UDL – Clarify Vocabulary, Strengthen Learning

Friday, 10/24/2025

At the CTL, our theme for this semester is Universal Design for Learning (UDL). Each Teaching Minute explores one UDL principle, and we're sharing a few options for small adjustments you can make to your teaching. This Teaching Minute continues our focus on UDL’s Representation Principle/Language & Symbols.

As we move into the second half of the semester, many of us are giving feedback on midterms, preparing students for final projects, or introducing more complex material. This can be a great time to pause and reflect on how we’re communicating key ideas and expectations.

One important aspect of the Representation principle is to clarify vocabulary, symbols, and language structures . Because our students come from a wide range of backgrounds, languages, and experiences, they interpret and make meaning in different ways. Using plain language in your course materials and assignment descriptions can help all students clearly understand your key ideas and expectations.

What is Plain Language

The International Plain Language Federation defines plain language this way:

“A communication is in plain language if its wording, structure, and design are so clear that the intended readers can easily find what they need, understand what they find, and use that information.” 

Plain language focuses on three main elements:

• Wording: Express ideas clearly and directly.
• Structure: Help readers find what’s most important
• Design: Make reading smooth and comfortable.

Why Plain Language Matters

Writing in plain language promotes inclusivity. Plain language gives everyone access, including students who have cognitive disabilities, temporary disabilities (i.e., people with concussions), or students from various cultural, linguistic, and educational backgrounds. Clear, direct writing also supports comprehension and reduces cognitive load, allowing students to focus on the content itself instead of trying to interpret complex language.

Practical Ideas to Try

• Reflect on your writing style. Does your writing:
  • Use a conversational tone and personal pronouns?
  • Favor active voice and shorter sentences?
  • Define unfamiliar terms and minimize jargon?
  • Use formatting, like meaningful headers, bullet points, and white space – to make reading easier?
• Ask for feedback. Invite a colleague (perhaps from another discipline) or a student to review a course description or assignment for clarity.
• Review a description for an upcoming assignment. Are your expectations easy to follow? You might also apply the “Transparency in Learning and Teaching” framework to clearly communicate the assignment’s purpose, expectations, and steps for completion.
• Try using AI tools. Copy a section of your writing into MS Copilot and ask it to identify overly complex passages and suggest plain language revisions while keeping your meaning intact.
• Explore Brightspace document templates. These templates improve readability by providing built-in formatting such as headers, bulleted lists, and graphic elements to increase readability. This 3-minute tutorial (YouTube) shows how to create a page in Brightspace using a document template.

Digging Deeper

• The UVM Center for Disability and Inclusion offers plain language resources including toolkits and a checklist.
• University of Washington, Say What? The benefits of plain language in academia (PDF)
• Chronicle of Higher Education, Jason Jones, Plain Language and Inclusive Document Design (requires free account available to all UVM affiliates)
• The Hechinger Report, Andy Johnson, One surprising barrier to college success: Dense higher education lingo

If you want to talk through how UDL could work in your own course, the CTL team is here to brainstorm ideas, share strategies, or connect with upcoming workshops. Schedule a consultation with us to keep the conversation going!

Happy teaching!

Center for Teaching & Learning 
www.uvm.edu/ctl
ctl@uvm.edu