CAST: Universal Design for Learning

In a collaborative agreement with the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Programs, CAST established the National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum (NCAC) in 1999 to provide a vision of how new curricula, teaching practices, and policies can be woven together to create practical approaches for improved access to the general curriculum by students with disabilities. Partners included:

• Boston College, Department of Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.
• Harvard Law School
• Council for Exceptional Children (CEC)
• Parent Advocacy Coalition for Educational Rights (PACER)

In 2002, NCAC convened an expert panel to establish a voluntary National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS) to guide the production and electronic distribution of accessible instructional materials for students with disabilities. NIMAS version 1.0 was endorsed by the U.S. Department of Education in 2004 and incorporated into the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement (IDEA) Act of 2004. CAST has entered into five-year, cooperative agreements with the Office of Special Education Programs to establish and direct the NIMAS Development and Technical Assistance Centers.

Although NCAC completed its funded work in November 2004, CAST continues to disseminate extend the impact of what has been accomplished by the project’s staff and partnerships. By demonstrating classroom-based applications of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) through its R&D and professional development services, CAST is helping meet a growing national demand for inclusive education policies and practices.

The publications developed by NCAC researchers to support educators interested in learning about policies and practices in improving access to the general curriculum are now available at http://www.cast.org/publications/ncac/index.html .

d