Using Empathy Tools to Facilitate Universal Design for Learning: A Case Study to Illustrate and Advance Theory into Practice.

The Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning by accommodating a diversity of students’ needs. Based on scientific insights into how humans learn, the UDL framework encourages educators to motivate their students to learn in different ways, by removing barriers in learning to accommodate the diversity of learners and nurture the potential of individuals. It consists of three domains named engagement, representation and action and expression. In design practice, is common to use empathy tools such as personas and wearable simulators to empathize with populations often excluded from mainstream design, such as people with disabilities and the senior population. This case study aims to i) evaluate how the UDL framework was applied in an inclusive design elective of the Bachelor in Arts course of a Product Design programme in Hong Kong, ii) evaluate how empathy tools such as persona and wearable simulators facilitate the application of the UDL guidelines iii) exemplify the application of the UDL guidelines in a single class, iv) Identify gaps and opportunities for future improvements of applying UDL into the higher education. The results show that the use of persona and wearable simulators has proven effective in applying the UDL guidelines in all three domains. Future studies will focus on developing persona profiles specific to higher education and focused on the Asian population, considering that most evidence-based available persona profiles are designed or market-oriented and representative of the Western population.