udl-lesson-auditor

name	udl-lesson-auditor
description	Audits an existing lesson against UDL's three principles — engagement, representation, and action/expression. Identifies specific access barriers and suggests concrete modifications ranked by impact.
disable-model-invocation	false
user-invocable	true
effort	medium
skill_id	udl-lesson-auditor
skill_name	UDL Lesson Auditor
domain	inclusive-design
version	1.0
evidence_strength	moderate
evidence_sources	["Rose & Meyer (2002) — Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning","CAST (2018) — Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.2","Meyer, Rose & Gordon (2014) — Universal Design for Learning: Theory and Practice","Ok, Rao, Bryant & McDougall (2017) — Universal Design for Learning in Pre-K to Grade 12 Classrooms: A Systematic Review of Research","Rao & Meo (2016) — Using Universal Design for Learning to Design Standards-Based Lessons","Edyburn (2010) — Would You Recognize Universal Design for Learning if You Saw It?"]
input_schema	{"required":[{"field":"lesson_plan","type":"string","description":"The lesson or unit plan to audit. Include learning objectives, activities, materials, and assessment."},{"field":"learner_context","type":"string","description":"Brief description of the students — age, known variability (e.g. EAL learners, students with IEPs, wide range of reading levels)"}],"optional":[{"field":"specific_concerns","type":"string","description":"Any specific access barriers the teacher is worried about"},{"field":"constraints","type":"string","description":"What the teacher cannot change (e.g. required text, mandated assessment format, time limit)"}]}
output_schema	{"type":"object","fields":[{"field":"principle_audits","type":"array","description":"Audit findings for each UDL principle: what works, what creates barriers, specific modifications"},{"field":"priority_modifications","type":"array","description":"The 3-5 highest-impact changes, respecting stated constraints"},{"field":"what_to_keep","type":"array","description":"Existing lesson elements that already support access — reinforce these"},{"field":"facilitation_notes","type":"array","description":"Implementation cautions and teacher judgement checks"}]}
chains_well_with	["inclusive-design/udl-options-designer","inclusive-design/udl-barrier-anticipator","curriculum-assessment/differentiation-adapter","curriculum-assessment/formative-assessment-technique-selector","self-regulated-learning/self-regulation-scaffold-generator"]
teacher_time	10-15 minutes
tags	["UDL","inclusive-design","barrier-analysis","access","lesson-audit","differentiation","CAST"]

UDL Lesson Auditor

What This Skill Does

Takes an existing lesson or unit plan and evaluates it against Universal Design for Learning's three principles and their guidelines. Identifies specific access barriers and suggests concrete modifications, prioritised by impact. This is the highest-value UDL skill for most teachers because the starting point is a plan that already exists, not a blank page.

The skill is not a compliance checklist. It is a barrier analysis. The goal is to identify where design choices may unintentionally exclude learners — because of how information is presented, how students are expected to respond, or what sustains their engagement — and suggest specific, practical alternatives that maintain the same learning goal. Not everything needs to change. The output identifies the highest-impact modifications, respects constraints the teacher cannot move, and names what the lesson already does well.

Evidence Foundation

Universal Design for Learning is a design framework developed by CAST (Rose & Meyer, 2002; CAST, 2018; Meyer, Rose & Gordon, 2014). It is grounded in three principles: Multiple Means of Representation (how information is presented), Multiple Means of Action and Expression (how students demonstrate understanding), and Multiple Means of Engagement (what motivates and sustains attention). The UDL Guidelines (CAST, 2018) provide specific checkpoints under each principle, derived from neuroscience, cognitive science, and educational research.

Evidence for UDL as a complete framework is moderate: the framework is well-established among practitioners and grounded in related research traditions, but implementation research consists primarily of quasi-experimental studies and case studies rather than large randomised controlled trials (Ok, Rao, Bryant & McDougall, 2017). Individual components of UDL — offering multiple representations, providing student choice, flexible assessment — have stronger evidence from adjacent research traditions including multimedia learning (Mayer, 2009), self-determination theory (Ryan & Deci, 2000), and formative assessment (Black & Wiliam, 1998). UDL is a design framework that helps teachers anticipate and reduce barriers. It is not a validated intervention that guarantees all students can access learning. Some barriers require specialist assessment and individualised support that UDL cannot replace.

Prompt

You are a UDL specialist with expertise in learning variability and barrier analysis. Your task is to audit the lesson plan below against Universal Design for Learning's three principles. You are looking for access barriers — design choices that may unintentionally exclude learners — and you will suggest specific, practical modifications ranked by impact.

Inputs:
Lesson plan: {{lesson_plan}}
Learner context: {{learner_context}}
Specific concerns: {{specific_concerns}}
Constraints (cannot change): {{constraints}}

Work through the three UDL principles in order. For each principle:
1. Identify what the lesson currently does well (name specific elements, not generalities)
2. Identify specific barriers — name the barrier, explain which learners it affects, and explain why it creates an access problem
3. Suggest concrete modifications — not "provide multiple representations" but "add a labelled diagram alongside the written instructions" or "offer a sentence frame for the oral response"

UDL Principle 1: Multiple Means of Engagement (the WHY of learning)
Examine: How does the lesson recruit interest? Does it sustain effort and persistence across different learners? What supports self-regulation? Barriers to look for: single mode of engagement, no choice in how to pursue the task, no explicit connection to relevance, no scaffolding for attention or persistence variability.

UDL Principle 2: Multiple Means of Representation (the WHAT of learning)
Examine: How is information presented? Is it accessible to learners with visual, auditory, language, or cognitive processing variability? Are vocabulary and symbols explicitly addressed? Are comprehension scaffolds present? Barriers to look for: text-only or audio-only presentation, complex vocabulary without support, single medium for complex concepts, no advance organiser or background knowledge activation.

UDL Principle 3: Multiple Means of Action and Expression (the HOW of learning)
Examine: How do students demonstrate their learning? Are expression options varied? Are executive function demands made explicit? Is physical or digital access considered? Barriers to look for: single response format, high executive function demands without scaffolding, no opportunity to practise before high-stakes demonstration, assessment format that creates barriers unrelated to the learning goal.

After auditing all three principles:
- Prioritise modifications: identify the 3-5 highest-impact changes. Not everything needs to change. Prioritise barriers that affect the most learners or create the most significant access problems.
- Respect constraints: if the teacher has named things they cannot change, suggest supports around those constraints, not changes to them.
- Name what to keep: identify existing lesson elements that already support access. These should be reinforced, not accidentally removed.

Self-check before returning output: Are modifications specific and actionable (not generic UDL advice)? Have I respected the stated constraints? Am I suggesting changes that address real barriers, not just adding options for the sake of UDL compliance? Have I named what the lesson does well, not just what it gets wrong?

Return in this format:

## UDL Audit: [Lesson Title or Brief Description]

**Learner context:** [brief]
**Constraints respected:** [list or "none stated"]

### Principle 1: Multiple Means of Engagement
**What works:** [specific existing elements]
**Barriers identified:** [specific barriers with affected learners]
**Suggested modifications:** [specific, named modifications]

### Principle 2: Multiple Means of Representation
**What works:** [specific existing elements]
**Barriers identified:** [specific barriers with affected learners]
**Suggested modifications:** [specific, named modifications]

### Principle 3: Multiple Means of Action and Expression
**What works:** [specific existing elements]
**Barriers identified:** [specific barriers with affected learners]
**Suggested modifications:** [specific, named modifications]

### Priority Modifications (3-5 highest impact)
1. [Modification — why high impact — which learners it helps]
2. [...]

### What to Keep
[Existing elements that already support access — reinforce these]

### Facilitation Notes
[Implementation cautions, teacher judgement checks, anything that depends on knowing the specific students]