From Checklists to Mindsets: My Journey Toward Inclusive Learning Design

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Why Inclusive Learning Design (ILD) Matters

Before LDT 508, I assumed “accessibility” was a checklist of tactical tweaks—write alt text, turn on captions, call it done. Halfway through the course, that definition felt embarrassingly narrow. Inclusive Learning Design is strategic, not tactical. It asks at every milestone: “Who is excluded if we build this the easy way?”. It grounds the answer in recognized standards such as the POUR principles of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (World Wide Web Consortium [W3C], 2018).

A practical example: when I use actual, nested headings, I satisfy WCAG 2.1 Guideline 1.3.1 — Info & Relationships (W3C, 2018) and help the busy parent skimming on a phone. The same semantic HTML that removes barriers for one group accelerates comprehension for everyone else, echoing UDL Guideline 1.2 — Offer alternatives for perception (CAST, 2022).

Key insight: Choices that aid the “edge case” almost always boost the mainstream experience as well.

From Empathy Challenges to Real-World Stakes

During the empathy labs I:

  • Navigated solely with a keyboard, exposing failures of WCAG 2.1 Success Criterion 2.1.1 — Keyboard (W3C, 2018). A single misplaced tabindex="-1" can strand learners in a modal.
  • Created live audio descriptions for a video presentation, confronting the nuance of SC 1.2.5 — Audio Description (Prerecorded) (W3C, 2018) and reinforcing UDL Guideline 2.5 — Illustrate through multiple media (CAST, 2022).
  • Interpreted a color-coded metro map with a color-blindness filter, driving home the necessity of SC 1.4.1 — Use of Color (W3C, 2018).
These activities flipped accessibility from an abstract virtue into a visceral experience. My “aha” moment came while tabbing through a Google Sites prototype using a mouth stick. What should have been a five-second task took nearly a minute—a delay magnified in noisy, time-constrained classrooms. That frustration persuaded me to simplify page architecture and verify tab order on every template before populating content.

Each empathy exercise echoed a real stakeholder I’ve met: the deaf engineer who speeds through captions at 1.5 times, the ESL learner who relies on transcripts to translate unfamiliar idioms, and the warehouse supervisor completing micro-lessons on a glare-ridden phone. The labs helped me to inhabit the daily experience of those users and design for them by default, fully aligning with UDL Guideline 8.3 — Foster collaboration and community (CAST, 2022).

In short, LDT 508 shifted my lens from “checklists” to mindsets, equipping me to anticipate barriers before they materialize and to build digital spaces where every learner can thrive while staying squarely within the guardrails of WCAG 2.1 and UDL 3.0.

Building (and Breaking) a Google Site — Progress at a Glance

    • What happened: Google Sites nested headings like Russian dolls (<h2><div><span>Heading</span></div></h2>) and produced two <header role="banner"> landmarks on every page.
    • Design fix: Flattened the structure to a clean <h2> + <p> pattern, removed the duplicate banners, and added visible focus styles.

    • What happened: Axe DevTools flagged color-only navigation cues and several aria-selected errors.
    • Design fix: Re-styled nav links with underline + focus outline and corrected the incorrect aria-selected state.

POUR + UDL in Action — Concrete Improvements

  • Perceivable
    • Change: Added audio descriptions and a downloadable transcript for my “Editing Auto-generated Captions” video.
    • UDL / Impact: Fulfills UDL 1.2 & supports blind, deaf, and language learners.
  • Operable
    • Change: Enforced a consistent heading order, wrapped major sections in landmark regions, and ensured strong visible focus indicators.
    • UDL / Impact: Keyboard-only users can instantly determine where they are on the page.
  • Understandable
    • Change: Introduced clear learning objectives plus a “Why this matters” call-out on every lesson page.
    • UDL / Impact: Aligns with UDL 6.1, guiding goal-setting and lowering cognitive load.
  • Robust
    • Change: Refactored every alt-text string, caption file, and ARIA label for accuracy.
    • UDL / Impact: Assistive technologies now announce meaningful control names, improving cross-platform reliability.

Cultural Responsiveness — Designing with Culture, not at It

Generating supporting graphics with ChatGPT taught me how easily “inclusive imagery” can slip into tokenism. I refined prompts to focus on actions instead of appearance—e.g., “Learners completing an assessment through multiple response pathways” rather than “diverse students smiling.”
By emphasizing instructional adaptation (multiple pathways) instead of the individual, the visuals respect cultural identity without resorting to stereotypes.

Multiple ways to show knowledge: Students complete the same assessment by recording audio, drawing a mind map, or typing on a laptop
Multiple ways to show knowledge: Students complete the same assessment by recording audio, drawing a mind map, or typing on a laptop—an example of UDL checkpoint 5.1 that removes timed, text-heavy barriers.

Going forward, I’ll:
  • Provide alt text that describes the task first, then relevant context.
  • Offer optional language toggles for captions and key resources.
  • Source imagery that depicts a spectrum of learning contexts, not clichés.

Peer-Review Takeaways

Google Sites requires a vigilant designer: both manual review and axe scans showed identical banner duplication and color-dependent navigation issues. That reinforced the value of early automated testing and human critique.

Generative AI as a Co-Designer

ChatGPT translated every WCAG failure into plain English, letting me craft developer-ready tickets in minutes. AI didn’t replace my judgment; it accelerated it.

Next Steps in My Practice

  • Adopt an accessibility-first QA checklist for every sprint.
  • Run axe DevTools during each demo, not just at release.
  • Host a lunch-and-learn on POUR + UDL with live screen-reader demos.
  • Maintain a personal pattern library of accessible components.

Advice for New Designers

Start small. Take one existing asset—add logical headings, alt text, and keyboard focus styles. Then run a screen reader for five minutes. That loop will teach you more than ten hours of reading.

References

CAST. (2022). Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Guidelines Version 3.0. https://udlguidelines.cast.org

Deque Systems. (n.d.). axe DevTools user guide. Retrieved June 17, 2025, from https://docs.deque.com/axe-devtools

Visual Aids Learning Hub. (2025). Lesson 1: Choosing the Right Visual Aid for the Message. https://sites.google.com/asu.edu/visualaids/lesson-1

W3C Web Accessibility Initiative. (n.d.). Using ARIA: Roles, states, and properties. Retrieved June 17, 2025, from https://www.w3.org/WAI/ARIA/apg

World Wide Web Consortium. (2018). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1. https://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG21/