What Does It Mean to Design Learning for the Way People Actually Learn?

By Amie Cunningham | Inclusive By Design

Walk into almost any workplace training or professional development session and you will find people who learn differently.

Some need time to process information before responding. Others learn best by seeing an example, trying something themselves, or discussing it with someone else. Some learners easily manage multiple instructions at once, while others benefit from information being broken into clear, manageable steps.

These differences are not exceptions to learning. They are part of learning.

That is why inclusive design begins with a different question.

Instead of asking, “How do we help someone fit into the learning experience we already created?” we can ask:

“How can we design the learning experience so fewer people encounter barriers in the first place?”

That shift is at the heart of Inclusive By Design.

Accessibility Should Begin Before the Accommodation Request

Accessibility is often treated as something we add after a learner identifies a need.

A participant requests captions. An employee asks for written instructions. Someone needs additional processing time. Another learner struggles with a training module filled with dense text and unclear navigation.

Accommodations remain important, but inclusive learning design asks us to think earlier.

What barriers can we anticipate?

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) provides a useful framework for doing this. Rather than assuming everyone will engage with, understand, and demonstrate learning in the same way, UDL encourages designers and facilitators to provide flexibility.

That might mean offering information through more than one format, providing clear instructions and examples, allowing learners meaningful ways to participate, or giving people opportunities to practice before they are expected to perform independently.

Neurodiversity Makes This Especially Important

Neurodivergent learners including people with ADHD, autism, dyslexia, and differences in executive functioning, may encounter barriers that have little to do with their ability to understand the content.

Consider an employee attending mandatory workplace training.

The presentation moves quickly. Slides contain large amounts of text. Instructions are given verbally while participants are expected to begin an activity. Several conversations are happening around the room, and the facilitator suddenly changes the activity without providing the new instructions in writing.

The employee may know the subject matter very well.

The barrier is not necessarily the content.

The barrier may be the design of the learning experience.

This distinction matters.

When we recognize that the learning environment itself can create barriers, we gain opportunities to redesign it.

What Inclusive Learning Design Can Look Like

Inclusive design does not require creating a completely different training program for every learner.

Often, relatively small design choices can make learning more usable.

For example:

• Provide written and verbal instructions.

• Break complex tasks into manageable steps.

• Use predictable navigation and course structures.

• Explain expectations before activities begin.

• Provide captions and transcripts for multimedia.

• Reduce unnecessary visual and cognitive clutter.

• Give learners opportunities to pause, review, and practice.

• Use examples that connect learning to real workplace situations.

• Provide resources learners can reference after training ends.

• Offer more than one appropriate way to engage or demonstrate understanding.

These practices can support neurodivergent learners, but their usefulness extends far beyond any single group.

An employee learning in a second language may benefit from written instructions. Someone returning to work after an absence may appreciate a job aid. A new employee may need additional examples. An experienced employee may want the flexibility to move quickly through material they already understand.

Good inclusive design creates options without lowering expectations.

Inclusion Is Not About Making Learning Easier

One misconception about accessibility and inclusive design is that providing flexibility somehow reduces rigor.

It does not have to.

The goal is to remove barriers that are unrelated to what someone is actually expected to learn or do.

If an employee needs to demonstrate that they can complete a workplace process correctly, the learning experience should help them develop and demonstrate that skill. Their ability to decipher confusing instructions should not become an unintended part of the assessment.

That distinction is important for instructional designers, trainers, educators, managers, and organizations.

We can maintain meaningful expectations while improving the pathways people have to reach them.

From Accommodation to Design

Creating more inclusive learning environments requires us to move beyond reacting to individual barriers.

We can begin anticipating them.

Before launching your next course, workshop, onboarding program, or professional development session, ask:

Where might a learner encounter an unnecessary barrier?

Then look at the experience from several perspectives.

Can learners easily determine what they are supposed to do? Is important information available in accessible formats? Are they given enough structure to manage complex tasks? Can they revisit information when needed? Are there unnecessary demands on attention, memory, or executive functioning?

You may not eliminate every barrier.

But every barrier removed through thoughtful design means one less learner has to struggle or disclose a disability and request an accommodation just to participate.

Design for Variability from the Beginning

There is no single “average learner.”

People bring different experiences, abilities, identities, strengths, responsibilities, and ways of processing information into every learning environment.

Our learning experiences should be designed with that variability in mind.

At Inclusive By Design, that belief can be summarized simply:

Identify. Redesign. Support. Empower. Thrive.

Identify the barriers.

Redesign what we can.

Support people with meaningful options.

Empower learners to use the strategies and resources that work for them.

And create environments where more people have the opportunity to thrive.

Because inclusive learning should not be something we add later.

It should be part of the design from the beginning.