Inclusive Teaching with AI: Universal Design for Learning in Practice
Every class has students the lesson does not reach. This week you learn to design lessons that reach them — using Universal Design for Learning and AI tools to make materials accessible, give students more ways to show what they know, and keep them engaged.
Why this is Erasmus+ eligible
Structured, multi-day programme (5 days) with a pre-defined schedule and learning outcomes — not a passive lecture format.
Built around interaction: participants engage directly with the trainer and with peers from other countries throughout the course.
Transnational by design — open to participants travelling from outside the host country, a core requirement of Erasmus+ mobility funding.
Aligned with the Erasmus+ horizontal priority: Inclusion & Diversity.
Inclusion and diversity is the first priority listed in the Erasmus+ Programme Guide, which describes disability as covering “physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which, in interaction with various barriers, may hinder someone's full and effective participation in society on the same footing as others” (Erasmus+ Programme Guide 2026, Part A – Priorities of the Erasmus+ Programme, p. 7). This week works on those barriers in the ordinary classroom: participants use Universal Design for Learning to find where a lesson shuts students out, and AI tools to remove the barrier faster — accessible texts, captions, more ways to show learning — while keeping students' personal data out of those tools. They finish the week with a complete inclusive lesson for their own class.
Overview
Some students cannot read the text, some cannot show what they know in writing, and some switch off. This week you learn to plan for all of them from the start, with Universal Design for Learning (UDL) — and to use AI tools so that it takes minutes, not evenings.
- Monday — barriers, not labels: you map where one of your own lessons loses students.
- Tuesday — one content, many ways in: accessible texts, read-aloud, captions and translation, made with AI and checked by you.
- Wednesday — many ways to show learning: tools and supports for students who find writing, planning or focus hard — including many students with dyslexia, ADHD or autism.
- Thursday — keeping everyone engaged, including your most able students.
- Friday — your inclusive lesson, finished and checked, and the rules for using AI safely with students’ data.
You go home with one complete lesson from your own teaching, redesigned for the whole class, with AI-made materials and a version that works without devices.
Description
Inclusive teaching often fails for a simple reason: preparing a second version of every text, captions for every video and a different task for every need takes more time than any teacher has. AI tools change that. A simpler version of a text, an image description or a checklist that breaks a task into steps can now be drafted in minutes. What they do not change is the need for a plan — and for a teacher who checks what the tool produced.
The plan in this course is Universal Design for Learning (UDL), developed by CAST and updated in 2024 as UDL Guidelines 3.0. Its idea is that barriers sit in the design of a lesson, not in the student — and that a lesson planned from the start for the range of students in the room works better for everyone. UDL has three principles: give students more than one way to take in the content, more than one way to show what they have learned, and more than one reason to stay engaged. The week follows them one per day.
Each day you try the tools yourself, then use them on material from your own teaching: a text made accessible, an assessment task with more than one way to answer, a choice board that challenges your most able students without separating them. Every material you make also has a version that needs no device.
One rule runs through the whole week: a student’s name, diagnosis, work or personal details never go into an AI tool. Health information is special category data under European data protection law, and you write a short data rule for your own school.
Methodology
every session starts from a barrier in a real lesson — reading the text, showing the answer, staying with the task — not from a diagnosis.
the three UDL principles, one per day from Tuesday to Thursday, each with the AI tools that help with it.
you bring the plan of one lesson in your head, and each day you redesign one part of it.
every AI output is checked for accuracy, meaning and tone before it reaches a student, and every material has a paper version.
What you'll take home
Map the barriers in one of your own lessons using the three principles of Universal Design for Learning.
Make a text, a video and an image accessible — easy-to-read versions, read-aloud, captions, image descriptions and translation — with AI tools, and check what the tools produced.
Design an assessment task with more than one way for students to show what they know, with supports for students who find writing, planning or focus hard — including many students with dyslexia, ADHD or autism.
Build a choice board that keeps all students engaged and challenges your most able students.
Apply a clear data rule: what never goes into an AI tool, and why.
One complete inclusive lesson from your own teaching, with AI-made materials and a paper version.
Daily programme
- Icebreaker: “Where the lesson lost them” — in pairs, participants introduce themselves (name, country, what they teach) and describe one moment in a lesson when a student could not take part, naming the barrier, not the student or the diagnosis
- Universal Design for Learning, Guidelines 3.0 (CAST, 2024): three principles and nine guidelines, read together online at the source, and the idea that barriers sit in the design — for the individual, the school and the system
- What AI changes: tasks that used to take an evening — a second version of a text, captions, a picture description, a step-by-step checklist — now take minutes; and what it adds: wrong answers, bias and data risks
- Barrier map: you choose one lesson from your own teaching and mark where a student could get stuck — seeing or hearing it, understanding the language, showing the answer, keeping focus, caring about it
- The data rule from day one: no names, no diagnoses, no student work, no personal details in any AI tool — health information is special category data under European data protection law
- Output: the barrier map of your lesson
- Warm-up: “Read it three ways” — the same short text read silently, heard with a read-aloud tool, and seen as a picture summary; participants say which way worked best for them, and why that differs from their neighbour
- Seeing and hearing the content: read-aloud and captions already built into common tools, such as Immersive Reader in Word or Live Caption in Chrome; AI-drafted descriptions of images and diagrams, checked by the teacher
- Language: an AI-drafted easy-to-read version of a text and a short glossary; translation for students still learning the language of the school — and a check of what the tool changed or left out
- Building on what students know: an AI-drafted list of the background knowledge a text assumes, and a short pre-teaching step
- The checking routine: is it accurate, is the meaning the same, is the tone right, is it at the right level?
- Output: one text from your lesson in three accessible forms, with a paper version
- When writing is the barrier: speech-to-text and dictation, and AI used as a scaffold that asks questions rather than writing the answer — for students with dyslexia or motor difficulties
- Planning and focus: AI-drafted task breakdowns, checklists and visual schedules for students who need structure, including students with ADHD or autism — kept predictable and checked by the teacher
- More than one product: showing learning by speaking, drawing, building, recording or writing — and marking them fairly with the same criteria
- Design time: one assessment task from your own subject, redesigned
- Output: an assessment task with two or three ways to show learning, and a support checklist
- Interest and identity: AI to find examples from the kinds of interests students in your class have — described in general terms, never by name — and to offer real choices in a task
- Effort and challenge: extension tasks for gifted and high-ability students that deepen the same topic rather than separating them, and supports for students who give up early
- Feedback that keeps students going: AI-drafted feedback comments on an invented sample of student work, rewritten by the teacher so they sound like you and fit the student
- Fairness check: how a tool treats different names, languages and accents — tested with invented examples
- Emotional capacity: a reset option and a predictable routine built into the choice board, for students who find it hard to manage frustration
- Output: a choice board for your lesson — core, support and stretch options
- Opening session — putting it together: Monday's lesson revised through all three principles, with Tuesday's materials, Wednesday's task and Thursday's choice board
- Peer review in threes with a short UDL checklist: where could a student still get stuck?
- The rules around AI: the data rule, the tools your school allows, telling families, checking every output — written as one page for your school
- Your first step: what you will try in the first week back
- Output: your complete inclusive lesson plan and your one-page AI rule
- Selected work in plenary: two or three participants who want to present their lesson do so, by choice
- Course evaluation and feedback
- Certificate ceremony
Please note: sessions run from 09:30 to 15:00, Monday to Friday, with a break for lunch. Timings can shift a little to suit the venue and the group. If you'd like a specific topic covered, let us know when you apply — the confirmed day-by-day schedule is sent to registered participants ahead of the course.
Certificate: we issue the Certificate of Attendance to everyone who's present for at least 80% of the course — tracked with the daily sign-in sheet (see Certificate & assessment).
Equipment: a few of our courses ask participants to bring a laptop — check the day-by-day programme above, or ask us if you're not sure.
Need a formal invoice or proforma for your school's records? Ask us — we issue official invoices with the participant's name and course details.
Course page last updated: 27 September 2026
Materials & tools
UDL Guidelines 3.0, read online at the CAST website, with a one-page summary of the principles and guidelines in plain words
A barrier map template
An accessibility checklist for texts, videos and images
A checking routine for AI outputs
A choice board template and a peer-review checklist
Your inclusive lesson plan and one-page AI rule — built by you during the week
Certificate & assessment
This is a Certificate of Attendance, not an exam-based qualification — recognition comes from completing the structured programme, not from passing a test. The real, lasting value is in the competencies listed above under What you'll take home.
Type your name above — clearly marked "SAMPLE" in the PDF, not an official document.
The real certificate is signed by your trainer and EMA's authorised signatory. Your own signature isn't on this document — it's captured separately, on the Europass Mobility document.
Need to verify a real certificate? Check it online using the serial number and participant's full name, or contact us directly — [email protected], OID E10304561.
Tracked using a sign-in sheet with one signature per participant per day (paper or digital). This record is used to issue your Certificate of Attendance and Europass Mobility document. View sign-in sheet (PDF)
Every participant leaves with a completed Dissemination & School Impact Plan — a step-by-step template for applying the course back at your school (see below).
An end-of-course evaluation form is sent to every participant after the course ends — a chance to reflect on what you've learned and how you'll apply it, and it helps us keep improving the course for future participants.
Keep your travel tickets, boarding passes and (if you used green travel) any related receipts — your school or National Agency may ask for these for their own Erasmus+ reporting.
How to prepare
You do not need to read anything in advance or know anything technical. It helps to have one lesson from your own teaching in mind — one that did not reach every student. If you do not teach a class yourself, you can work on a lesson of a colleague you support, or on a sample lesson the trainer provides.
A laptop or tablet is useful, as most sessions try tools hands-on; if you do not have one, you work with a partner, and every task also has a paper version.
No account needs to be created for the course activities; if you already use an AI assistant you can work with it, and otherwise you work with a partner or on the trainer's screen.
Practical information
Registration & documents
Not sure how registering works or what paperwork is involved? See our full Registration & Documents guide — from applying to your Certificate of Attendance, in one place.
Invitation letter
Need a formal invitation letter for your school or embassy? Request one — we send it within 2 business days. See a sample (PDF).
Learning Agreement
Prepared by our staff and sent to you and your school once your registration form is submitted — see what it looks like. See a sample (PDF).
Billing & invoicing
We issue official invoices/proformas with the participant's name and course details — ask us. Payment is due in full by bank transfer before the course start date. See a sample (PDF).
Airport transfer
Guidance on getting from the nearest airport to the venue is included in your welcome information.
Accommodation
We can recommend partner hotels close to the venue in the host city — ask us when you apply.
School impact
After completing this course, the participating staff member can transfer outcomes directly to their school: a short briefing for colleagues sharing the key takeaways, applying relevant tools or strategies from the programme in their own role, and inclusion of the course materials in the school's professional development resources — turning one person's mobility into a wider institutional gain that supports the school's Erasmus+ objectives. Use the Dissemination & School Impact Plan below to fill in your own — it saves as you go and can generate a one-page summary for your coordinator too.
0/5 sections started
Write your answers in English — it keeps every teacher's plan consistent if your coordinator compares several.
Filling these in ties this plan to a specific mobility — useful if your coordinator collects plans from several courses/teachers.
Photos of the session or sign-in sheet are embedded straight into both PDFs — they aren't autosaved, so re-attach them if you reload this page. The link above IS autosaved.
If you're presenting, base it on the course materials — a summary slide for colleagues rarely needs more than 15–20 minutes.
Name the real class, year group or school process you'll apply this to — not the course topic itself.
Give the admin a one-page summary: what the course delivered, the cost, how it feeds into the school plan, and the expected outcome.
Your check-in date is before the planned application date in Step 2 — check-ins usually happen a few months after you've actually applied the course, so there's something real to report.
Saved automatically in this browser as you type — nothing is sent to our server. Nothing here is invented for you; leave a field blank if it doesn't apply yet.
Prefer a blank, course-independent version of this template? Get it here →
After the course
Participants will receive their Certificate of Attendance and the co-signed Europass Mobility document.
Participants will complete a general course evaluation and event survey.
Participants will receive course materials, videos, photos, and PDF documents in both digital and print formats.
Follow-up support: an email group is created for idea exchange, self-evaluation materials are provided, and participants receive a follow-up check-in after 3 months — a chance to share how your inclusive lesson worked with your students and what you changed.
Frequently asked
This course is an eligible training activity under Erasmus+ Key Action 1 (School Education Mobility) — the course fee, travel and subsistence fall within the eligible cost categories. Whether it is covered depends on your own project's approved grant agreement and your National Agency's rules; we provide all the invoices, attendance records and certificates your National Agency requires for reporting.
B1 is enough — you do not need to be fluent. Trainers speak slowly and plainly, every session is built around doing something rather than sitting and listening, and groups are mixed by nationality so people help each other out. A rough test: if you could follow a staff meeting held in English and ask a question in it, you will be fine here.
Absolutely — group bookings of 3+ from one school or organisation receive priority placement, and we can schedule a dedicated session for groups of 12 or more.
Our courses run on request at our centres in Antalya, İstanbul, İzmir, Mersin, Budapest, Bremen and Rome. Tell us your preferred city and dates and we will arrange a session.
Tuition, all course materials, your Certificate of Attendance, and the co-signed Europass Mobility document. Flights, accommodation and travel insurance are booked separately — we send a vetted hotel list.
You can move to any later session free of charge. Cancellations made 30+ days before the start date receive a full refund; a reduced refund applies closer to the date — see our full Cancellation & Refund Policy for the exact schedule.
Inclusion and diversity is the first priority listed in the Erasmus+ Programme Guide, which describes disability as covering “physical, mental, intellectual or sensory impairments which, in interaction with various barriers, may hinder someone's full and effective participation in society on the same footing as others” (Erasmus+ Programme Guide 2026, Part A – Priorities of the Erasmus+ Programme, p. 7). This week works on those barriers in the ordinary classroom: participants use Universal Design for Learning to find where a lesson shuts students out, and AI tools to remove the barrier faster — accessible texts, captions, more ways to show learning — while keeping students' personal data out of those tools. They finish the week with a complete inclusive lesson for their own class. Frame it in your own project's terms — your National Agency's current call will confirm exactly how it applies.
No. The course starts from barriers you already see in your own lessons, and every tool is tried step by step. Teachers of any subject and level take part.
No. You work with your own lesson plans and with invented examples. One of the rules of the course is that a student's name, diagnosis, work or personal details never go into an AI tool.
Digital Tools for Students with Special Needs focuses on assistive technology for specific needs, such as communication pages and visual schedules; The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Personalized Learning focuses on adapting one lesson for different levels. This course uses Universal Design for Learning to redesign a whole lesson for the whole class, with AI tools across all three principles.
Dates on request
No public dates scheduled yet. Tell us your preferred city, month and group size — we'll get back to you within 1 business day to discuss options.
Request a date Cancellation & refund policyWhat's included
Not included
Aggregated across all EMA courses, not specific to this session.
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