What is Universal Design for Learning — and why should developers care?

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title: "What is Universal Design for Learning — and why should developers care?" date: "2025-04-04" summary: "UDL is not just for educators. The same principles that make learning accessible make software better for everyone."

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework for designing education. Most developers have never heard of it. We think they should.

Not because developers need to know about pedagogy, but because the principles behind UDL are the same principles that make software genuinely usable — not just technically functional.

Where UDL comes from

UDL was developed by CAST, a non-profit education research organisation. The framework draws on neuroscience research showing that there is no such thing as an "average" learner — every brain processes information differently.

The traditional approach to education designs for a hypothetical average and treats anyone who falls outside that range as the exception to accommodate. UDL flips that: design for the full range of human variability from the start, and the average learner benefits too.

The three principles

UDL is built on three core principles:

Multiple means of representation — present information in more than one format. Don't just write it; show it, structure it, allow it to be heard. People process information differently, and no single format works for everyone.

Multiple means of engagement — design for motivation and persistence, not just information delivery. Why does this matter? Who does it connect to? Learning that feels relevant sticks.

Multiple means of expression — let people demonstrate understanding in more than one way. A written test advantages some learners and disadvantages others, often for reasons that have nothing to do with whether they actually understood the material.

Why this matters for software

Read those three principles again, replacing "learners" with "users":

• Present information in more than one format → don't rely on colour alone, provide text alternatives for images, use both icons and labels
• Design for engagement → make the purpose of an action clear, reduce friction, give feedback
• Allow expression in more than one way → don't force a single input method, support keyboard navigation, don't assume everyone uses a mouse

This is not a coincidence. UDL and accessibility best practices converge because they're solving the same underlying problem: the gap between how software (or learning) is designed and the actual range of people who need to use it.

The "curb cut effect"

There's a well-known phenomenon in accessibility called the curb cut effect. Kerb cuts — the slopes cut into pavements at road crossings — were originally designed for wheelchair users. They also turned out to be essential for parents with pushchairs, delivery workers with trolleys, cyclists, and anyone carrying heavy bags.

Designing for the edges benefits the middle.

The same applies in software. Keyboard navigation was designed for users who can't use a mouse — it turned out to be faster for power users too. High contrast modes were designed for low-vision users — they're also useful in bright sunlight. Captions were designed for deaf users — they're used by millions of people watching video in noisy environments.

When we design for the hardest cases, we make things better for everyone.

How we apply this at Proteanbits

UDL shapes how we build everything:

• We target WCAG AA accessibility compliance as a minimum on every project
• We test with keyboard navigation, not just mouse
• We write content that works without jargon and without assuming prior context
• We design forms that are genuinely clear — labels that say what they mean, errors that say what went wrong, no tricks

It also shapes upskillme.pro, our education platform — which is built on UDL principles throughout.

The honest version

We're not perfect at this. Accessibility and inclusive design are a practice, not a destination. We find things we missed. We improve them.

But the commitment to start with these principles — rather than retrofit them — is what distinguishes a product that works for everyone from one that works for most people and apologises to the rest.