Educational Technology, Media, and Materials for Individuals with Disabilities Program—Educational Materials in Accessible Formats for Eligible Children and Students with Disabilities

Overview

<p>The purpose of this priority is to fund a cooperative agreement to establish and operate a Center that will provide free educational materials, including textbooks, in fully accessible media for eligible children and students enrolled in early intervention, preschool, elementary, and secondary schools, and eligible students enrolled in postsecondary schools. This Center will provide high-quality AEM to eligible children and students with disabilities, including individuals from racially and ethnically diverse backgrounds, at no cost, in a timely manner including dedicated outreach and collaboration with stakeholders (including those in high needs communities) to increase awareness and use of AEM.</p> <p>As a condition of this grant, the educational materials and textbooks distributed by the Center must be in accessible formats that are of high quality and meet or exceed industry standards for accessibility and digital rights management. Processes, strategies, and models used in the production, dissemination, and in digital rights management must be user-friendly, efficient, and cost effective. The AEM distributed by the Center must exemplify accessibility features required to receive third-party certification for accessibility. The Center will improve access to text, images, charts, graphics, equations, and other expressions, notations, or numerical content included in educational materials. To facilitate continuous improvement and promote equity in access to free, high-quality products and services, the Center will collect and analyze relevant data on the needs of its’ users and barriers encountered by children and students eligible to use, but not currently using AEM.</p> <p><strong>The Center must achieve, at a minimum, the following expected outcomes:</strong><br><strong>(a)</strong> Improved access to text, images, charts, graphics, equations, and other expressions, notations, or numerical content disseminated in AEM;</p> <p><strong>(b)</strong> An increase in the number of children and students accessing high-quality AEM, including those in underserved communities (e.g., urban, rural, and high poverty areas);</p> <p><strong>(c)</strong> An increase in the number of early intervention providers, LEAs, and postsecondary schools enrolling eligible children or students and accessing AEM on behalf of eligible children and students;</p> <p><strong>(d)</strong> An increase in the number of eligible children and students enrolling and accessing AEM directly from the Center;</p> <p><strong>(e)</strong> An increase in the number of publishers and producers who create and disseminate student-ready accessible files to the Center and provide eligible children and students direct access to student-ready accessible files;</p> <p><strong>(f)</strong> An increase in the number and quality of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) textbooks and educational materials, including STEM images, graphics, descriptions, charts, equations, and other expressions, notations, or numerical content distributed to eligible children and students;</p> <p><strong>(g)</strong> Improved implementation of a model or models for producing and disseminating educational materials in accessible formats for children served </p> <p><strong>(h)</strong> Expanded or enhanced models for postsecondary schools to produce and disseminate accessible educational materials and textbooks that align with the key recommendations from the Advisory Commission on Accessible Instructional Materials in Postsecondary Education for Students with Disabilities; and</p> <p><strong>(i)</strong> Increased provision of educational materials in accessible formats, including any specialized software needed to use the materials, at no cost to SEAs, LEAs, families, schools for use by students who are eligible to receive accessible materials through the National Instructional Materials Access Center (NIMAC)</p> <p></p>