CAST Awarded Leadership of National AEM Center 2.0

Date:
Friday, October 25, 2019

With four partners, CAST will continue work begun in 1999 to improve curriculum access for individuals with disabilities.

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CAST has won a 5-year, $6-million grant from the US Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs, to continue its leadership of the National Center on Accessible Education Materials (AEM Center). This next-generation Center will continue improving systems and standards to provide AEM for individuals with disabilities and their families. Providing technical assistance for development, procurement, maintenance, distribution, and use of AEM will lead to systemic changes that improve academic and career opportunities for all learners.

“The reality of inaccessible educational materials has created a significant urgency for technical assistance that supports learners with disabilities across the lifespan,” says Project Director Cynthia Curry. “The continuous evolution and variation of digital resources adopted in educational and workforce settings presents challenges for individuals who rely on accessibility features and assistive technology. These challenges demand fluid and agile solutions for both users and developers of accessible materials and technologies, solutions which we intend to deliver in the next-generation AEM Center.”

CAST is joined by core partners in this effort, including the State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA), the Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA), the Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME), and evaluation partner Evergreen Evaluation & Consulting, Inc. (EEC), as well as numerous knowledge and dissemination partners.

Together, the partners will leverage collective expertise garnered over the past two decades to provide innovative and timely delivery of accessible formats of printed materials. The AEM Center award represents a continuation of CAST’s OSEP-funded work that began with the leadership of the National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum (1999-2004).

About CAST
CAST is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to transform education design and practice “until learning has no limits®.”