Students don’t learn best when they feel like widgets on an assembly line. They thrive when they have a little control over their own learning experiences.
That feeling of power is called learner agency, and it’s associated with stronger educational outcomes like graduating from college. The more agency a student feels, the better.
So how do we help students build a sense of agency? Start with Universal Design for Learning (UDL), a framework for more inclusive learning environments. According to CAST, the nonprofit behind the UDL Guidelines, the entire purpose of UDL is to expand learner agency.
The UDL Guidelines do this by giving students access to experiences that work for each individual—their own unique combination of needs, talents, and preferences. That requires tools like text to speech (TTS), which gives students the choice between reading and listening.
ReadSpeaker is a leading provider of TTS and voice-enhanced learning tools, and we’ve drawn on UDL to design our solutions for years. In 2024, CAST and ReadSpeaker began working together to help educators build learning environments that foster a sense of agency in every student.
Here’s what you need to know about why learner agency matters—and how a combination of UDL and TTS tools can empower your students to succeed.
Understanding Learner Agency
In psychology, “agency” refers to possession of “the power and capability to produce an effect or exert influence.” If you’ve ever felt powerless, you can understand why this state of mind is important for emotional wellbeing and cognitive performance. Unsurprisingly, psychological studies show that a stronger sense of agency is associated with better mental health and higher educational outcomes.
That’s why experts in education policy are interested in promoting the sense of agency among learners.
One set of these experts—the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)—includes “student agency” as a key part of its current conceptual learning framework, Learning Compass 2030.
“When students are agents in their learning, they are more likely to have ‘learned how to learn’—an invaluable skill that they can use throughout their lives.”
— OECD
But what’s the mechanism by which learner agency leads to stronger educational outcomes? It has something to do with the student’s motivation to learn, which depends on psychological structures closely related to agency.
Student Motivation: 3 Supporting Factors
A psychological model called self-determination theory (SDT) helps to explain how these structures promote motivation. Psychologists who practice SDT say three psychological needs come together to produce a sense of motivation: autonomy, competence, and relatedness.
The American Psychological Association describes the first of these needs, autonomy, as “the feeling you’re choosing your behavior…”
So choice is the operative factor in autonomy. Take away any sense of choice, and you rob a student of autonomy. This wreaks havoc on the motivation to learn, which, in turn, destroys learner agency (which, remember, involves the ability to influence outcomes; that’s hard to do without motivation to act).
The next psychological need necessary for motivation—competence—describes the belief that your efforts can lead to desired outcomes. And the third, relatedness, refers to the social sense of safety—a feeling of connection with others involved in your effort, whatever that may be.
Competence and relatedness are related to the idea of the student having a “voice” in the world they inhabit. Along with autonomy, this explains “choice and voice,” a bit of educational jargon you’ll see in many discussions of learner agency.
“Choice and Voice:” Twin Supports for Learner Agency
Educators lump all three of SDT’s motivating factors into the shorthand term “choice and voice,” with “voice” including competence and relatedness together. In this usage, both choice and voice are essential for fostering a strong sense of learner agency—especially for students who might not thrive on the traditional classroom model.
In fact, it’s impossible to support learner agency for everyone with a one-size-fits-all approach to teaching. To make choices, students need options. Appropriate options will vary widely.
- Some students have developmental, sensory, or learning disabilities.
- Some may be language learners.
- Students have different aptitudes and challenges. These vary by learning subject.
- Each student carries a unique assemblage of needs, talents, and preferences.
If we want our students to feel a sense of agency, we must provide options that cater to all of these unique factors.
That may sound like a tall order, but Universal Design for Learning is here to help. This educational framework tells us how to meet diverse needs in the classroom, and it’s our best option for encouraging the sense of learner agency.
Building Learner Agency With Universal Design for Learning
UDL is a framework for learning, which means it’s also a distinct approach to teaching. It provides guidelines that help us optimize learning environments for inclusion and accessibility. Ultimately, inclusion and accessibility support agency.
According to CAST, “Agency involves learners’ ability to regulate their affective, cognitive, and behavioral processes as they interact within the learning environment…”
“It is essential to consider how structural dynamics influence learner agency. Learners’ ability to act as powerful agents relates to the structure of the learning community and the extent to which all voices, regardless of perceived status, are valued and able to contribute.”
— CAST
So the UDL Guidelines help us structure our learning communities in ways that maximize learner agency. They do this primarily by recommending educators provide lots of options.
These options fall into three categories. According to the UDL Guidelines, educators must provide multiple means of:
- Engagement. Design learning materials and processes that give learners options related to identities, interests, collaboration, emotional capacity, and more. The means of engagement we provide should motivate our students, keeping them enthusiastic about learning.
- Representation. These options involve the ways we display or consume information, including diverse language and symbol choices and various techniques for connecting new material with existing knowledge.
- Action & Expression. Students also need options for how they express themselves, a key part of educational assessments. Provide choices related to communication, goal development, and even navigation—both of physical and virtual spaces.
Note that these categories overlap with digital accessibility standards like the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. Both sets of guidelines require presentation of content in ways that are perceivable by more than one sense. For example, you might provide text and audio, not just one or the other.
In fact, the audio-visual divide is the perfect example of a simple way to support UDL and the learner agency that comes with it.
Let’s take a look at how one type of edtech—text to speech—brings UDL Guidelines to life in classrooms like yours.
Text to Speech as a UDL Tool for Learner Agency
Text to speech is a digital technology that reads text out loud.
Today’s TTS uses AI to create incredibly lifelike speech in dozens of languages. A good TTS engine can take any text source—websites, digital documents, ebooks, etc.—and instantly produce audible speech that matches the text perfectly.
You can see how this capability supports UDL, which is all about choice and accessibility for students. Remember that the UDL Guidelines require multiple means of engagement, representation, and action/expression.
These three “principles” of UDL are tightly interwoven, so if you act on one of them, you’ll probably address the others, too. Keep that in mind as we unpack the role of TTS in each of these principles.
“The three principles of UDL are tightly related. For example, if learners experience barriers in perceiving and/or decoding information, they may become frustrated with reading and that will negatively impact their engagement with the learning experience.”
— CAST
To provide multiple means of representation, we must present learning materials that can be experienced via multiple senses. We can’t assume every student experiences the world through sight, for example. We must present our materials through sound, as well.
Similarly, to provide multiple means of action and expression, we must let students choose to present their own schoolwork in various forms, including different media.
In both cases, the key UDL recommendation is to support different ways of engaging with information—and a good TTS tool instantly doubles your media choices by adding spoken language alongside written text. That removes barriers for students of all descriptions, especially those who struggle with reading.
“Text to speech can reduce the barriers to decoding that some learners experience when they encounter information in encoded formats such as text. Removing barriers in decoding is key to helping all learners achieve fluency.”
— CAST
You may notice that we skipped the first category of UDL Guidelines, multiple means of engagement. The relationship between TTS and student engagement is less direct than it was with representation and expression. It’s there, but it will take a little longer to unpack.
The engagement principle in UDL is concerned primarily with getting students interested, keeping them authentically involved, and helping them manage their own engagement with learning.
That starts with offering authentic choices, real options that make noticeable differences to the learner’s experience. UDL Guidelines provide examples of such choices, including “the tools used for exploration or production” and “the opportunities for practicing and assessing learning.”
Text to speech gives students such tools and opportunities. In short, it gives them a choice.
The UDL Guidelines also recommend optimizing “challenge and support” as a way to keep students engaged. That effort requires us to provide “options for tools and scaffolds that align with the learning goal and promote agency.”
Text to speech tools are the perfect support for many students, including those with vision impairments, developmental disabilities, learning disorders, attention struggles, different language backgrounds, preferences for listening, and lots of other descriptors.
“Along with students with reading challenges, text-to-speech is an essential support for learners with visual impairments. Text-to-speech allows them to receive the information in another modality that does not rely on their vision.”
—CAST
Because there are so many reasons to use TTS, educators should make these tools available to everyone. We can’t know what everyone needs at each moment, but by providing simple choices like visual vs. audio engagement, we allow students to direct their own experience—and feel the sense of agency that comes with that autonomy.
However, not every TTS tool is designed for universal availability. ReadSpeaker’s are.
ReadSpeaker’s Role in Advancing UDL Principles Through TTS
Text to speech first entered schools as assistive technology. Students had to request access to TTS, which was considered an accommodation, not an option for all.
That approach isn’t the best way to uphold UDL principles. To encourage learner agency, multiple means of representation must be available as a choice, for every student.
ReadSpeaker’s TTS tools are designed to fit seamlessly into learning environments. That makes it easy to make them available to every learner, all the time. Our tools are also built to expand on student choices. Here’s how.
- ReadSpeaker TTS tools are available natively within learning environments. We offer plug-ins for every major learning management system (LMS), as well as cloud- and web-based TTS.
Simple ReadSpeaker controls appear in these environments. To use TTS and related tools, students just have to click the “Listen” icon. That means you don’t have to open another app or window to use ReadSpeaker TTS. It’s always a simple click away.
- Additional learning tools include auto-translation, simultaneous speech and highlighting, text-only mode, digital page masks, text enlargement, and more.
- TTS/translation tools allow learners to choose a voice that sounds familiar to them, with a dialect and/or accent similar to their own.
Students can craft their own experience, with controls for voice, speed, highlight color, font size, and more.
- ReadSpeaker education tools work for any content, on any device, and are available to help students with studying, assessments, homework, STEM materials, or anything else. More than 200 top-quality voices ensure a great fit for any listener.
- Multilingual TTS removes barriers for multi-language learners. ReadSpeaker TTS is available in more than 50 languages. (Listen to a sample here.)
ReadSpeaker TTS is a student-driven resource that generates multiple means of representation and action on demand. It’s an authentic set of experiential choices that create multiple means of engagement. Ultimately, ReadSpeaker TTS is a UDL tool that promotes a healthy sense of agency among all learners.
ReadSpeaker and CAST are equally committed to supporting learner agency for all students. This shared goal brought the TTS pioneer and the UDL framers into an ongoing formal partnership.
CAST and ReadSpeaker: A Strategic Partnership
CAST and ReadSpeaker share a commitment to accessibility, equity, and learner empowerment. In 2024, the organizations began working together in pursuit of these ideals.
As CAST continues to promote the UDL Guidelines, ReadSpeaker provides TTS tools that make UDL materials more accessible. You’ll find the ReadSpeaker “Listen” button on CAST’s website and across the nonprofit’s array of UDL resources. ReadSpeaker also provides voice to CAST’s virtual training courses for instructors, administrators, and other personnel for grades PK-12, as well as professionals working at postsecondary institutions, colleges, and technical schools.
More importantly, ReadSpeaker’s UDL-inspired TTS tools are available to educators across the globe. In addition to supporting UDL by working with CAST, ReadSpeaker helps educators apply UDL where it counts: in the classroom.
“ReadSpeaker has been a Universal Design for Learning champion for many years, providing innovative text-to-speech solutions that align with UDL principles,” said Lindsay Jones, CEO of CAST.
“Together, CAST and ReadSpeaker are breaking down barriers to learning and empowering students to reach their full potential. This is a significant step forward for the UDL community, enhancing the educational experience for diverse learners everywhere.”
— Lindsay Jones, CEO of CAST
We invite educators, administrators, and students to explore ReadSpeaker’s tools. These TTS solutions don’t just make learning materials more accessible (though they certainly do that). They also strengthen one of the most important roots of student success: A sense of agency.
By using ReadSpeaker TTS to conform to UDL guidelines, educators can create learning environments that foster inclusion, independence, and greater opportunities for every student.
Ready to see what ReadSpeaker TTS can do for your classroom? Contact us to start the conversation.
