What’s New at the National Instructional Materials Access Center
NOTE: October is Blindness Awareness Month
NIMAC Project Director, Nicole Gaines
When typical textbooks don’t meet the needs of students with reading disabilities, visual impairments, or physical disabilities, the OSEP-funded National Instructional Materials Access Center (NIMAC) helps ensure that these students can obtain the accessible formats they need to engage and contribute alongside their peers.
The NIMAC, located at the American Printing House for the Blind, was created by IDEA to serve as the national repository for digital source files for use in the production of accessible formats for K–12 instructional materials. The files the NIMAC receives from publishers are in a special format (called “NIMAS”) which is not distributed directly to students but is used to produce formats like braille, digital audio, large print, and digital text. These formats are then distributed by states and the agencies they designate to qualifying students in elementary and secondary schools.
Bookshare, also an OSEP-funded project, is the most widely used provider of accessible digital formats produced from NIMAS files. They convert files from the NIMAC into a range of accessible digital formats and make these available free of charge to eligible students through Bookshare’s online library.
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