Louise Bøttcher

September 2024

Stanford Neurodiversity Summit 2024

Thank you, organizers, for a wonderful, inspirational Stanford Neurodiversity Summit 2024. It have provided me with so many new thoughts, connections, ideas that I will continue to process as I work through my notes from the three days. But before I even get to that, the organization of the Summit provides inspiration in itself. Clear lay-out of slides, automatic closed captioning on presentations, the color red, yellow or green on your name tag to signal your preference for communication, silent/deaf-style applause are all examples of accommodations in Universal Design Style: They cater for certain groups of people while being helpful or at least not in any way harmful for the rest of the people present. In the days to come, I will continue to think about the links between the neurodiversity movement and Universal Design for Learning.

I participated at the Stanford Neurodiversity Summit 2024 both hoping for inspiration more openly, but also seeking possible answers to a set of questions. The poster session on the second day brought many visitors to my poster and I got a lot of great input in response to my questions: What are typical problems you experience when teaching neurodiverse students? Students might not be aware of their neurodivergence – are feeling wrong or stupid instead. How might the problems be related to educational situations, specific tasks and structural conditions? Learning environments organized according to neurotypical ways of learning. Deciphering of hidden rules of the learning environments. Lack of an accepting environment, leading students with neurodiversity to spend energy on blending in rather than on learning. What types of support are offered to students with neurodiversity? Mentoring or tutoring is often mentioned. Supporting the student to discover him- or herself as a learner. Both in regard of difficulties and strengths. In your experience, what types of technologies, activities, services and organizations have proven efficient as concrete steps towards inclusion in higher educational institutions? Technologies that offer ways to structure learning tasks. Services that are helpful to some but available for all. Interventions that address organizational culture rather than checklists of good practices.

The most important lesson from the Stanford Neurodiversity Summit 2024 regarded the connection between Universal Design for Learning (UDL) and Neurodiversity. UDL is implicit to the Neurodiversity concept. It is the idea that is we take into account the differences in learning profiles and learning styles, more people will be able to benefit from the learning activities. The added aspect of neurodiversity is a bigger stress on biological/constitutional differences in thinking styles and learning styles. Neurodiversity points us in the direction of being aware of what the different types of neurodiversity can be and how to accommodate the environment to enable this person to function and contribute. However, this movement is about more than developing the organization of universities as learning spaces and workplaces. As expressed by Dr. Keivan Stassun from Vanderbilt University, thinking with UDL and neurodiversity in higher education is not only about how to create room and accommodations for people with disabilities, but about improving the research, enabling the participation of a new groups of people, new ways of thinking and new ideas to be expressed. Higher educational institutions exist around the cultivation of thinking skills and the ability to approach societal problems with new ideas and new angles. Something people with neurodiversity can contribute to when the learning environments and research environments are designe to accommodate different ways of studying and working, for example clear, direct communication including feedback in real-time and assignments with explicit steps and deadlines.

October 2024

Classrooms and UDL

Today, I had the pleasure of a conversation with Bob; Robert Emery Smith, Director of Learning Space Design & Innovation and Classroom Innovation about how classrooms can support UDL at Stanford University. Starting in 2019, Stanford University initiated a process of developing a strategy for how to develop classrooms as learning spaces that support core values such as equity and learning: https://lnkd.in/eriHbkbD
Flexible classrooms: Tables and chairs have wheels and are easy to move. There are several large whiteboards on the walls or the wall itself is made into a whiteboard. Small whiteboards are available for handling or hanging on the wall. The chairs are chosen for general comfort. The flexible classroom supports a pedagogy of students’ active learning. Big and small whiteboards enable groups or individual students or the whole class to draw, make lists, do mind mapping. It supports multiple ways of engaging with the syllabus and multiple ways of presenting knowledge and academic thinking.
Stanford Focus: An audio system open for all students. The sound in the room goes into a server. By scanning a QR code in the room, the student can access the audio using their phone and listen to the room audio (e.g. the lecture) using regular earbuds. The sound is of the lecturer only, while distracting noises (aircon, keyboard tapping, the rustling of people moving) is filtered out. This system is available especially in larger classrooms and lecture halls. I can see this as a help for all students who get distracted by noise, who otherwise need a little extra to pay attention and students hard of hearing.
Many classrooms have a ‘voice lift’ sound system that picks up the sound of the one talking and amplifies it. Again to help focus and the ability to hear what is being said. Some classrooms can also filter the sound in groups, supporting group work even in a large classroom with many groups working at the same time. Design of more flexible informal learning spaces. Informal learning spaces are important in higher education because a large part of the learning activities take place outside the classroom or lecture hall: Individual studying, project work, group work. Informal learning also needs supportive spaces that allows many different ways of working. New refurbished students’ work spaces: Very flexible, single, group, whiteboards, screened and sound-reducing work spaces. Material on the wall absorbs acoustic energy and creates a comfortable acoustic environment.

Meeting with Bevica Scholar winner

Yesterday, I met up in San Francisco with Daura van Vuuren, the first winner of the great Bevica Scholarship prize in the student category. So interesting to hear about her travels and experiences. Also, we were amazed to find so many similarities in being Bevica Scholarship travelers even though our projects are about two different topics; Climate change and education. The feeling of learning something new all the time. To meet very different people with an open mind, interesting and knowledgeable people, people with very different experiences, and learn from them. It is a role inherent to the Scholarship program but we both felt strongly how the urge to follow the task we have each set upon ourselves with our projects had forced us to broaden our minds. As we have gathered experience and knowledge, we had also both experienced the complexity of thinking with Universal Design, in relation to Climate Change and sustainability and in relation to education. Moving from top-down strategic decisions that can release the necessary resources for change to grassroot bottom-up initiative because those involved directly with the problems are necessary to involve in the solutions. This can be educators and students (for UDL in higher education) and disability activists and disability organizations (for UD in climate change precautions and solutions). Both of us feel like we are still gathering pieces to a puzzle with a complex picture.
Thank you, Daura. Safe travels until you get home in November.

November 2024