Inclusive Learning Design Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Learning and Development Managers, Education Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-EM-104

Before you join: Participants should have experience designing, managing, delivering or reviewing learning programmes.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Learning programmes frequently assume that learners can attend at the same times, process information through the same formats, participate publicly and demonstrate competence in one prescribed way. These assumptions can exclude people using assistive technology, learners working in a second language, staff with variable connectivity, and experienced professionals balancing caregiving or shift work. They also create avoidable assessment risk where format rather than competence determines results. Education managers need a disciplined way to identify these barriers, make proportionate changes and maintain required standards.

This course applies Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to course planning, content production, facilitation, assessment and quality assurance. Participants use CAST UDL Guidelines 3.0 to design multiple routes for engagement, representation, action and expression. They learn to distinguish essential learning requirements from conventional delivery choices, write accessible materials, plan flexible but valid assessments, and use learner evidence to prioritise improvements. The course also addresses WCAG 2.2, plain-language editing, assistive technology compatibility, reasonable adjustments and inclusive hybrid delivery.

Instructor-led delivery combines focused briefings, realistic education cases, group analysis, design simulations and individual application planning. Participants work with examples from professional education, workplace learning, public-sector programmes and regulated training. Each participant leaves with an inclusive learning audit, barrier log, assessment review checklist and 90-day implementation plan for a current programme. The five-day course is available in classrooms in 50+ cities or live online, and includes a certificate of completion.

What you will be able to do

  • Apply CAST UDL Guidelines 3.0 to identify and remove curriculum barriers
  • Analyse learner evidence to prioritise accessibility and participation needs
  • Write constructively aligned outcomes, activities and assessments with flexible pathways
  • Produce accessible learning materials using WCAG 2.2 and plain-language techniques
  • Design engagement choices and scaffolds that preserve required performance standards
  • Create valid multiple-method assessments with analytic rubrics and documented adjustments
  • Conduct an inclusive learning audit using barrier logs and prioritisation matrices
  • Develop a 90-day inclusive learning implementation plan with measures and owners

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Produce UDL-informed course designs that retain required learning standards
  • Identify accessibility barriers before learner complaints or assessment disputes arise
  • Write clearer briefs for content developers, facilitators and technology suppliers
  • Review assessment methods for construct relevance and unnecessary barriers
  • Lead a documented improvement plan for an existing learning programme

For your organisation

  • Reduce avoidable exclusion from professional development and mandatory training
  • Improve learner participation, completion and confidence across varied learner groups
  • Strengthen evidence for accessibility, quality assurance and procurement reviews
  • Reduce late-stage retrofitting costs through earlier inclusive design decisions
  • Create more consistent standards for classroom, online and hybrid learning delivery

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can explain UDL principles and identify curriculum barriers affecting learner access.

  • Universal Design for Learning principles: engagement, representation, action and expression
  • CAST UDL Guidelines 3.0 structure and evidence-informed design decisions
  • Distinguishing learner variability from deficit-based assumptions and fixed learner categories
  • Barriers analysis identifies mismatches between curriculum demands and learner access
  • Equity, inclusion, accessibility and usability as related design quality criteria
  • UDL scope across classroom, virtual, blended and workplace learning

Participants can gather and interpret learner evidence to prioritise inclusive design decisions.

  • Define learner personas using prior knowledge, language, access and motivation data
  • Map learner journeys from enrolment through assessment and course completion
  • Use empathy maps without treating representative profiles as individual diagnoses
  • Identify cognitive, sensory, linguistic, technological and situational access barriers
  • Consult learners ethically through interviews, surveys, observation and feedback channels
  • Prioritise barriers by impact, frequency, feasibility and institutional responsibility

Participants can align learning outcomes, activities and supports while retaining essential requirements.

  • Rewrite objectives using observable verbs, conditions and performance criteria
  • Constructive alignment links outcomes, learning activities, assessment and feedback
  • Separate essential learning goals from conventional delivery or response methods
  • Multiple means of engagement support relevance, autonomy, belonging and persistence
  • Choice architecture offers bounded options without reducing academic or professional standards
  • Plan scaffolds, prompts, exemplars and fading supports for independent performance

Participants can produce learning materials that provide equivalent access through multiple formats.

  • Segment content using chunking, signalling, pretraining and worked examples
  • Pair spoken explanations with meaningful visuals, text alternatives and transcripts
  • Plain-language editing reduces unnecessary linguistic load while retaining technical precision
  • Create accessible documents with heading structures, reading order and descriptive links
  • Apply WCAG 2.2 principles to digital learning materials and media
  • Select formats that support screen readers, magnification, captions and keyboard access

Participants can design participation conditions that support motivation, persistence and learner choice.

  • Design relevance through authentic problems, learner choice and transparent purpose
  • Anticipate threat responses caused by ambiguity, exclusion and avoidable uncertainty
  • Build predictable routines, participation agreements and psychologically safer discussion conditions
  • Offer graduated challenge levels while preserving common learning outcomes
  • Use retrieval practice, interleaving and spacing to strengthen retention
  • Feedback timing, specificity and feedforward matched to learner self-regulation

Participants can create fair assessment options without weakening validity or performance expectations.

  • Design multiple assessment pathways aligned to the same performance criteria
  • Analytic rubrics make quality expectations visible before performance begins
  • Separate construct-relevant demands from incidental barriers in assessment tasks
  • Provide assistive technology compatibility without compromising assessment validity
  • Use formative checks, self-assessment and peer feedback to adjust instruction
  • Document reasonable adjustments, accommodations and assessment decisions consistently

Participants can facilitate accessible participation in classroom, online and hybrid learning sessions.

  • Facilitation plans balance structured participation, wait time and voluntary contribution
  • Establish discussion protocols that prevent interruption, domination and stereotyping
  • Question sequencing supports processing time, rehearsal and increasingly complex responses
  • Respond to accessibility requests respectfully, promptly and within role boundaries
  • Hybrid sessions coordinate room audio, chat participation and remote visibility
  • Manage sensitive topics using content notices, agreements and referral routes

Participants can specify, test and manage accessible digital learning resources and platforms.

  • Evaluate learning platforms against accessibility, privacy, interoperability and support requirements
  • Accessibility statements record known limitations, workarounds and contact arrangements
  • Captioning, transcripts and audio description planned during media commissioning
  • Test digital materials with keyboard-only navigation and screen-reader workflows
  • Procurement criteria require accessible templates, export formats and vendor evidence
  • Assistive technology users inform usability testing and remediation priorities

Participants can audit learning programmes and manage prioritised inclusive design improvements.

  • Audit a course using UDL checkpoints, accessibility criteria and learner evidence
  • Create barrier logs linking issues, owners, dates and corrective actions
  • Prioritisation matrices compare learner impact, risk, effort and implementation dependencies
  • Apply PDCA cycles to pilot, review, revise and standardise improvements
  • Measure participation, completion, assessment outcomes and accessibility incident patterns
  • Governance roles clarify approval, quality assurance and escalation responsibilities

Participants can prepare a practical implementation plan for an inclusive learning improvement priority.

  • Translate audit findings into sequenced actions, milestones, owners and resources
  • Set success measures for access, participation, attainment and learner experience
  • Stakeholder communication plans explain rationale, changes and support arrangements
  • Peer review protocols test materials against agreed inclusive design criteria
  • Document evidence for quality reviews, procurement decisions and future revisions
  • Personal application plans identify one course, one priority and first actions

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. UDL course design canvas
  2. Inclusive learning barrier audit checklist
  3. Accessible learning materials production checklist
  4. Flexible assessment design and validity review template
  5. Accessibility statement and supplier specification template
  6. 90-day inclusive learning implementation plan

Who should attend

  • Learning and Development Managers — need consistent inclusive standards across professional learning portfolios
  • Education Managers — need to improve participation, completion and assessment fairness
  • Instructional Designers — need practical UDL methods for course and material design
  • Training Managers — need accessible classroom, virtual and hybrid delivery practices
  • Academic Programme Leaders — need defensible approaches to adjustments and assessment design
  • Quality Assurance Officers — need auditable criteria for inclusive learning reviews

Skills and tools covered

UDL course designAccessible content productionInclusive assessment designLearner barrier analysisAccessible facilitationImplementation planning

Tools and standards

CAST UDL Guidelines 3.0, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2, Constructive Alignment, Plan-Do-Check-Act (PDCA)

How the course runs

Training methodology

The instructor combines short technical briefings with case work drawn from professional education and workplace learning. Participants analyse learner barriers, review course artefacts, compare design options and make decisions using UDL checkpoints, WCAG criteria and assessment-validity principles. Group exercises examine realistic scenarios involving digital materials, participation patterns, hybrid delivery and reasonable adjustments. Simulations develop facilitation and assessment judgement. Individual application planning converts course methods into actions for a current programme, with peer review against agreed design criteria.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have experience designing, managing, delivering or reviewing learning programmes. Familiarity with learning objectives, course materials and assessment processes is useful, as participants will apply the methods to realistic learning scenarios or a current programme. No prior qualification in special education, accessibility, disability studies, instructional design or web development is required. The course explains the relevant accessibility concepts and standards before applying them. Participants do not need specialist assistive technology or software, although bringing an existing course outline or learning material is helpful.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should have experience designing, managing, delivering or reviewing learning programmes. Prior knowledge of accessibility standards or special education is not required, as the course introduces the required concepts and applies them to professional learning.

Bring a laptop if possible, plus a current course outline, sample learning material or assessment task you can review during application planning. Materials are provided, so participants without current programme documents can work from supplied cases.

It is suited to learning managers, instructional designers, trainers, programme leaders and quality assurance staff responsible for adult, professional or workplace learning. It is particularly useful for teams reviewing mandatory training, digital learning or hybrid programmes.

The course connects accessibility requirements with learning design, facilitation and assessment validity through Universal Design for Learning. It focuses on preventing barriers during programme design, rather than only correcting technical accessibility faults after materials are produced.

You will use the audit checklist, barrier log and prioritisation matrix to review one learning programme or improvement priority. The final implementation plan identifies actions, owners, measures and review points for the following 90 days.

Training runs from 08:30 to 16:30 each day and provides approximately 32.5 contact hours across five days. Ten sequenced modules move from UDL foundations and learner analysis through accessible content, assessment, facilitation, quality assurance and implementation planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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