CAST: Universal Design for Learning

1984 was a year of exceptional promise in technology and education. Just as personal digital technologies like the Apple Macintosh computer began to reshape everyday life and work, school reform became a hot topic in the United States, with special emphasis on educating all learners to high standards.

That year, a small group of hospital-based education researchers and clinicians established the Center for Applied Special Technology, or CAST, to explore ways of using computer technologies to improve education for all children, especially those with disabilities.

As CAST researchers tested and refined their vision and principles during those early years, they came to a new understanding of how to individualize education using flexible methods and materials. They called this approach Universal Design for Learning (UDL).

Today, UDL frames all of CAST's research, development, and service. Through strategic collaborations, CAST is seeding the fields of curriculum planning, software development, state and national policymaking, teacher preparation and support, and education research with UDL-based solutions.

Accomplishments include:

• Leader in developing the first National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS) to guide the production and electronic distribution of digital versions of textbooks and other instructional materials.
• Originator of the Codie-award-winning Thinking Reader®, a unique computer-based literacy program to help struggling readers develop key reading-comprehension strategies. (Developed and distributed by Tom Snyder Productions/Scholastic.) 
• Creator of Bobby, a world-renowned software tool that measures website accessibility and guides Web designers to make improvements. 
• Co-Developer (with Scholastic) of WiggleWorks®, the first universally designed K-2 literacy software.
• Winner, EdNET HERO Award  (2005)
• Laureate, Tech Museum of Innovation (2002)
• Access Advancement Award from the American Association of Engineering Specialists (2000)
• Ron Mace Designing for the 21st Century Award (2000)
• Computerworld/Smithsonian Award for Innovation in Education and Academia (Laureate, 1993; Finalist, 1999)
• LD ACCESS Foundation Innovation Award (1999)
• Finalist, SAP/Stevie Wonder Vision Awards (1998)
• Defined and articulated Universal Design for Learning, a blueprint for improving teaching and learning for all students with flexible digital media.
• Provides professional development workshops, institutes, and lectures to more than 8,000 school teachers and administrators per year to support better teaching of diverse learners.
  

CAST's Mission

To expand learning opportunities for all individuals, especially those with disabilities, through the research and development of innovative, technology-based educational resources and strategies.

Did You Know...?

CAST has earned international acclaim for its efforts to make the World Wide Web more accessible to all learners through the development of tools like Bobby and CAST eReader.