Teaching Outside the Lines: Designing Inclusive Classrooms for Neurodivergent Learners

Too often, school success is defined by how well a student fits a predetermined mold: quick with language, compliant with structure, and comfortable with linear tasks. This narrow vision excludes the wide range of learners in our classrooms and ignores many of the skills all students need to thrive beyond school.

In traditional models, school success often looks like:

• Following instructions exactly

• Working quickly under time pressure

• Conforming to expectations

• Demonstrating knowledge through tests and presentations

• Prioritizing grades and external rewards

Meanwhile, real-world success looks more like:

• Adapting and problem-solving when instructions are unclear or missing

• Thinking deeply and persisting through complex, open-ended challenges

• Innovating when standard formats fall short

• Communicating ideas through flexible, context-driven methods

• Prioritizing growth, curiosity, and long-term goals

• Showing resilience through ambiguity, setbacks, and evolving conditions

For students with learning differences, the mismatch can be even more pronounced: often reinforcing barriers to success instead of removing them. If we want to expand students’ capacity to grow and build skills for real-world readiness, we need to design lessons where students can experience and practice future-facing skills from the start. That’s where Universal Design for Learning (UDL) comes in. Rather than retrofitting instruction after barriers arise, UDL embeds access, flexibility, and responsiveness into the core of the learning experience. It’s not about making learning easier—it’s about making it more accessible, authentic, and empowering for everyone. Here are four key ways UDL classrooms support students with learning differences (and elevate learning for all):

1. Multiple Ways to Access Information
UDL classrooms present ideas through diverse modalities—visuals, audio, models, and movement. This benefits students with language processing or attention challenges, and anyone who grasps concepts more readily through varied formats. When students can see, hear, and interact with content, understanding deepens.

2. Flexible Paths for Engagement
Engagement isn’t one-size-fits-all. Some students thrive in discussion; others in independent exploration. UDL offers scaffolded opportunities for all students to access and engage with content. By offering meaningful choice, teachers help students build the skills, competencies, and confidence to reflect on their learning and take ownership of it.

3. Varied Ways to Show Understanding
Instead of relying on a single output, like a test or essay, UDL classrooms invite students to demonstrate understanding through building, designing, presenting, performing, or writing. This flexibility provides a more accurate and authentic picture of what students know—especially for those with expressive language or executive functioning differences.

4. Reflection as a Core Practice
With voice and choice comes ownership. UDL emphasizes metacognition: helping students recognize how they learn, where they face challenges, and when they improve. Feedback becomes less about judging a final product and more about cultivating self-awareness, effective effort, and adaptive learning strategies.

Moving Forward: Designing for the Learners We Have
Accessibility doesn’t mean lowering expectations; it means widening the path. When we design for diverse ways of thinking and doing, we don't just improve access—we create classrooms that are more human, more responsive, and more aligned with the world students are preparing to enter.

Good design is inclusive design. And inclusive design benefits everyone.