About the ACCESS Project

The ACCESS Project—“ACCESS to Postsecondary Education through Universal Design for Learning”—is a three-year initiative designed to promote Universal Design for Learning at Colorado State University. The Project began in 2005 with funding from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Postsecondary Education (Grant # P333A050015).

The Project is involved in many areas of UDL instruction, dissemination, and research. Following are some of the highlights:

Instructional Materials

The ACCESS Project, winner of the 2008 N. Preston Davis Award for Instructional Innovation, has developed cutting edge accessibility and usability techniques for creating online instructional materials. Through its online Training Modules and face-to-face professional development activities, the Project promotes techniques for web development based on Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and W3C Standards, along with best practices for common application software such as Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, Adobe PDF, and multimedia.

Teaching and Learning

Through a variety of dissemination efforts, the ACCESS Project has worked to promote teaching excellence and improved learning outcomes for students with all types of learning needs and styles. Through UDL, the Project seeks to address some of the persistence, retention and student performance issues faced by CSU and other institutions of higher education.

Dissemination

The ACCESS Project disseminates UDL “best practices” in many ways, including the following:

Online Training Modules for faculty and a Student Self-Advocacy Handbook
Face-to-face professional development events (8 sessions at PDI, 2006-8; other venues include CSU Libraries, Warner College of Natural Resources, Co-Wy Consortium of Support Programs for Students w/ Disabilities; an Online Journalism course (JT 326), a Speech and Communications course (SP 432), the Division of Student Affairs, the TILT Open House, and others.)
A 13-minute video, titled “Best Practices through Universal Design for Learning,” which is in use at several universities, and has aired locally on CSU-TV and Comcast Cable Channel 11.
Collaboration with like-minded units at CSU:
- Teaching and Learning: TILT, the Master Teacher Initiative
- Technology Service Providers: university webmasters, Journalism courses in which web development methods are taught, various workshops provided by Computer Training and Support Services (CTSS)
- Disability and Student Services: RDS, and the Disability Interest Group (DIG)
Local and national presentations
An upcoming journal publication
A new “UDL” track for the prestigious N. Preston Davis Award for Instructional Innovation.

Research

The Project is unique among similar projects nationwide for conducting research on the effectiveness of UDL in the classroom. In the fall of 2006, ACCESS Project staff began a dialogue with administrators in the College of Natural Sciences to identify “core courses” with historically low rates of completion. As a result of those meetings, the Project is currently engaged in research with Psychology instructors teaching PY 100. The Project trains instructors in UDL techniques, then gathers pre and post data from approximately 1,700 students per semester to evaluate the effectiveness of UDL implementation. Based on initial results and feedback, the student and instructor questionnaires have been redesigned for the spring semester, 2008.

Student Self-Advocacy

Self-advocacy (SA) skills are a critical part of student success in higher education, especially for students with disabilities. SA empowers students to take charge of their education by their needs and the resources available to assist them. The ACCESS Project is creating a valuable Self-Advocacy Handbook for College Students with Disabilities, designed to help students, and their parents, make the sometimes difficult transition from high school to college.