Regina F
- Research Program Mentor
PhD Doctor of Philosophy candidate
Expertise
Education
Project ideas
Universal Design for Transition
Building on the tenets of Universal Design for Learning, the intentions of the Universal Design for Transition framework help special educators address both the transition and instructional design needs of their students. IDEA 2004 requires that IEP teams include goals designed to support the transition to post-high school activities. Unfortunately, these requirements become a barrier for special education teachers (Scott et al., 2019). To address this challenge, Thoma et al. (2009) proposed Universal Design for Transition (UDT) as a practical solution to ensure students with disabilities receive proper academic instruction and transition planning. However, many special education teachers are not aware of the UDT approach and report that their pre-service programs did not prepare them adequately to address their students' academic and transition needs (Scott et al., 2019). Interview your current teacher, and pervious teachers and report on how they incorporate the Universal Design for Transition into their instruction and engage them about their teacher preparation experiences.