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NCAC: Research & Solutions: Policy: State Accessible Curriculum Policy Survey

50 State Accessible Curriculum Policy Survey

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IDAHO

We spoke with Dan Prinzing, the Coordinator, Curricular Materials and Social Studies.

• Idaho has accessibility requirements for publishers with regard to students with special needs. The Law itself only says blind. However, the contracts with the publishers include "blind and handicapped," so publishers must provide electronic files for the use of students with diverse special needs

• Chapter 1 State Board of Education Title 33 section 118: "The board shall require all publishers of textbooks approved for use to furnish the department of education with electronic format for literary and nonliterary subjects when electronic formats become available for nonliterary subjects, in a standard format approved by the board, from which reproductions can be made for use by the blind."

• Under 33-118 and the contracts between the publishers and the State Board of Education, the publishers must provide electronic versions of the textbooks on files in ASCII or Word. These files are stored in the State Depository, a state agency located at the Idaho School for the Deaf and Blind. School districts can then make direct requests to the Idaho School for the Deaf and Blind for the appropriately modified materials. While the law's language says "blind", the state (through the Depository) tries to make the materials available for students who have special needs beyond visual impairments. "If we are furnished with the electronic version, we see how far we can take the version to meet the needs of all students." The textbooks might be available on CD ROM and made available for student with i.e. mobility issues

• Publishers must send their files to the State Depository when they supply the textbooks. If it is a nonliterary subject (math), the timeline is extended and the publisher must supply it in a file format "as it becomes available."

• Idaho is an adoption state

Contacts

Dr. Dan Prinzing
Tel. (208) 332-6975
E-mail: dprinzing@sde.state.id.us

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