DOE: Educational Technology The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act requires districts to provide accessible instruction materials to students with disabilities who need them. To help schools meet this requirement, the Massachusetts Department of Education is partnering with Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic (RFB&D).

For additional information about this program, contact Jeanne Guiney, Regional Director of Educational Outreach at the New England Regional Unit, (617) 577-1111, ext. 18, jguiney@rfbd.org or Susan Hargrave at the Massachusetts Department of Education, (781) 338-6844, shargrave@doe.mass.edu.

From the DOE website: http://www.doe.mass.edu/news/news.asp?id=3621

  NIMAC Information:

The American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) is pleased to offer several new training options for NIMAS capacity building.  In November, 2008, AFB will offer another face-to-face training for NIMAS capacity building. Hands-on  braille translation software training with NIMAS updates will be on November 21 and 22, 2008 in Detroit, Michigan.   We hope you will join us.  To register, go to www.afb.org/nimas.asp .

AFB will also offer an instructional webinar,  Implement NIMAS in the Individualized Education Program (IEP) and Build New State Strategies, on October 21, 2008.  Vicki Hershman, PATINS State Project Director (Indiana), and Joy Zabala, Project Manager, AIM Consortium at CAST will join the discussion.   You must download the plug-in link prior to joining the meeting that day.  To download the plug-ins, visit www.afb.org/nimas.asp

In addition, the June 2008 webinar on Leverage your NIMAS Resources is now archived on AFB's web site at www.afb.org/nimas.asp

Mary Ann Siller, M.Ed.
Project Manager, Professional Development
American Foundation for the Blind
11030 Ables Lane
Dallas, Texas 75229
469-522-1803  FAX:  214-352-3214

___________________________________________________

The DOE has assigned Susan Hargrave as the state NIMAC Coordinator contact her at the Massachusetts Department of Education, 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148 (781) 338-6844

National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS) Additional Assurance Required for IDEA Part B Grant

To: Superintendents and Administrators of Special Education
From: Marcia Mittnacht, State Director of Special Education
Date: May 15, 2006  (Edited memo)

There is a NIMAS technical advice website which provides a detailed explanation of the NIMAS provision and its background. The website is http://nimas.cast.org....

 Massachusetts has decided to "opt in" and has provided an assurance to OSEP regarding our participation in NIMAC. Even though Massachusetts does not order textbooks for districts, choosing to participate in NIMAC will help districts aquire student-ready versions in a more timely and cost-efficient manner. We will provide further information on this process in the fall of 2006-7.

Districts' Responsibilities : Each district has the option of participating in NIMAC. Whether a district does or does not participate in NIMAC, the district will be responsible for ensuring that each child who requires instructional materials in an alternate format will receive it in a timely manner. The Massachusetts DOE recommends that districts choose to participate in NIMAC, because this national effort to centralize the distribution of instructional materials in alternate formats will help guarantee timely provision of such materials to students.

For districts that choose to participate in NIMAC, contracts with publishers executed on and after December 3, 2006 for textbooks and other printed core materials must include a provision that requires the publisher to produce NIMAS files and send them to the NIMAC (this will not add any cost to the contract). Curriculum publishers have been involved in discussions relating to NIMAS and are well aware of its requirements.

Model contract language is "By agreeing to deliver the materials marked with "NIMAS" on this contract or purchase order, the publisher agrees to submit a valid NIMAS file set to the NIMAC at the American Printing House for the Blind, Inc. (APH). Should the vendor be a distributor of the materials and not the publisher, the distributor agrees to immediately notify the publisher of its obligation to submit NIMAS file sets of the purchased products to the NIMAC. This is page ___ of ___ of this contract or purchase order."
In lieu of, or in addition to choosing to participate in NIMAC, each LEA may contract with curriculum publishers directly to purchase accessible, student-ready versions. In most cases, however, you will find that publishers will not have such versions for sale.

Required Documentation : As part of the FY2007 Grant Assurances Document provided by all districts, there is an additional certification dealing with the NIMAS provisions of IDEA in "SECTION I" at I-5, entitled National Instructional Materials Access Center (NIMAC). Your district is required to review this assurance, check YES or NO to indicate if you will "opt-in" to the NIMAC or provide materials in an alternate but timely manner, sign the assurance, and return it with your FY2007 grant application package. 

• NIMAS: http://nimas.cast.org 
• NIMAC: http://nimac.us 

NIMAC Language: Please reference the language for ordering books in the future through the NIMAC and your local school system.  This is also on the DOE website:

For districts that choose to participate in NIMAC, contracts with publishers executed on and after December 3, 2006 for textbooks and other printed core materials must include a provision that requires the publisher to produce NIMAS files and send them to the NIMAC (this will not add any cost to the contract). Curriculum publishers have been involved in discussions relating to NIMAS and are well aware of its requirements. Model contract language is included below:

"By agreeing to deliver the materials marked with "NIMAS" on this contract or purchase order, the publisher agrees to submit a valid NIMAS file set to the NIMAC at the American Printing House for the Blind, Inc. (APH). Should the vendor be a distributor of the materials and not the publisher, the distributor agrees to immediately notify the publisher of its obligation to submit NIMAS file sets of the purchased products to the NIMAC. This is page ___ of ___ of this contract or purchase order."

Please keep your Program Quality Assurance Liason informed so they can remind the Special Edication Directors in their region.