CAST (Center for Applied Special Technology)

CAST (Center for Applied Special Technology) CAST is a global leader in inclusive education. We researched and authored the UDL Framework and the CAST UDL Guidelines for inclusive learning.

Voting closes August 23, and there's still time to help us bring these sessions to SXSW EDU 2027.Beyond Co-Design: Build...
08/21/2026

Voting closes August 23, and there's still time to help us bring these sessions to SXSW EDU 2027.

Beyond Co-Design: Building Partnerships for Better Media
With Amanda Bastoni (CAST), Ibrahim Dahlstrom-Hakki (TERC), Sarah Ditkoff (FableVision), and Laurie Prewandowski (Kearsarge Regional School District)
🔗https://pulse.ly/y5y6wg8ya1

Compliance to Innovation: Accessible Assessments in AI Era
With Michelle Soriano (CAST)
🔗https://pulse.ly/imcci940do

Good Vibes! AI, UDL & Designing for Learner Variability
With Bobby Moore (CAST) and Christian Pinedo (aiEDU)
🔗https://pulse.ly/qiqhlkgj6k

Beyond Bans: What Teachers & Parents Want from Tech for Kids
With Kevin Johnstun (Walton Family Foundation), Lindsay Jones (CAST), Amanda Lenhart, and Medha Tare (Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop)
🔗https://pulse.ly/ozraccavuz

Neurodiversity-First EdTech Design
With Drew McCann (LitLab.ai) Luis Pérez, (CAST), Joe Savage (The LEGO Foundation), Meghan Whittaker (The Learning Agency)
🔗https://pulse.ly/dfkouelqtx

Inclusion by Design. Not by Retrofit.
With Luis Perez, CPWA (CAST) and Erin Stark (NewSchools Venture Fund)
🔗https://pulse.ly/2gainumhss

There are a couple of days left. Your vote helps bring UDL to the SXSW EDU stage. Thank you for supporting our work.

What does it look like when a researcher lives the work — not just professionally, but personally?In this episode of The...
08/20/2026

What does it look like when a researcher lives the work — not just professionally, but personally?

In this episode of The Learning Experience, host Bryan Dean talks with Sean J. Smith, Ph.D., the 2026 David Rose UDL Research Award recipient, about more than two decades of bringing UDL from the page to the classroom. They get into VOISS, AI SCORE, the difference between accessibility and availability, and what Dr. Smith sees as the field's most important unfinished work.

It's a rich conversation — and one of the more memorable endings we've had on the podcast.

Tune in:
Show notes: https://pulse.ly/lbm4mdq5hd

Transistor: https://pulse.ly/rdwolrptul

Apple: https://pulse.ly/kvocqh8a0h

Spotify: https://pulse.ly/uhykydbtbm

YouTube: https://pulse.ly/vnkvcbkewa

If you're the person your school turns to when a lesson needs rethinking, this one's for you.Our new PreK-12 UDL Coachin...
08/18/2026

If you're the person your school turns to when a lesson needs rethinking, this one's for you.

Our new PreK-12 UDL Coaching Academy pilot is for educators ready to drive systemic change and earn a CAST Coaching Credential along the way.

Applications close August 21

Details and application: https://pulse.ly/n3tfiutcct

There's still time to register for our free webinar on designing the first weeks of school using the UDL Guidelines. Nie...
08/18/2026

There's still time to register for our free webinar on designing the first weeks of school using the UDL Guidelines. Niel Albero and Melissa Sanjeh share how you can build in flexible routines and multiple ways for students to engage from day one.

📅 Wednesday, August 19 at 3pm ET
🔗 Register: https://pulse.ly/czdyemnrlh
Thanks to Scanning Pens for sponsoring this event.

Looking for tools that give students more ways to access content, engage, and show what they know?Join us for a quick lo...
08/13/2026

Looking for tools that give students more ways to access content, engage, and show what they know?

Join us for a quick look at what's new from ReadSpeaker, Scanning Pens, and Robolink.

📅 August 27 at 3pm ET

Register:
https://pulse.ly/kjrjowdugt

Help us welcome Dr. Alicia Averette to the CAST board.Dr. Averette currently serves as Executive Officer of Student Supp...
08/12/2026

Help us welcome Dr. Alicia Averette to the CAST board.

Dr. Averette currently serves as Executive Officer of Student Support and Community Engagement for Jefferson County Public Schools, one of the nation's largest school districts. With nearly 30 years in public education, she has dedicated her career to expanding educational opportunities and building comprehensive systems of support for students and families.

She began as an elementary teacher before serving as a school counselor, principal, district leader, and assistant superintendent. At the district level, her leadership has spanned programs for students with disabilities, early childhood education, multilingual learner services, and school mental health, among others. Under her leadership, programs for students with disabilities and early childhood education exited state monitoring, and multilingual learner programming expanded into every school in the district. She also led development of the Elev8 Student Learning Centers, an after-school model recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as a best practice.

Board members guide our strategy, help steward our mission, and carry our work into new rooms and conversations.

Join us in celebrating Alicia. 🎉

Fancy cursive or bubble letters might make a post stand out, but they leave out people who rely on a screen reader. It m...
08/11/2026

Fancy cursive or bubble letters might make a post stand out, but they leave out people who rely on a screen reader. It may skip the stylized text entirely, or announce a string of unrelated symbol names instead of the words you wrote.

That's because stylized Unicode "letters" aren't really letters at all. They're separate symbols standing in for letters, so a screen reader can't process them the way it processes standard text.

At CAST, we stick to plain text in every post, including this one.

✨ Make it a habit to type in standard letters, even when you want something to stand out.

Not sure what counts as stylized? If you copied it from a "fancy font" generator website, skip it. Save the visual styling for your graphics instead.

Stylized text is a small thing to skip, but it makes a real difference in who can access your message.

If you've started experimenting with AI tools to build something for your classroom, a few questions are worth asking be...
08/11/2026

If you've started experimenting with AI tools to build something for your classroom, a few questions are worth asking before you get too far in.

These came out of a workshop we ran with aiEDU exploring what happens when AI-assisted building meets Universal Design for Learning. Participants moved from identifying a challenge to building a working prototype in the same session, everything from an accessible scientific calculator to a switch-compatible typing tool.

We've put together a field resource with the full set of questions, plus a UDL-informed process for approaching vibe coding, key considerations for accessibility and safety, and a sample of the prototypes participants built.

🔗 https://pulse.ly/junqx1daxk

The CAST UDL Guidelines™ 3.0 graphic organizer is now available in 24 languages, from Arabic to Welsh.If you teach in a ...
08/07/2026

The CAST UDL Guidelines™ 3.0 graphic organizer is now available in 24 languages, from Arabic to Welsh.

If you teach in a language other than English, there is a good chance a colleague somewhere in the world has already translated this framework for you.

Find your language on our downloads page: https://pulse.ly/nrpcht5ygb

Help us bring these sessions to SXSW EDU!Community voting is open through August 23, and we have five session proposals ...
08/07/2026

Help us bring these sessions to SXSW EDU!

Community voting is open through August 23, and we have five session proposals in the mix this year.

Beyond Co-Design: Building Partnerships for Better Media
With Amanda Bastoni (CAST), Ibrahim Dahlstrom-Hakki (TERC), Sarah Ditkoff (FableVision ), and Laurie Prewandowski (Kearsarge Regional School District)
🔗https://pulse.ly/ubewsoikki

Compliance to Innovation: Accessible Assessments in AI Era
With Michelle Soriano, Ed.M., CPACC (CAST)
🔗https://pulse.ly/oimzv2xewo

Good Vibes! AI, UDL & Designing for Learner Variability
With Bobby Moore (CAST) and Christian Pinedo (aiEDU)
🔗https://pulse.ly/rncn3roggr

Beyond Bans: What Teachers & Parents Want from Tech for Kids
With Kevin Johnstun (Walton Family Foundation ), Lindsay Jones (CAST), Amanda Lenhart, and Medha Tare (Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop)
🔗https://pulse.ly/mm2e0f1q7c

Inclusion by Design. Not by Retrofit.
With Luis Perez (CAST) and Erin Stark (NewSchools Venture Fund )
🔗https://pulse.ly/5bad9y4ybi

Your vote helps bring UDL to the SXSW EDU stage. Thank you for supporting our work.

Address

Lynnfield, MA
01940

Opening Hours

Monday 8:30am - 5pm
Tuesday 8:30am - 5pm
Wednesday 8:30am - 5pm
Thursday 8:30am - 5pm
Friday 8:30am - 5pm

Telephone

+17812452212

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when CAST (Center for Applied Special Technology) posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The School

Send a message to CAST (Center for Applied Special Technology):

Shortcuts

Share

Category