Impact

To fulfill its mission of improving education for all individuals, including those with disabilities, CAST works with preK-16 educators, administrators, and policymakers; national organizations; federal and state agencies and education departments; and educational publishers in a variety of collaborative projects and initiatives. CAST's impact in the fields of education, technology, and disabilities extends throughout the United States and beyond.

Products

Thinking Reader™, published by Tom Snyder Productions/Scholastic and based on CAST's successful federally funded research, teaches struggling middle school readers to learn key literacy strategies and read the same core literature as their peers. CAST eReader™, one of the first digital talking text readers and web browsers, has been heavily imitated and recently licensed to Aequus Technologies for wider distribution. WiggleWorks®, co-developed by CAST and Scholastic Inc. in the early 1990s, is one of the most successful literacy software programs of all time, with more than $40 million in sales throughout the country and internationally.

National and State Leadership

CAST's leadership of the National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum, its work with state and local education agencies, and its many collaborative research projects to design technology-based instructional approaches and curriculum materials place the organization at the forefront of new efforts to improve education through Universal Design for Learning. CAST collaborates in research and professional development with state organizations and universities in Ohio, Michigan, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, and New York.

Educators and Schools

Through its professional development activities, the Teaching Every Student website, the National Consortium on Universal Design for Learning, and conference presentations around the country, CAST helps thousands of educators plan curriculum, technology, special education, and instructional projects in schools throughout the United States.

World Wide Web Accessibility

Bobby, a free public service developed by CAST, is recognized nationally and internationally as the premier evaluation tool for testing websites for accessibility to individuals with disabilities. Launched by CAST in 1996, Bobby was used to evaluate more than 5 million Web pages annually before being acquired in 2002 by Watchfire, a leading provider of software solutions for online businesses. CAST is also an active participant in the Web Access Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium, the developer of the accessibility guidelines Bobby uses.

Publications and Website

CAST is committed to sharing its research in Universal Design for Learning with the widest possible audience. The book Teaching Every Student in the Digital Age: Universal Design for Learning, written by CAST co-executive directors David H. Rose and Anne Meyer, is published by the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), an international organization representing 160,000 educators in more than 135 countries. In 2004, CAST's content-rich website was named one of the 101 best for school district leaders by the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). And CAST's research and professional staff publish dozens of articles each year in books and publications such as the Journal of Special Education Technology, Reading Online, and Exceptional Parent.