Section 1 of four
How this landscape is organized
This is the accessibility work of a learning design practice, gathered in one place. It draws on two branches: Accessibility, which concerns access at the level of an individual person and the obligation an institution holds toward them, and Universal Design for Learning, which concerns designing for the predictable range of learners before any individual request is made. The two are related but not the same, and the arrangement here keeps them distinct while showing where they meet.
Resources are arranged in seven groups by what they are for, rather than by which branch they grow on. A group therefore holds resources from both branches where the question they answer is shared. Each resource names its home branch so the distinction is never lost. Groups are given in alphabetical order, followed by the three engagements that draw on them.
Every resource states the bodies of knowledge it rests on and cites its sources by number to the reference list in Section 4. Every resource on this page is practised; where it is marked as in development, the grounding and sources are settled and the written resource is not yet published.
This landscape zooms into two branches of the learning design practice mapped at andrearobin.com, where the trunk is Groundwork, the learning design method. The contributions here that do not appear on that map are made possible by Fieldwork, the research method practised at Accessible Learning Labs.
Two kinds of relationship are given for each resource. Most related is calculated from sources and themes held in common, and surfaces resources that answer similar questions from different groups. Connected resources are the direct relationships recorded on the map — the resources a reader is likely to need alongside this one.
Section 3 of four
Every resource, in full
Sources are written out in full here as well as numbered, so that following a reference is never necessary to understand an entry.
Institutions, governance and change
Where accessibility is decided before anything is designed - procurement, planning, faculty development - and what makes a published commitment turn into changed practice.
Accessible Procurement and Vendor Accountability
The decisions made before anything is built
Practised · resource in development
An inaccessible platform, once purchased, sets the ceiling on everything designed inside it. This resource covers reading an accessibility conformance report critically rather than accepting it at face value, using recognised standards as procurement criteria, writing remediation commitments into agreements, and piloting with disabled users before signature.
Group. Institutions, governance and change
Home branch. Accessibility · Well established
Grounding. EN 301 549; WCAG 2.2; VPAT and accessibility conformance reports
Themes. Standards, Policy, Access
Sources
- Reference 25: ETSI/CEN/CENELEC (2021). EN 301 549 V3.2.1: Accessibility Requirements for ICT Products and Services. Harmonised European Standard.
- Reference 26: Information Technology Industry Council. Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) and Accessibility Conformance Reports.
- Reference 15: W3C (2023). Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2. W3C Recommendation.
Most related, by shared source and theme
Connected resources
Faculty Development That Changes Accessible Practice
From awareness to what instructors actually do
Practised · resource in development
Institutions have offered accessibility and inclusive design workshops for years, often with limited change in daily teaching practice. This resource diagnoses whether the gap is capability, opportunity, or motivation, then designs accordingly — point-of-need supports, discipline-specific exemplars, and department-embedded work — with any content on legal obligation delivered alongside the accommodation office rather than independently of it. It also covers the orientation sessions, instructor and teaching-assistant guidance, and online tools through which an access service explains itself each term.
Group. Institutions, governance and change
Home branch. Accessibility · Well established
Grounding. COM-B and the Behaviour Change Wheel (Michie et al.); adult learning; UDL
Practised in. An intranet accessibility hub with accommodation strategies for instructors at a national research laboratory; teacher workshops on visual, motor and cognitive accessibility for an arts education non-profit
Themes. Capacity, Change, Access
Sources
- Reference 27: Michie, S., van Stralen, M. M., & West, R. (2011). “The Behaviour Change Wheel: A New Method for Characterising and Designing Behaviour Change Interventions.” Implementation Science, 6:42.
- Reference 28: Knowles, M. S., Holton, E. F., & Swanson, R. A. (2015). The Adult Learner (8th ed.). Routledge.
- Reference 2: CAST (2024). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines, version 3.0.
Most related, by shared source and theme
Connected resources
Institutional Accessibility Planning as a Change Program
From a published plan to demonstrable change
Practised · resource in development
Statutory obligation produces an accessibility plan, a committee, and a feedback mechanism; it does not by itself produce sequencing, ownership, or capability. This resource brings systems design and change management to accessibility governance, and is written for a contributing role on an institutional plan rather than for authorship of an institution’s accessibility position.
Group. Institutions, governance and change
Home branch. Accessibility · Well established
Grounding. Accessible Canada Act; Accessible British Columbia Act; change management; systems thinking
Practised in. EDI Committee and Action Plan at a national research laboratory; HR-to-organisational-learning transformation in a provincial public-sector organisation
Themes. Policy, Systems, Change
Sources
- Reference 29: Accessible Canada Act, S.C. 2019, c. 10.
- Reference 30: Accessible British Columbia Act, S.B.C. 2021, c. 19. Province of British Columbia.
- Reference 31: Kotter, J. P. (1996). Leading Change. Harvard Business School Press.
- Reference 32: Senge, P. M. (1990). The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. Doubleday.
Most related, by shared source and theme
Connected resources
Making the Case for Resourcing Accessibility Work
The argument after the numbers, and its limits
Practised · resource in development
The arguments available for resourcing this work, and the evidentiary weight each carries: legal obligation, enrolment and retention, institutional reputation, and mission. It covers the cost of retrofit set against the cost of designing for access at the outset, who signs and what they need to see, and the point at which an instrumental case begins to displace the obligation it was assembled to support.
Group. Institutions, governance and change
Home branch. Accessibility · Emerging
Grounding. Accessible Canada Act; WHO and World Bank disability data; change management scholarship
Practised in. Grant development at a science centre; accessibility KPIs in a provincial public-sector organisation
Themes. Policy, Change, Systems
Sources
Most related, by shared source and theme
Connected resources
Closing the Knowing–Doing Gap
From understanding to changed practice
Published resource
Designing for the distance between what learners understand and what they actually do — the transfer problem seen through an inclusive lens. It shares its machinery with reflection at the experience level and with change at the systems level.
Group. Institutions, governance and change
Home branch. Universal Design for Learning · Well established
Grounding. Transfer research; Universal Design for Learning
Themes. Transfer
Sources
- Reference 33: Pfeffer, J., & Sutton, R. I. (2000). The Knowing-Doing Gap: How Smart Companies Turn Knowledge into Action. Harvard Business School Press.
- Reference 34: Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (Eds.). (2000). How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School (Expanded ed.). National Academy Press.
Most related, by shared source and theme
Connected resources
Equity Evaluation of Experiential Learning Programs
Were disabled students included, and did they stay?
Practised · resource in development
Placement programs report participation; they rarely report who was excluded at the gate or who left in the first month. This resource builds evaluation that asks the equity question directly — inclusion and retention of disabled students and students from historically, persistently, or systemically marginalised groups, by employer and by program — and uses funding conditions as the lever that makes employers answer it. It closes the UDL cycle at the scale of a whole institution's placements rather than a single course.
Group. Institutions, governance and change
Home branch. Universal Design for Learning · Well established
Grounding. Transformative evaluation (Mertens); UDL evaluation; grant governance
Practised in. A research university's student employment program: grant-funded equity evaluation of whether disabled students and students from HPSM groups were meaningfully included and retained in placements
Themes. Evaluation, Equity, Scale
Sources
Most related, by shared source and theme
Connected resources
Funding Design for Accessible Learning Programs
Writing the grant so access is the deliverable
Practised · resource in development
Accessibility is often funded as an add-on to a program that was designed without it. This resource covers designing funding applications and grant programs in which access to learning by disabled people and people from historically, persistently, or systemically marginalised groups is the funded outcome — the framing, the evidence, the partnerships, and the conditions that carry through to delivery — and administering funds so that the condition is enforced.
Group. Institutions, governance and change
Home branch. Accessibility · Emerging
Grounding. Transformative evaluation (Mertens); nothing about us without us (Charlton); funding conditions as governance
Practised in. A science centre: grant and research development for accessible STEAM outreach to HPSM groups and disabled children; an arts education non-profit: fundraising and program development; a research university's student employment program: administering $6M+ in grants with equity conditions
Themes. Policy, Equity, Systems
Sources
- Reference 69: Mertens, D. M. (2009). Transformative Research and Evaluation. Guilford Press.
- Reference 9: Charlton, J. I. (1998). Nothing About Us Without Us: Disability Oppression and Empowerment. University of California Press.
Most related, by shared source and theme
Connected resources
Inclusive Facilitation & Capacity Building
Facilitation as a professional stance
Published resource
Facilitation understood as a professional stance shaped by how power, identity and legitimate knowledge are held, and how to build others' capacity to facilitate inclusively, so the practice continues inside an organisation after an outside facilitator has gone.
Group. Institutions, governance and change
Home branch. Accessibility · Well established
Grounding. Power-aware facilitation; adult learning; equity
Practised in. Province-wide e-facilitation rollout in a provincial public-sector organisation; inclusive facilitation workshops at a national research laboratory; teacher development for an arts education non-profit; inclusion and human-rights workshops for student leaders at a research university
Themes. Community, Capacity, Access
Sources
- Reference 28: Knowles, M. S., Holton, E. F., & Swanson, R. A. (2015). The Adult Learner (8th ed.). Routledge.
- Reference 53: Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity. Cambridge University Press.
Most related, by shared source and theme
Connected resources
Professional Standards for Disability Services
CAS and AHEAD as criteria for a service
Practised · resource in development
A disability service is asked to show that it is effective, and needs agreed criteria to do so. Two sets of professional standards supply them: the CAS standards for Disability Resources and Services, and the AHEAD program standards and performance indicators. This resource reads both as evaluation criteria and shows how a self-study against them is designed: who takes part, including disabled students, what evidence is gathered, and how findings become a plan.
Group. Institutions, governance and change
Home branch. Accessibility · Well established
Grounding. CAS Professional Standards for Higher Education; AHEAD program standards; transformative evaluation (Mertens)
Themes. Evaluation, Policy, Standards
Sources
Most related, by shared source and theme
Connected resources
Training and Supervising Student Access Staff
Invigilators, aides and assistants as a designed program
Practised · resource in development
Where students and casual staff deliver part of an access service, as exam invigilators, note-takers, laboratory and studio aides or peer mentors, the quality of access depends on how they are prepared. This resource designs recruitment, onboarding and training as a program: what a new staff member must be able to do on a first shift, how confidentiality and conduct with a student in distress are taught and practised, how a shift is supervised, how gaps in training are identified, and which decisions belong to the staff member and which to a supervisor.
Group. Institutions, governance and change
Home branch. Accessibility · Well established
Grounding. Adult learning (Knowles); communities of practice (Wenger); peer-assisted learning (Topping); AHEAD program standards
Practised in. An art and design university: training peer mentors in integrated learning and technical support
Themes. Capacity, Community, Accommodation
Sources
- Reference 28: Knowles, M. S., Holton, E. F., & Swanson, R. A. (2015). The Adult Learner (8th ed.). Routledge.
- Reference 53: Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity. Cambridge University Press.
- Reference 68: Topping, K. J. (2005). “Trends in Peer Learning.” Educational Psychology, 25(6), 631–645.
- Reference 57: Association on Higher Education And Disability (AHEAD). Program Domains, Standards, and Performance Indicators.
Association on Higher Education And Disability (AHEAD). Program Domains, Standards, and Performance Indicatorshttps://www.ahead.org/professional-resources/program-standards-ethics
Most related, by shared source and theme
Connected resources
Every resource on this page reflects applied work carried out with learners, design teams, and partner organizations, and is grounded in the scholarship listed above. An interactive version of this map presents the same content as a navigable diagram.