AEP Online
Featured Columns
Blaschke on Fed. Funding
A+ Advice for Parents
    Archives
Archives
    Education 
    Legislation
    Technology
    Market Trends
    Misc. Topics
About

AAP Meeting Covers Latest Developments in NIMAS Implementation

The Association of American Publishers held a meeting June 13 in Washington, DC, to discuss the latest developments in the implementation of the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS). Staff from AAP, the NIMAS technical assistance center, and the US Department of Education (USED) presented to audience of publishers and their respective staffs. The topics were as follows:

USED - State Support and final rule-making
Bonnie Jones, Ph.D., from USED's Office of Special Education Programs updated the group on the Department's plans to help states develop contract language. The assumption is that final rules for implementation will be published in the federal register either at the end of August or beginning of September. Ms. Jones also hinted that one of the significant changes in the regulations may be whom the standard will serve. According to her, "print disabled" is not currently in the spectrum of the 13 legal disability categories for public education. This could mean USED intends to expand or limit the category in the rules.

APH and NIMAC make progress on file repository
Julia Meyers, Director of Resources, American Printing House for the Blind (APH), updated participants on preparations to open the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Center (NIMAC) by the end of the year. The NIMAC is the central repository that will receive and catalog publishers' electronic files of print instructional materials in the standard NIMAS format. She also gave the most recent information regarding who can access the NIMAC. Emphasis was placed on the NIMAC's neutrality - it will only accept, hold and validate the materials; it will not have a policy making role in the process.

In an attempt to clarify who has access to the NIMAC, the terms were defined this way:

An authorized entity is referred to in the Chafee amendment as "a nonprofit organization or a governmental agency that has a primary mission to provide specialized services relating to training, education, or adaptive reading or information access needs of blind or other persons with disabilities." This is primarily the State or Local School Districts.

Authorized user in this document simply means an individual who has signed the NIMAC Limitation of Use agreement and who has been provided a user ID and password that enables him/her to access the NIMAC database and download NIMAS file sets in accordance with that agreement.

Ms. Meyers also outlined a number of regulatory principles and security measures that can be found in the NIMAS section of the AEP website.

State panel describes potential obstacles
Finally, a panel of State education officials provided some perspective on how the new standard will apply to them. Three states were represented: New York, Missouri, and Indiana. 

Two of the states - New York and Missouri - are open territory states and have almost 1,200 school districts between them. In open territory states, each school district adopts their own materials. That means core print materials can be different for each of the districts, making the number of authorized entities and users much higher than the NIMAC expects or is designed to handle at this time.

In textbook adoption states such as Indiana, the state will determine what constitutes printed instructional materials.  These states will find it easier to name four or five authorized users for access to the NIMAC.

There were many concerns voiced by the publishers attending the NIMAS training. Even though protections were outlined in detail, many stated that once their products were downloaded from the NIMAC, a district or “user” could reproduce the book at no cost.

Steve Driesler, a consultant with AAP, explained that publishers giving their files to schools to copy today have even fewer protections.  Although that is the current practice, publishers responded that files currently provided are not the full NIMAS file set that can be easily converted into a quality textbook. 

This meeting revealed there is much left to be resolved in the implementation of NIMAS and the NIMAC. Textbooks are the primary focus of what printed instructional materials will be requested thus far. It remains to be seen how many supplemental materials will be requested for NIMAS file sets. Even so, supplemental publishers need to be prepared for the reality of the law going into effect in December 2006.

Questions, ideas, or in need of more information? Please contact Stacey Pusey at 856-241-7772.

AEP's latest information on NIMAS and NIMAC can be found here

© 2008 The Association of Educational Publishers
510 Heron Drive, Suite 201 • Logan Township, NJ 08085 • P:856-241-7772 • F:856-241-0709 • Email: mail@AEPweb.org
 
Satellite Offices:
Two Bala Plaza, Suite 300 • Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004
C/O Knowledge Alliance • 815 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 220 • Washington, DC 20006