‘How does universal design for learning help me to learn?’: students with autism spectrum disorder voices in higher education

ABSTRACT

The number of students with autism spectrum disorder in university is progressively increasing, which implies great challenges for higher education. Existing literature indicates that students with Autism Spectrum Disorder face many barriers to their participation and learning, some of which are attributed to teaching practices. Thus, this keeps us still on the road towards achieving genuinely inclusive institutions. With the purpose of promoting more inclusive practices according to students’ preferences, this article aims to analyse the learning enablers for students with autism, which are related to inclusive teaching practices based on the Universal Design for Learning (UDL). A qualitative approach was selected, which allowed to gather the testimonies of seven university students with this disorder through semi-structured interviews conducted at a university in Spain. These students reported several enablers that supported their learning at university. Many of them indicated highlighting key concepts or receiving the information progressively. The majority described feeling more engaged when teachers considered their opinions and valued their efforts, among other facilitators. The study concludes with valuable recommendations, based on students’ testimonies, for teachers to incorporate into their teaching practices. The perspectives of students with ASD have highlighted the significance of their voices. However, there is still a need to develop a shared speech that directly impacts the transformation of practices. The UDL approach could benefit students with ASD and others. Therefore, investigating how to introduce these practices into teacher training programs in higher education should be a priority for future research.

KEYWORDS:

• Universal design for learning
• autism
• higher education
• teaching practice
• enablers

Acknowledgements

We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the participants for their invaluable contributions to this research. We recognize that discussing personal experiences as students with ASD can be challenging, and we deeply appreciate their openness and willingness to share their insights. Additionally, we express our sincere appreciation to the Diversity and Disability Unit for their essential support in facilitating contact with the students and providing us with the necessary information to carry out this study. Their assistance has been instrumental in the successful execution of our research endeavours.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Declaration of interest statement

The researchers report no declarations of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Jaume I University: [Grant Number PREDOC/2021/23].