[Bridging_the_digital_divide] New format hastens textbook accessibility

[bridging_the_divide at touchsmart.net]

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.

http://www.eschoolnews.com/news/showStoryts.cfm?ArticleID=5218
---

Jason Barkeloo
President
TouchSmart Publishing
http://www.touchsmart.net
t: 513.225.8765
f: 206.666.4856

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