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The University of Washington’s (UW) Access to Informal STEM Learning (AccessISL) project employs a student-centered approach and potentially transformative practices that embrace the social model of dis- ability, social justice education, disability as a diversity issue, intersectionality, and universal design. A leadership team of interns—each member a UW student with a disability or a museology graduate student—along with project staff engage with the UW Museology program to identify and implement strategies for making ISL activities and courses more welcoming and accessible to individuals with disabilities. Initial outcomes of AccessISL intern engagement include specific changes within ISL programs, increased awareness and implementation of universal design principles in the Museology graduate program, and expanded skills about the accessible/universal design of informal learning within future professionals who served as interns in AccessISL. 

The pivot toward online courses and services as a result of the pandemic amplified weaknesses in an accommodation approach to making offerings accessible to students with disabilities. This article elaborates on how a universal design approach can more effectively reach equity goals with respect to students with disabilities. 

As a consequence of the COVID19 pandemic, we have witnessed a swift movement of onsite and hybrid courses to fully online formats. This development has created an urgent need for the design and delivery of online content and engagement mechanisms that are equitable for all students. There is little evidence that many of these courses are accessible to, usable by, and inclusive of students with disabilities. The author of this article discusses challenges students with disabilities face in accessing online content and engaging in online activities as well as choices that instructors and online course designers can make with respect to pedagogy and information technology (IT) to ensure that their classes are accessible to, usable by, and inclusive of all students. She introduces for those new to this field the potential of the universal design (UD) framework to inform the design of online learning that addresses the needs of students with a wide range of characteristics. 

The pivot toward online courses and services as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic amplified weaknesses in an accommodation approach to making academic offerings accessible to students with disabilities. This article elaborates on how a universal design approach can more effectively reach diversity, equity, and inclusion goals with respect to students with disabilities.