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CAST to Lead Two National Centers to Improve, Implement Standard for Accessible Learning Materials
$3.25 million award from U.S. Department of Education to help students with disabilities

WAKEFIELD, Mass.—In a significant step forward for students with disabilities, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) has awarded CAST $3.25 million over five years to establish two national centers to further develop and implement the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS).

NIMAS guides the production and electronic distribution of digital versions of textbooks and other instructional materials so they can be more easily converted to accessible formats, including Braille and text-to-speech.

By using NIMAS-compliant materials, schools could better meet the federal mandates of No Child Left Behind and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that guarantee students with disabilities equal opportunity to participate in the general curriculum.

“Many students with disabilities are at risk for school failure because they lack basic access to the same standards-based materials used by most students,” says David H. Rose, co-executive director of CAST and principal investigator for both center grants. “In an era when technology provides powerful alternatives to inaccessible classroom materials, we can—and we must—level the playing field for special-needs students. NIMAS will help us accomplish this.”

By establishing the new collaborating centers, CAST—a not-for-profit education research and development organization—will lead a national effort to move NIMAS to the next stage of development and implementation:

1. The NIMAS Development Center will improve the original standard—developed by a National File Format Technical Panel of 40 technology specialists, educators, disability advocates, and publishers—by identifying new research and technological advances relevant to the standard. The Center will also explore free-market distribution models for accessible materials.

Project director William (Skip) Stahl, a founder of CAST, chaired the National File Format panel and has gained national recognition for his work in helping states incorporate educational technology to teach students with disabilities.

2. The NIMAS Technical Assistance Center will work with key stakeholders such as states, school boards, and publishers to raise awareness of the benefits of accessible materials. It will also advise stakeholders on the efficient production and distribution of such materials to assist with the implementation of NIMAS.

Project director Chuck Hitchcock, chief education technology officer at CAST, played a key role in developing the standard as director of National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum (NCAC). He has been instrumental in CAST’s technical product initiatives, including the creation of Bobby, a validation tool for disability access on the World Wide Web.

The American Foundation for the Blind’s World Access Solutions Group will assist both centers in determining the capabilities of states, districts, and schools to implement NIMAS, while the Assistive Technology Industry Association will provide a series of industry analyses.

NIMAS received the U.S. Department of Education’s endorsement July 27, 2004, on the 14th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. It was developed under the leadership of the federally funded NCAC, which was established by CAST in agreement with the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs.

Read the full NIMAS report or access just the NIMAS Technical Specification from http://www.cast.org/ncac/NIMAS/.

About CAST
CAST is a not-for-profit education research and development organization based near Boston, Mass., whose mission is to make education accessible to all learners, especially those with disabilities, through innovative uses of digital technologies. To learn more, visit www.cast.org.