October 8, 2009
jgronneberg@cast.org
40 Harvard Mills Square, Suite 3
Wakefield, MA 01880
Tel: 781-245-2212 ext. 275
CAST to Lead 5-year, $2 million Effort to Advance Digital Standards and Distribution Practices
Center will provide accessible instructional materials to benefit K-12 students with disabilities
Wakefield, Mass., October 8, 2009 - Reaffirming its commitment to improving education for K-12 students with disabilities, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs has awarded CAST leadership of a 5-year, $2 million center to further develop and implement the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS).
The NIMAS helps ensure that students with print disabilities get core instructional materials, such as textbooks, in accessible formats (Braille, audio, etext, and large print).
The NIMAS Center is charged with maintaining and updating the NIMAS technical specifications, which guide publishers in preparing digital source files for their copyrighted content. State and local education agencies can then have those files converted to appropriate formats for qualifying students so that those students have timely access to the same learning materials as their peers. Federal law requires publishers to use the Standard when preparing source files for content copyrighted as of July 19, 2006 and requested by state and local education agencies. The Center is also charged with exploring existing and new distribution models for the provision of accessible materials to students with disabilities.
“NIMAS is the first national standard of its kind and has fundamentally changed textbook production, distribution and acquisition,” according to Skip Stahl, project director of the NIMAS Center.
The new NIMAS Center replaces the NIMAS Technical Assistance and Development Centers, also led by CAST, funded by OSEP from 2004-2009. Since the establishment of those earlier centers:
- 17,000 educational material file sets including approximately 3,500 commercial textbooks for grades K-12 are available through the clearinghouse at the National Instructional Materials Center at the American Printing House for the Blind.
- More than 75 publishers have provided source files to the clearinghouse and more than 105 Accessible Media Producers are registered and authorized to convert files into student-ready materials.
- 49 states are developing systems for ensuring that students who require specialized formats receive them in a timely manner.
- Major textbook publishers such as Pearson are beginning to offer accessible digital versions of print instructional materials, signaling the emergence of a market for accessible digital instructional materials.
Having a technically viable national standard is one half of the picture. “State and local education agencies need support in establishing and understanding how to get accessible materials into the hands of qualifying students,” said Chuck Hitchcock, director of the new National Center on Accessible Instructional Materials (AIM) at CAST. Recognizing this need, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs has also awarded CAST leadership of a 5-year, $5 million center to provide technical assistance to state and local education agencies. The new AIM Center will build on the effective practices begun by the 15-state AIM Consortium, led by CAST and funded by OSEP from 2007-2009.
#####
About CAST
Founded in 1984 as the Center for Applied Special Technology, CAST has earned international recognition for its development of innovative learning resources and for articulating the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL), a framework for creating inclusive educational environments. For more information, go to www.cast.org.
