Here’s a terrific interactive science resource that supports a UDL approach in the elementary/primary school classroom.  Information is available visually, auditorily, and as printed text. Keyboard commands are available for learners who cannot use a mouse.

Science Up Close is a free interactive resource from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt School Publishers.   Engaging activities of high quality are offered by grade level and targeted for grades 1 to 6.   Many of the activities include captioned video where the “captions” can be read aloud.  Other activities use diagrams and interactive images to present material.  All text can be read aloud, and can be repeated upon request.

The image below shows the user interface and a Grade 1 activity about  a Coral Reef.

For each grade level, there are 13 to 19 activities.  “Animals and their Young”, “Ways to Save Resources”, and “Telescopes” are examples of the titles of grade 1 activities.  For grade 6, examples include “Mendel’s Discoveries”, “World Biomes”, and “The Electromagnetic Spectrum”.

The accessibility of Science Up Close is exceptional.  I believe the model used here should be adopted everywhere.  Because keyboard shortcuts are available for all the activities, they are accessible  to learners who are blind or who have low vision and to learners who use programmable speech generating devices.  Because all of the text is read aloud, the activities are accessible to learners who face reading challenges.