Means of Providing Access to the Curriculum

A curriculum is a doorway. If that doorway is built to standard, fixed dimensions, a student in a wheelchair cannot enter, no matter how brilliantly the room inside is decorated. In the general education classroom, our instructional materials, assignments, and assessments are often built to a rigid, idealized standard of the "average" student. But cognitive science and our own daily observations tell us a profound truth: the "average" student is a statistical myth.

The standard normal distribution curve. Designing instruction exclusively for the "average" student at the peak of the bell curve marginalizes the vast majority of learners whose abilities fall elsewhere on the spectrum.
The standard normal distribution curve. Designing instruction exclusively for the "average" student at the peak of the bell curve marginalizes the vast majority of learners whose abilities fall elsewhere on the spectrum.

To guarantee that every student has meaningful access to the curriculum, we must master the precise engineering of how we teach. As a special educator, you are the architect of this access. You will manipulate three distinct tools—accommodations, modifications, and Universal Design for Learning (UDL)—to ensure that the doorway to learning is wide enough, and the path clear enough, for every mind in your classroom.