CRDEUL and PASS IT Collaborate on New Book

The Center for Research on Developmental Education and Urban Literacy (CRDEUL) and the Pedagogy and Student Services for Institutional Transformation (PASS IT) project are pleased to announce the publication of Pedagogy and Student Services for Institutional Transformation: Implementing Universal Design in Higher Education, forthcoming this winter. This book builds upon the previous success of Curriculum Transformation and Disability: Implementing Universal Design in Higher Education, published by CRDEUL in 2003 and now out of print. With financial support from a U.S. Department of Education grant (#P333A050023), the book will be disseminated free of charge in print and electronic formats. The book will be posted in its entirety on the PASS IT and CRDEUL Web sites.

One goal of PASS IT is to involve faculty and student services staff members in creating professional development tools related to implementing Universal Design (UD) and Universal Instructional Design (UID) for colleagues with similar job responsibilities. To that end, PASS IT is also developing two guidebooks forthcoming later in 2008. Meanwhile, it is also imperative to explore theoretical foundations and philosophical and ethical issues related to UD and UID. The first section of the new book is devoted to theory, with chapters from PASS IT national advisers Nancy Evans of Iowa State University and Heather Hackman of St. Cloud State University (MN). University of Minnesota Department of Postsecondary Teaching and Learning (PsTL) faculty member Na’im Madyun also contributes a chapter to this section, which focuses on links between UID and cultural capital.

The next section of the book focuses on pedagogical issues and includes a number of chapters reprinted from the 2003 Curriculum Transformation and Disability (CTAD) book, with new additions from CRDEUL adviser and PsTL faculty member Irene Duranczyk and 2007 Morse Alumni Teaching Award recipient Patricia James. James’s chapter on “Practicing Universal Design in Visual Art Courses” is co-authored by Themina Kader of The State University of New York at New Paltz. The third and fourth sections of the book address implementing UD in academic support and student development programs and services respectively. New chapter contributors include former General College colleague Don Opitz, who now teaches at DePaul University, and PASS IT participant and CTAD adviser Lydia Block of Ohio Wesleyan University, as well as University of Minnesota College of Education and Human Development (CEHD) advisers Mary Ellen Shaw, Amy Kampsen, Carole Broad, and Anthony Albecker.

A new feature of the book is a section on implementing UD and UID in professional preparation programs ranging from education to allied health. Chapter authors include Karen Myers and Jody Wood of St. Louis University, Nancy Sharby of Northeastern University, Susan Roush of the University of Rhode Island, Deborah Casey of Green River Community College (WA), Debbie Cunningham from Thomas College (ME), Al Souma of Seattle Central Community College (WA), and Kaycee Gilmore Holman of Adams State College (CO).

Perhaps the most innovative section of the book provides student perspectives on UD and UID. Included in this section is a chapter from Julie Alexandrin, Ilana Lyn Schreiber, and Elizabeth Henry on the complicated process of disclosure for students with documented disabilities. There is also a chapter by book editor Jeanne Higbee, coauthored with University of Minnesota undergraduate students Pa Houa Lee, James Bardill, and Heidi Cardinal, in which undergraduates share and evaluate their personal experiences with UID in a psychology course. Higbee, joined by co-authors Pat Bruch and Kwabena Siaka (a graduate student in CEHD), also contributes a chapter relating results specific to students with disabilities from the Multicultural Awareness Project for Institutional Transformation (MAP IT).

The book also contains new chapters that address UD and UID from the perspective of college and university administrators who have seen their institutions transformed by UD and UID. The first chapter in this section addresses the use of UID for administrative leadership and planning by PsTL faculty David Arendale and Robert Poch. Melanie Wagner and Jane Scott from Lake Sumpter Community College (FL) contribute a chapter focused on the importance of collaborations between classroom instructors and student development professionals in order for UID to have the maximum positive impact on all students. This section also includes a chapter titled “Computing Technologies, the Digital Divide, and ‘Universal’ Instructional Methods,” by Jillian Duquaine-Watson from Texas Woman’s College, which challenges the assumptions surrounding the use of technology as a universal access point for all students. The book concludes with several resource bibliographies, which we hope will be helpful tools for postsecondary professionals who would like additional resources to learn more about UD, UID, and other aspects of access in postsecondary education.