Understanding the Universal Design from the Support Paradigm: UDL as a Support System for Learning

Abstract

This article develops a theoretical proposal that consists in the understanding of the universal design for learning (udl), proposed by Meyer, Rose and Gordon (2014), as the planning of a support system. The need for this link is justified based on the importance of curricular planning effectively responding to the needs of all students in the classroom, including students with and without disabilities. Although the udl has broad conceptual development and methodological guidelines about its implementation, it is not specified in its formulation how the needs of students are incorporated theoretically or methodologically into its planning. It is proposed to link the udl with the support paradigm, specifically, by understanding it as a support system for learning. This formulation brings with it the crucial incorporation of the support needs construct. This construct is already widely used in the field of disability and, as a psychological construct, it has psychometric and methodological advances that allow its evaluation. Finally, the need to develop an instrument that assesses the needs of support, specifically for learning, that allows to attend, from the planning of the udl, to the needs of all and all students is justified.