Marc Thompson (CITL)
By Will Kanter, Marketing Associate
A recent episode of the Digication Scholars Conversations podcast features a discussion about the Center for Innovation in Teaching & Learning’s new Universal Design for Learning (UDL) team.
Marc Thompson, Assistant Director of Teaching & Learning Experiences at CITL, said the team—which he is heading up—will help University of Illinois instructors incorporate UDL principles in courses and programs on the Urbana-Champaign campus. The team will also bring instructors and staff within the University of Illinois System together to share resources.
“I do think our faculty are really at a tipping point where they’re all pretty much familiar with the conceptual framework of UDL, but now they’re really poised to apply it,” Thompson tells host Jeffrey Yan, CEO and co-founder of the e-Portfolilo platform.
“That’s why I think the timing of this team is really appropriate. We’re really excited about getting started. We’re reaching out to different colleges on our campus now.”
Thompson is also the director and an instructor for the online Information Accessibility Design & Policy Certificate Program, offered through Illinois' College of Applied Health Sciences. The program teaches website developers, programmers, designers, educators, disability services providers and other professionals the principles of accessible information architecture and universal design information technologies used in educational, healthcare, corporate, and employment settings; federal and state legal mandates governing information technology regarding people with disabilities; and information technology accessibility standards, design practices, and tools.
Thompson also contributed a chapter, “Three Approaches to Teaching Accessibility and Inclusive Design,” to the Guide to Digital Accessibility: Policies, Practices, and Professional Development, (Mancilla & Frey, 2023).
He adds that CITL is in the “very early stages” of developing a UDL certificate program for campus.
Currently, “a lot of (training is provided through) mentorship and apprenticeship,” he says. “But there’s a need for more formal training and including it in the curriculum of computer science and engineering and art and design programs. It’s important to understand the different types of disabilities and functional challenges especially when it comes to digital accessibility.”
Listen to the entire podcast (Part 1 and Part 2), or watch the conversation on YouTube (Part 1 and Part 2). For more information on CITL’s new UDL team, contact Thompson at thompso1@illinois.edu.