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What Is NIMAS and What Does It Mean for Publishers?

The National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS) is set to go into effect in 2007, bringing with it changes that have the capacity to dramatically alter the educational publishing field. However - due to either a lack of understanding or a perception that the provision does not apply to their materials - few supplemental publishers have taken notice of this new mandate, and even fewer have taken action to prepare for it. This report seeks to explain what the standard is, why it has been created, and what its implications are for publishers of supplemental materials.

What is NIMAS?
A provision of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004, NIMAS is a standardized file format endorsed by the U.S. Department of Education and developed by a diverse committee of stakeholders under the direction of the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST). Its purpose, according to a summary printed in the Federal Register, is "to help increase the availability and timely delivery of print instructional materials in accessible formats to the blind and other persons with print disabilities in elementary schools and secondary schools." Also part of the provision is the establishment of the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Center (NIMAC) at the American Printing House for the Blind, a centralized repository where digital files are collected and easily accessible.

NIMAS is based on a file format commonly known as "DAISY," or Digital Accessible Information System. The DAISY standard provides publishers with the technical protocol for creating accessible digital versions of print works. In other words, it tells publishers how to present layout features such as headers, images, and sidebars in a digital file format that can be read and translated into audio recordings of human speech, marked-up text, and a range of machine-readable files.

Why create a national standard?
While policies regarding digital file formats do exist, many of these vary from state to state and tend to act as barriers to accessibility rather than opportunities. Since the file format required by California may be different from the format for Florida, which may be different from the format for Texas, the time it takes publishers to accommodate every state's requirements hinders the creation and delivery of the accessible materials. In other words, a print textbook delivered in September may not be delivered in Braille format until May. The adoption of a common file format is intended to help streamline the digitization process on the publishers' end, and the establishment of a single national repository for these files should help expedite their distribution in formats such as Braille, audio, and digital text.

Does NIMAS apply to supplementals?
According to the IDEA, NIMAS applies to all print instructional materials - including printed textbooks and related printed core materials that are written and published primarily for use in elementary and secondary school instruction - and are required by a State or Local Education Agency for use by students in the classroom. While there is some debate over what products may be considered "core materials," at present it can only be presumed that the law does not preclude supplemental materials.

What does this mean for publishers?
Publishers should be aware that the demands of conversion may have a negative impact on their ability to obtain contracts or provide files in a timely manner. If a publisher does not offer NIMAS-compliant files for their products, a state that has opted into NIMAC cannot - according to the law - purchase materials from that publisher. However, conversion to NIMAS format adds an extra step into the production process. Because most publishers are not technologically equipped to convert their files in-house, they will have to hire an outside firm to digitize files, costing them time and money. This will have an especially large impact on supplemental publishers, whose production schedules tend to be shorter.

However, publishers should also be aware of a number of stipulations in the NIMAS provision that have a direct effect on its implementation:

1. While the Department of Education has issued a proposed NIMAS standard, the standard does not become official until final regulations are published in the Federal Register. As of the publication of this article, these regulations have not been published and it is unclear when they will be published.

2. States are not required to coordinate with NIMAC. If they choose to do so, they must make this choice known within two years of the enactment of the IDEA, which is December 2006. States that choose not to coordinate with NIMAC must provide assurance that they will provide print instructional materials to the blind and others in a timely fashion.

3. According to Section 674 (e)(4) of the IDEA, the NIMAS requirement "shall apply to print instructional materials published after the date on which the final rule establishing the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard was published in the Federal Register." Since the final rule has yet to be published, federal law does not require a NIMAS file for textbooks and other instructional materials that have already been published and are currently being ordered and purchased by schools.

Despite these stipulations, the NIMAS/NIMAC provision of the IDEA will go into effect sometime in 2007. This means that publishers need to start thinking in digital terms. If a product is designed from its inception with digital distribution in mind, it can save companies a great deal of time and money in digitizing costs. Publishers should utilize design programs such as Quark or InDesign that provide style sheets, and should use common style sheets within documents and across all publications. Also, publishers with the ability to write and archive files in XML (extensible mark-up language) format should do so on all publications, allowing for easier translation into other file formats.

For publishers interested in finding out more about the NIMAS/NIMAC provision of the IDEA, AEP will host a webinar May 18 featuring two members of the National File Format Technical Panel: Skip Stahl, Co-Director of the Universal Learning Center at CAST, and Chuck Hitchcock, NCAC Project Director, CAST. Stahl will also be presenting NIMAS: A Special Report Every Publisher Should Hear at the AEP Educational Publishing Summit in June. For more information on the Summit, go to http://www.AEPweb.org/summit.

Questions, ideas, or in need of more information? Please contact Stacey Pusey at 302-295-8349.

More information on the technical specification of NIMAS and its relation to DAISY Structure Guidelines can be found here.

Click here for a list of content conversion services.

http://nimas.cast.org

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