[bksvol-discuss] New format hastens textbook accessibility

"Shelley L. Rhodes" <juddysbuddy@xxxxxxxxxxxx> · Mon, 16 Aug 2004 15:03:19 -0400

New format hastens textbook accessibility
By Cara Branigan, Associate Editor, eSchool News
August 12, 2004

Students with disabilities can anticipate faster access to curriculum
materials now that the U.S. Department of Education
(ED) has formally endorsed a voluntary national publishing paradigm known as
the National Instructional Materials
Accessibility Standard (NIMAS). The standard will make it easier to convert
traditional textbooks into formats such as
Braille or text-to-speech.

The department made the announcement in July at an event marking the 14th
anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

"President Bush believes that every single child can learn and deserves the
opportunity to learn," said Eugene Hickok, deputy
secretary of education, on behalf of Secretary Rod Paige. "We're taking
another step toward this goal with a new, voluntary
standard that will enable students and teachers to more quickly access
general curriculum materials, thereby opening more
doors of opportunity to students."

The endorsement is significant because a handful of states, including
Arizona, Kentucky, New Mexico, and, New York, already
had passed laws that require publishers to provide electronic copies of
textbooks in whatever file format ED endorses.

NIMAS was developed and agreed upon last fall by a federally funded
40-member panel representing content-transformation
organizations, educators, disability advocates, and curriculum publishers.

William (Skip) Stahl, director of technical assistance for the Center for
Applied Special Technology (CAST), attributes the
timing of ED's decision to the deadlock in Congress over the reauthorization
of the Individuals with Disabilities Education
Act (IDEA).

"Because the IDEA reauthorization didn't look like it was moving forward
before the election, the department wanted to
finally put its stake in the sand and endorse" the format, Stahl said.

Both the House and Senate versions of the IDEA reauthorization bills contain
a mandate to states to adopt NIMAS as a
requirement for receiving IDEA funds. Both versions have passed their
respective chambers of Congress but still must go to a
joint conference committee to reconcile the differences and then be adopted
in final form in the House and Senate before
going to the President.

"The endorsement is [also] significant because we don't know if the
references to NIMAS will remain there," Stahl said.

At least 26 states have passed accessible textbook legislation, and these
states have asked the textbook publishers to
provide electronic versions of students' textbooks in a variety of
formats--in some cases, Microsoft Word; in others, ASCII
or QuarkXpress files.

"If that procedure were to continue, we might end up with 50 different file
formats," Stahl said.

NIMAS simply asks publishers to provide an XML (Extensible Markup Language)
version alongside each book, so the organizations
that transform textbooks into accessible formats can do so more easily.

The panel chose XML as its standard file format because it allows publishers
to tag the structural and semantic components of
textbooks--such as chapters, chapter headings, glossaries, indexes, images,
tables of contents, or key questions.

The XML file will not be a student-ready version, but it nevertheless will
give organizations a single, consistent file
format so they can streamline their entire transformation operations and get
books out to students faster.

"Right now, to get a Braille version of any textbook can take six weeks to
six months. With the adoption of NIMAS, there
shouldn't be any delay at all," Stahl said. Getting materials to students
with disabilities in a timely manner could help
schools meet their Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) requirements under the No
Child Left Behind Act, too, he added.

The American Association of Publishers, which represents textbook publishers
such as McGraw-Hill and Houghton Mifflin, has
supported the new publishing standard, despite the extra burden it puts on
publishers.

"It's going to add additional levels of cost and complexity," said Stephan
Driesler, executive director of the group's school
division. "This XML file format is not something [publishers] are using
routinely."

But, down the road, it will be better than bending to the file-format whims
of all 50 states, Driesler said. Plus, publishers
have up to two years to implement the standard, assuming it is mandated in
the final reauthorization of IDEA.

NIMAS was developed under the leadership of the federally funded National
Center for Accessing the General Curriculum (NCAC)
at CAST, a nonprofit education research and development organization.

Links:

U.S. Department of Education
http://www.ed.gov

National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard
http://www.cast.org/NFF/NIMAS

Center for Applied Special Technology
http://www.cast.org

American Association of Publishers
http://www.publishers.org

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http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showstory.cfm?ArticleID=5218&page=2

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