“Turn your obstacles into opportunities and your problems into possibilities” (Roy T. Bennett).  Over the past few years, our communities have been faced with a myriad of challenges from education to health care from social unrest to environmental instability.  Higher education, too, has faced myriad challenges: how do we seize these opportunities to make institutional change?  We hope to share several examples and discuss methods for being ready to seize moments of institutional change to forward UDL.  In times of fewer resources and more stressful work lives, leveraging teachable moments allows us to transform problems or institutional shifts into possibilities, to implement small changes that can have expansive impact--even when working with busy adult learners like faculty.

Realizing Kolb’s framework for adult learning in both content focus and session design, we hope to encourage disability services professionals to lay effective groundwork for UDL outreach on their individual campus by examining and re-examining their institutional structures and initiatives for institutional moments of change.  We begin by presenting three brief case studies of “stealth UDL,” when cultural or institutional shifts opened doors for effective lessons or avenues to reach faculty; participants will work together in small groups to analyze these case studies briefly to recognize the kinds of openings and opportunities that were leveraged to implement UDL practices.  In the next stage of the session, participants will analyze their own institutional situations and conceptualize ways in which the lessons learned from the case studies can be transferred:  What small- or large-scale shifts in institutional norms, processes, or culture are currently underway or upcoming?  How are they positioned relative to other units or offices on campus, and what barriers or opportunities does that positioning create?  What avenues for collaboration are available?  Which UDL goals are most needed on their campuses, and in what other offices might allies be found?  Brief paired or small group discussions follow.  The session will end with a reflective exercise for goal-setting to help participants return to their campuses ready to seize the teachable moment.

Evans, N. J., Forney, D. S. Guido-DiBrito, F. (1998). Kolb’s theory of experiential learning.  Student development in college: Theory, research, and practice.  (pp. 207 – 224). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.