be explored.

To register, visit: https://www.siho.be/nl/universal-design-institutional-approach-international-good-practices