| This study captured the experience and perceptions of faculty members who have implemented Universal Design (UD) in their courses, to understand the implementation process and outcomes UD had on their students and themselves; as the current research on UD has been long on best practices, and short on empirical evidence. A thorough review of literature surrounding UD, the perceptions of faculty members and UD, implementation and barriers, and outcomes of universal design was conducted. As faculty are tasked to keep up with the innovation and technology that students use on a day-to-day basis, UD offers opportunities to provide students choices in their learning, creativity, and engagement. A qualitative design was utilized to understand the experiences and perceptions of faculty members implementing UD and capture their stories through individual interviews. Through a constant comparative analysis, data were analyzed for emergent themes to shape the findings of this study. As a result, three main findings emerged: (a) Creating Faculty Buy-In, (b) A Need for Institutional Support, and (c) Potential for Success in Higher Education. The outcomes of this study identified there is potential for success in utilizing UD in higher education. Furthermore, UD can be linked to creating better educational environments for students with and without disabilities, has impacts to grades and GPAs, outcomes connected to persistence and completion, and with wide-spread implementation will shift higher education and create a new pedagogy for faculty-developed engagement for new ways of teaching and student learning. |
