AIM and Digital Textin Policy & Practice

Thanks to Chuck Hitchcock, Chief Officer of Policy and Technology and Joy Zabala, Director of Technical Assistance, AIM Center @ CAST, Inc. for their content contributions.

SETSIG Forum, ISTE 2010Denver, Colorado

• NIMAS: a technical standard used by publishers to produce source files (in XML)

• Legal Definition (IDEA 2004)

National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard…

to be used in the preparation of electronic files…

solely for efficient conversion into specialized formats.

What is NIMAS?

• Braille• Embossed• Digital .brf

• Audio• Large Print• Digital Text

– Digital Talking Books (DAISY)– HTML eBooks– ASCII files– Word and Rich Text files– PDF– Etc.

What are Specialized Formats?

• Students• Timely delivery of accessible textbooks• Appropriate formats and quality of AIM• Breaks down one barrier to the general education curriculum• Increases independence of learner

• Educators• Reduces duplication of effort – scanning, time, money• Timeliness Increases likelihood specialized formats are available when needed• Increases awareness of what is available and how to use it

• Publishers• Consistency – moves away from 50 States = 50 sets of requirements• Copyright issues – digital rights• Multiple outputs possible from same source file• Market model possible for NIMAS files – new customers

Problems addressed by NIMAS

• The Library of Congress regulations (36 CFR 701.6(b)(1)) related to the Act to Provide Books for the Adult Blind provide that "blind persons or other persons with print disabilities" include:

– Persons who are Blind

visual acuity is 20/200 or less; angular distance no more than 20 degrees. – Persons with Visual Disability

prevents the reading of standard printed material. – Persons with Physical Limitations

unable to read, access, or use standard print – Persons with a Reading Disability (of organic origin)

preventing reading printed material in a normal manner.

Who Qualifies for NIMAS/NIMAC Distributed Materials?

• Combined assets of the AIM Center, NIMAS Center and the AIM Consortium

• Old site remains a while longer• http://nimas.cast.org • with notice on home• later with redirects to new site

• New website: • http://aim.cast.org

New National Center on AIM Website

Sign up from AIM Website

Homepage

HTML Edition

http://bit.ly/d5JGQv

AIM Connector

AIM Center Twitter account

http://twitter.com/aim_center

AIM Center Facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/National-Center-on-AIM

AIM Center Webinar & Presentation Schedule

http://aim.cast.org/experience/training/presentations

Other ways to connect to the AIM Center

• What is the nature of the collections? (e.g., subject area collections, textbooks, periodicals, trade books, etc.)

• What formats are available from the repository? (e.g., .txt, .rtf, .doc, .docx, .pdf, etc.)

• Is there a cost to access the files in the repository?

Key Questions When Investigating Repositories of Accessible Text

• AIM Explorer

• AIM Navigator• soon

• AIM Implementation Guide

• Available from: http://aim.cast.org

AIM Consortium Products for All States