National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS)

In this section of www.afb.org you may access presentations and handout materials about the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS) and the central repository for publishers' source files or National Instructional Materials Access Center (NIMAC). These materials will benefit your state, school district, or publishing organization when dealing with the development of source files for textbooks or when developing the best system for the production and delivery of textbooks and instructional materials to students who are blind or print disabled. As more information is available, AFB will be adding NIMAS assistance documents to this web section (www.afb.org/nimas.asp).

National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS) Braille Translation Software Training

NEW! The recent November 2007 training sessions held at St. Petersburg College in St. Pete Beach, Florida were well attended and got high marks by the 90 plus attendees. Braille transcribers from twenty-six states were in attendance. So the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) is pleased to offer two additional national sessions for braille translation software training with NIMAS updates. They will be held on February 28, 2008 at Los Angeles Airport Marriott, 5855 W. Century Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90045 and on April 2 and 3, 2008 at Dallas-Addison Marriott, 14901 Dallas Parkway, Dallas, TX 75254. The 2008 trainings will be held prior to both the California Transcribers and Educators for the Visually Handicapped (CTEVH) conference and National Braille Association (NBA) conference. The training sessions will be provided by experts in braille software development and braille transcribing. The training sessions are designed to help people who currently transcribe instructional materials into braille learn more about the new updates associated with NIMAS and the three braille translation software programs. The trainings will be a train-the-trainer approach for national capacity building. All sessions will be held onsite at the conference hotels. People will need to pay and register for the conferences through each conference web site. However, for the NIMAS training, you will need to register using the links below. For more information, contact Mary Ann Siller at siller@afb.net.

NIMAS Braille Translation Software Training Introduction Letter

Register for NIMAS Braille Translation Software Training at CTEVH

Register for NIMAS Braille Translation Software Training at NBA

History of NIMAS

President Bush signed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA), P.L. 108-446 on December 3, 2004. The IDEA is the main federal program authorizing state and local aid for special education and related services for children with disabilities. One significant area of improvement in the 2004 legislation was the addition of sections defining the provision of textbooks and instructional materials in accessible formats for students who are blind or print disabled.

The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) and the Center for Applied Special Technologies (CAST) have co-hosted a series of national meetings to define, discuss, and demonstrate the impact of the landmark provisions in IDEA 2004 surrounding access to textbooks and instructional materials for students who are blind, have low vision, or are print disabled.

AFB is part of the five-year national work to build new state capacity and programming about NIMAS and the use of the NIMAC. The NIMAS Technical Assistance and Development centers at CAST provide periodic updates to the NIMAS web site with the intention of providing current and useful information to NIMAS state coordinators, state education agency and local education agency personnel, publishers, conversion houses, and others who have an interest in the implementation of NIMAS and NIMAC.

New Grant to CAST for NIMAS State Capacity Building

There is exciting news from CAST and OSEP. CAST was recently notified that they received an important grant with major funding to develop a consortium of states to build a model plan to increase access to instructional materials.

The Accessible Instructional Materials (AIM) Consortium represents 15 states serving over 1.3 million students under IDEA, of whom over one-half million are estimated to have print disabilities. States need effective systems to implement the NIMAS/NIMAC requirements of IDEA and the materials-provision needs of those students who require specialized formats but do not qualify for NIMAS/NIMAC resources. The AIM Consortium combines CAST's experience leading system change initiatives to increase the timely availability of accessible instructional materials with states that are committed to organizational change and to solutions scalable to other states, outlying areas (OAs), and freely associated states (FASs). AIM Consortium state members are Delaware, Georgia, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, Utah, Vermont, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

The long-term goal of the AIM Consortium is to improve academic outcomes for elementary and secondary school students with disabilities. The goals of the Consortium are relevant to improving academic outcomes for elementary and secondary school students with disabilities.

To learn more, visit the CAST web site.

New Resources from CAST

NIMAS Presentations

NIMAS WorkFlow Graphic (PDF file)

NIMAS Resources

Technical Assistance for State Directors of Special Education

Review of Final IDEA 2004 Regulations

NIMAS/NIMAC Technical Assistance Meeting October 11, 2006

Sponsored by the American Foundation for the Blind and NIMAS Development and Technical Assistance Centers

The following documents were used during the meeting:

• NIMAS Regulations - Powerpoint Presentation
• National Instructional Materials Access Center (NIMAC) Overview - PowerPoint Presentation
• Technical Assistance for State Directors of Special Education
• Review of IDEA Part B 2004
• NIMAS - Frequently Asked Questions