NIMAS Technical Assistance Center Update Chuck Hitchcock May 6, 2008 NIMAS: What Teacher Education Faculty Need to Know about the National Instructional Materials Standard

NIMAS Donut Electronic Textbooks: One foundation for the Implementation of UDL.

NIMAS TA Center Goals  Support the efficient production of baseline NIMAS files and the conversion of these files into alternate formats  Facilitate the creation of flexible distribution systems to ensure improved availability and timely delivery of accessible materials  Raise awareness of key stakeholders regarding the benefits and availability of accessible digital materials

NIMAS Implementation Advisory Council Chuck Hitchcock, Chair Chief Officer, Policy and Technology Director, NIMAS Technical Assistance Center, CAST, Inc. John Churchill, Senior Vice President Operations, RFB&D Jeff Diedrich, Director Michigan Integrated Technology Supports Jay Diskey, Executive Director School Division, Association of American Publishers Bill East, Executive Director National Association of State Directors of Special Education John Eisenberg, Severe Disabilities/Assistive Technology Specialist Office of Special Education Instructional Services, Virginia Department of Education Jim Fruchterman, President & CEO The Benetech Initiative/Bookshare.org Nicole Gaines, NIMAC Manager American Printing House for the Blind Diane Cordry Golden, Director Missouri Assistive Technology Vicki Hershman, State Project Director PATINS Project Jennifer A. Hill, Government Relations Director The Association of Educational Publishers Bonnie Jones, ex officio, Project Officer; Education Research Analyst NIMAS Centers; Office of Special Education Programs, US Department of Education Linnie Lee, Exceptional Children Assistive Technology Consultant Division of Curriculum Development, Kentucky Department of Education Charles Mayo, Manager Distribution, Accessibility & Finance, Instructional Materials & Educational Technology, Texas Education Agency Donna McNear Rum River Special Education Coop Richard Robison, Executive Director Federation for Children with Special Needs David Rose, ex officio, Principal Investigator NIMAS Development and Technical Assistance Centers, CAST, Inc. Mary Ann Siller, National Project Manager Professional Development Department, American Foundation for the Blind Skip Stahl, ex officio, Project Director NIMAS Development Center, CAST, Inc. Joy Zabala, AIM Project Manager Assistive Technology & Leadership Ruth Ziolkowski, Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA) Representative; President Don Johnston, Inc.

Recent NIMAS TA Center Activities  New NIMAS Implementation Advisory Council  New NASDSE Policy Brief  New Website Resources  Recent Collaborations: NIMAC, B4E, RFB&D, AIM Consortium, CIMAP, ATIA and AFB  TA: SEAs, Publishers and Conversion Houses  Presentations, Webinars, Teleconferences: approx. 100 since January of 2005  Product Development (next slide)  Collaboration with AT Product Developers  Solicit Updated Information from the Field: Surveys  Maintain a public list of SEA NIMAS Coordinators

NIMAS TA: Recent Products  NIMAS Conversion Tool – Open Source Code   Recent Math ML Support by Design Science  DAISY/NIMAS Structure Guidelines – TA/Dev, gh and DAISY Cons.   Creating NIMAS Files w/ Best Practices section   NIMAS File set Exemplars – nine including.opf   Accessible Textbooks in the Classroom II, by Skip Stahl   Math Resources   Accessible Materials Timeline – next slide

NIMAS TA Center Purpose: provide support to publishers and states to ensure the successful implementation of NIMAS. Works closely with: NIMAS Development Center Purpose: provide national leadership to further the development and maintenance of NIMAS and support its implementation. And with: NIMAS Center Partners

NIMAS Website Metrics Unique visitors: 3,480 in March 2008, 38,682 for all of 2007 Average of 1.5 visits to the site by each visitor Page views: 15,243 in March 2008 Links to NIMAS site from other sites: 220 links in March 2007 Visits by other countries: 147 in 2007

Google Search Data – page count NIMAS 884,000 NIMAS SEA 81,300 NIMAC 56,100 NIMAS access 37,200 NIMAS student 31,000 NIMAS LEA 18,100 NIMAS disability 6,590 NIMAS textbook 5,480 NIMAS NIMAC 4,190 NIMAS OSEP 1,800 NIMAS OSERS 770

UDL and NIMAS NIMAS

UDL Editions

Issues of Note  Time consuming title-by-title assignment by AUs to national AMPs  Support anticipatory access to NIMAS filesets for OSEP funded AMPs  Considerations  K-12 NIMAS access only – not new but emphasized by publisher orgs.  Attention to evidence (or assurance) that book was purchased  Need method for obtaining filesets for product development and testing  Which populations with print disabilities are included?  IDEA 2004 supports only students with IEPs  Which LD populations and how best certified?  How to legally support students with print disabilities that don’t qualify  What about Section 504 students or a blind student that needs no plan?  Conflict: copyright, IDEA 2004 regulations and civil rights  Limited development of a “market model” to date  Publisher Issues  Meaning of “Adopt NIMAS” by SEAs – some need phase-in period  Meaning of the word “publish” – on or after July 19, 2006  Student populations that qualify  Need to increase level of importance to SEA Sped Administrators  Ongoing need for research regarding specialized formats and learning

NIMAS Technical Assistance Center Update Questions?