Bookshare on No Limits 2 Learning Live

Getting to Know Bookshare Live! Wednesday, April 15 at 1 PM Pacific time.

Betsy Beaumon and Betsy Burgess of Bookshare will be on No Limits 2 Learning Live (Blog Talk Radio) to share about the Bookshare service, what it is, how it got started, what is new, and where they are going in the future.

You can listen in or call in and share comments or questions at 347 945-5431.

The archive will be available on the player in the sidebar after the show is over if you miss it.

Hope to have you listen in!

Lon

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Free E-Book, "Building Wings" by Don Johnston Teaches Self-Accommodation and Advocacy

I spent some time this Veteran's Day reading Don Johnston's Story, "Building Wings: How I Made it Through School." I have had an autographed copy for several years with good intentions to read it and it has sat on my shelf waiting for me to pick it up.

We had friends visit over the weekend who have a daughter that could really get a lot out of reading Don's book. She is a middle schooler that struggles with comprehension and needs others to read aloud to her. She gets terribly embrassed and wants to hide her disability. I shared some tools for accommodating print disabilities and in light of their situation, decided it was time for me to read Don's book. I am going to share it with our friends too.

The book is large print and set at a 3-5 grade reading level, so it was easy reading for me but the concepts and issues were laid out to cause anyone reading the book to stop and think. I had to look at my own practice as an educator and reflect on how I support students and their learning. Do I challenge them to reach for higher achievement or do I allow them to settle for the easiest plateau? Don's story caused me to reflect on my own learning in elementary school, first impressions of school, my desire to learn and how that changed over time. I even decided to read it to my first grade son.
We sat down last night and I read the first 3 chapters to him where Don shares his kindergarten and first grade years. My son was glued to the story and had lots of questions. He wanted me to read more but it was time for bed. We talked about his coming to me when he can't learn something and not being frustrated, but rather let the teacher and me help him find the WAY he can learn it.
Don Johnston has a Building Wing's Reader's Theatre Contest that I will share about tomorrow. Meanwhile, check out the book and read it here: http://www.donjohnston.com/offers/buildingwings_online/one/index.html
If you work with children and you have never read it - you owe yourself and your students a good read of this one!

All the best!

Lon



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Coming Up November 3: World Treaty Proposal on Accessible Information Needs Your Voice

Today I read a blog post by my friend Ron Graham on Access Ability,"Call to Advocacy for Accessible Information".
Even though I have done my post for the day, I felt this was very important information to get out to you. It underlies much of what I work towards in the area of accessiblility. Ron is alerting us to a new treaty for the blind and visually impaired. It addresses all the things that are frustrating me about having incredible technology to access print in new media formats but having out-dated legal issues binding the use of the technology and limiting access.
Ron's post has all the information and links needed to understand and to actively alert our leaders on voting for this treaty. WIPO is the World Intellectual Property Organization and the meeting where this will be on the agenda is November 3.
If I am able to connect with DAISY Consortium for a radio show this week, we will discuss this.
Below is an excerpt from the bulletin concerning the treaty. I have put some text in red that I found very appropriate!


World Blind Union proposal for a WIPO Treaty for Blind, Visually Impaired and other Reading Disabled Persons
"Today persons who are blind or otherwise reading disabled face enormous obstacles in accessing copyrighted works. In an ideal world, publishers would make works available in formats accessible to the blind, visually impaired and reading disabled. In practice, this happens only rarely. Even in the wealthiest markets,1 less than 5 percent of published books are accessible to persons who are blind, and access in developing countries is often more limited. At the same time, innovations in information technology have created exciting opportunities to expand access. Traditionally, visually impaired persons have relied upon audio works that were cumbersome to use, expensive raised paper braille editions of works, and large type books printed on paper.
Today these approaches are being supplemented by a number of new digital technologies. Using standards like the Digital Accessible Information SYstem (DAISY), it is possible to publish works with highly usable indexes and searching technologies that can be used in audio, refreshable raised braille, or large type readers. Documents can be distributed at very low costs over the Internet or cell phone networks. The prices of the new digital reading devices vary according to functionality and purpose, but are becoming very affordable, even in developing countries.
While new technologies make it possible to imagine a world where visually impaired persons have access to a broad variety of documents at the same time as sighted people, the out-of-date legal environment is a barrier. Far more often than not, it is too difficult or impossible to obtain licenses from copyright owners. Some countries have limitations and exceptions in copyright laws to enable works to be made accessible for persons with reading disabilities without the permission of copyright owners, but the provisions vary considerably from country to country, and are often quite restrictive, or focused only on older technologies such as raised paper braille. Of particular concern to the WBU is the fact that the current regimes of limitations and exceptions do not permit the import and exports of accessible works. As a consequence of these factors, the total number of accessible works is very low, particularly in smaller market countries.

The Proposed Treaty
The WBU seeks to greatly expand access to works by a global platform for distributing accessible works. This involves creating a harmonized global minimum standard for copyright limitations and exceptions for blind, visually impaired and reading disabled persons that allows exports and imports of works in accessible formats to qualified persons. It is anticipated that this will both facilitate greater access to works under copyright limitations and exceptions, and also motivate publishers to publish works in accessible formats.
The basic structure of the proposal is a two tiered set of limitations and exceptions to the rights of copyright owners. Non-profit institutions would have the right to publish and distribute works in accessible formats if four conditions were met.
The person or organization wishing to undertake any activity under this provision has lawful access to that work or a copy of that work;
the work is converted to an accessible format, which may include any means needed to navigate information in the accessible format, but does not introduce changes other than those needed to make the work accessible to a visually impaired person;
copies of the work are supplied exclusively to be used by visually impaired persons; and
the activity is undertaken on a non-profit basis.
The Treaty proposal also provides for more limited exceptions for commercial publishers to make works available to the visually impaired when:
“the work or copy of the work that is to be made into an accessible format is not reasonably available in an identical or largely equivalent format enabling access for the visually impaired, and the entity providing this accessible format gives notice to the owner of copyright of such use and adequate remuneration to copyright owners is available.”
The biggest beneficiaries of the treaty will be blind and visually impaired persons living in developing countries, as they will have far greater access to works currently only available in high-income countries. However, even developed countries will benefit enormously from the liberalization of access to foreign collections of accessible works, and from the expansion of the rights for the visually impaired, including in areas such as technological protection measures or restrictive contracts. Moreover, given the importance of economies of scale, everyone will benefit from the larger global market for accessible works."

Read the full document here:

http://www.keionline.org/misc-docs/tvi/tvi_memo_en.html

Lon

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Converting Textbooks to Audio Books and Copyright Issues

I have been showing folks how to scan textbooks and other materials into text files and use a text reader to allow students with print disabilities access to the text with audio support. Steven Timmer of Premier Literacy and also a representative from Kurzweil 3000, both demonstrating products that scan text and read, have developed their products based on allowing students to access the textbook. They have told me that if a book has been purchased for a student and you are scanning a section of it for digital access by that student only, you are fine. You have a one-to-one connection between the book and the student it was intended for. But is that true? How do I know? I guess the fact that they are both still working and their companies have not been closed and the developers have stayed out of jail means something!
In a similar vein, I have been told that if the above-mentioned selection is posted on the Internet for a student and the access is password protected for the student it was intended for only, you are not in violation of copyright and are protected under education and fair use.

When we identify and get documentation of a medically certifiable disability, then we most definitely have an allowance for the adaptability of copyrighted text for that student, but with those that are borderline or just have struggles with reading their books, what can we safely do?
I took it one step further with the Odiogo text to speech reader and Mp3 download tool. Odiogo works great for getting my blog posts out there for folks to read or to download like a podcast to listen to - but what about copyrighted text? And Odiogo has emailed me and told me that when a blog is closed, their feed doesn't work - this means in order to use the scanned text files with Odiogo, I have to open up the blog to anyone - and then I am in risky territory.

I found a great article from UC Berkley that contains links to sites with explanations about copyrighted teaching materials in the classroom. They share "Four Factors" regarding fair use in U.S. copyright law:
1.) The purpose and character of the use; 2.) The nature of the copyrighted work; 3.) The amount and significance of the portion copied; 4.) The impact of use on the potential market.

The article states:
"No guidelines have been established nationally or at the University for fair use in electronic media. The University adopted guidelines in 1986 for the reproduction (photocopying) of copyrighted works for teaching and research purposes, and these could be consulted for general parameters."
I read through their information and would recommend their piece on fair use on the web and web rules of thumb.

I am trying to be careful that I am not teaching anyone to do anything that violates copyright. This means that I need to research and know what I am doing. My understanding of the guidelines seems to allow for a section of the text to be behind a password protected area or firewall for teacher and student access only. UC Berkley said in the report above: "If access is limited through passwords or firewalls to only faculty and students, your fair use argument will be stronger."

I have been shown a way to convert Mp3 files of e text without publishing it on the Internet to do the conversion where it would violate copyright. I have also been able to use tools to do it where it is free as well. I will be sharing this in a tutorial/post as we continue to explore fair use, web use of text and copyright issues. I will also be including this process in a workshop I will be presenting in Minneapolis, MN for Closing the Gap on October 17, 12:30 to 1:30 PM. If any of you are going to be attendinig, come say hello and give me some moral support - my first national conference presentation!

All the best to you!

Lon

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How to Create Your Own Audio Books for Free or Low Cost

I was listening to an Mp3 I had downloaded recently from a national talk radio show that I enjoy. They had been interviewing an author and it was the time in the show when folks can call in and share opinions, ask questions, etc. A caller was put on the air and he said: "I am a blind person, and I love listening to your show. I would love to read your book but I have to have it in another format on tape or Braille. I get books from American Printing House and I wondered if I can get your book someway."
The author said he didn't have his books in an audio version but he would send anyone a book for free that was blind if they wanted to have someone read it on a tape recorder or something, but he didn't know anything about books for the blind and couldn't do Braille.
The caller had sounded like someone who didn't really know about the technology available to them. Neither did the host or the author. I was listening to the interview several days after the fact and wished I could have called in and given some tips. I guess because I work in AT, I assume most people who need access to tools already know about them and that I am not sharing anything new - but I need to stop assuming that. I am giving a presentation this afternoon to a group of folks in special education that don't know how to do this at all. Since I am not able to call in and answer the gentleman's question that called in, I'll share with you. I know I have shared this before, but for new readers, here it goes:

In order to do the things I suggest, you need the following:
1. A computer - that is a given!
2. A Scanner - the scanner can be a 4 in one printer/fax/photocopier/scanner, or a dedicated flatbed scanner. You can buy a new one for around $65 at the big general stores like Target, Wal-Mart, etc. Make sure it has OCR (Optical Character recognition).
3. A FREE text reader. I use Read Natural. The voices aren't that great if you use the free version but "Hey, free is free - it helps" The upgrade pay version has great voices AND an Mp3 converter tool - very cool.
4. An Mp3 player - This is optional. You can hear the text on a computer for free, but if you want something portable, you will want one of these. What I like is that these little jump-drive players use the USB port right into the computer, no cables or wires (except the headphones). You can then open the device on the computer screen and drag and drop in converted e-text files to listen to. I bought a little jump-drive RCA makes. I can drag and drop music or documents from my computer right onto the jump drive and then listen to them from the player - quick and easy. It cost $29.95 and has1 Gig Memory.
This is a lot better than using an iPod and iTunes and having to sync your device and build playlists etc. I have an iPod and I find I don't use it to listen to quick downloaded talk shows, articles, converted files, etc. because the iPod doesn't lend itself to on-the-fly syncing

If you have a book, but no audio version what do you do? In this instance, you can scan the pages using the scanner with OCR that will recognize the text and turn it into an RTF (Rich Text Format). It will open in a Windows, Mac or Linux operating system.
After you scan the text you can use your free downloaded Natural Reader to hear the text read to you. You have to open the mini toolbar that floats on the screen and then highlight the text and let it read - or you can open the reading window and paste the text in to be read.

Converting Text to Mp3
There are tools out there that can take your text and convert it to an Mp3 file. There is the Natural Reader upgrade I already mentioned above. Premier Literacy has an Mp3 conversion button on several of their readers and has a program called "Text to Audio" for $69.95 that will convert large amounts of text and create sections every 10 minutes or when you specify.
The Kurzweil 3000 has a text to Mp3 feature also but the program costs about $1200 - $1500.

A work around buying software to convert text to Mp3 is to start a blog just for this purpose - like I have with My Reading Chair and copy paste your text into a post. Add the Odiogo free player onto your blog and then be able to download your text as an Mp3 format onto your computer for free. Anyone can do this but one caution: If you are scanning copyrighted text, there is a fair use allowance for the owner of a book to adapt the text for their own private use. If you use a blog, you need to close it and delete the post as soon as you have your converted text to Mp3 files so you are not opening it up to the world-wide-web. That would definitely be a copyright violation! Also, if you are scanning a book and creating files of audio text you need to keep it for your own use and not give it to others. If a book is in public domain, you are fine to do what you want with it. Gutenberg.org is a great source for public domain works and many titles have audio versions ready to download for free.

I hope this has helped some of you get to accessing some books and listening - I know I am having a lot of fun with it and it helps me and my students.

All the best,
Lon



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Slow Down and Let Students Accommodate for Life!

Print Disabilities provide the pleasure of teaching the use of tools and strategies that will take students and carry them on past school years and build a foundation for life. If we slow down and allow kids time to learn to use these tools the way they would really like to use them, they will actually grab onto them and begin to self-accommodate. Here is my most recent "back to school" example:
I was in a high school meeting yesterday where we were designing our implementation strategy for modification and accommodation of content. The teachers have built blogs for content that are closed and secure for student access by password only. We had grand plans for amazing content and then someone stopped and commented:
"Maybe we need to wait on developing too much content and just spend the first part of fall quarter letting students spend time learning to use the text to speech tool, going to the page with all the hyperlinks to the teacher blogs for modified content, use the Mp3 download tool and save content to listen to. We need to give time for practice. We could give them some fun sample content that they could practice with."
Of course, no one could argue. We had all been discussing over-arching goals, tools to use, and content from Bookshare for specific students. These were good plans and necessary, but we had momentarily forgotten to slow down take a breath and allow ourselves to lay a foundation.
We decided that the number one goal was to help these students with print disabilities develop a life skill of being able to use these tools for things they would need to do like reading news, accessing web sites and filling in online forms, spelling correctly, etc.

If we give students opportunities to use a text to speech tool, convert to Mp3 tool, spell checkers and use the e-text files so they can read and explore content that motivates them, then maybe they will REALLY learn how to use these tools for the reasons we want them to have them anyway. Once they have got the implementation down, then we can add more content and develop our curriculum goals. What can it hurt to let them "play" with the technology for the first 3 weeks?
So we had our "Ah-ha moment" and relaxed. Now everyone is ready to explore, work on developing content, but not under so much pressure. When you implement new technology for the first time, folks can be stressed, nervous and fear failure. If the teachers feel that way, how about the students? Some students take to tech, but for many with print disabilities, the low stress plan will really pay off. We are taking that path this next month of September and I will let you know how it goes.

All the best to you!
Lon

No Limits 2 Learning Live will host Leanne McFoose, Developer of the InterACCT system for Dynavox next Wednesday at 10 a.m. Pacific. More details to come next week.



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Discover LibriVox for Free Recorded Voice Books

LibriVox boasts 1,668 titles of public domain works in 22 languages and the voices of about 2,080 volunteer readers. Pretty impressive stuff! Started in 2005, LibriVox has a new release podcast, a book podcast, a community podcast, a forum, wiki and a blog... AND all of their library catalogued and ready for download. You can pick a book and sign up to receive a chapter a day as an RSS feed podcast on itunes. There are also links to the Gutenberg etext files, Wikipedia links to the author and book, and zip files of the entire book.

They recently had a 3 year anniversary and on the community podcast hosted sound bites from volunteer readers and listeners on what they liked best about LibriVox. The comments ranged from "Being allowed to volunteer and read books to give back even though disabled and shut in all the time", to "You have put me in touch with the classics and reading again" type of comments. One father commented how his son was getting in the habit of downloading chapters of books to listen to when he went to bed with his headphones.

I enjoy having real voices at my fingertips when I want to read a book or share a book as a resource to a teacher or student. It is nice to have text to speech tools for attacking documents on the fly, but services like this one, where volunteers have given of their time to read a book, is very special. I feel like they are reading it just for me.

If you would like to volunteer as a reader check out their "How to volunteer" link.

Happy listening and all the best to you!

Lon

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Working Through Joubert Syndrome with Assistive Technology Tools

I have been working with a student who has Joubert Syndrome for the past year or so. He is in middle school and the parents love him dearly. They struggle with Autistic-like issues as well as orthopedic and cognitive difficulties. One of the key successes for him is his love of the computer. We have set up a laptop and a Big Keys Keyboard for him. We use some online tools, but the program we have seen the most success with is the Intellitools Classroom Suite.

We have been able to adapt his curriculum content so that he can have it set up to select on-screen "buttons"and have content read to him. He can use the Intellitalk to be able to type and hear back what he writes immediately. Since his academic goals tend to be foundational aspects of numbers and letters, the activities are a natural for him. We have been adapting activities to contain high interest topics for him and yet teach the concepts he needs to learn.

Print Disability Access:

Our newest addition is accessing Bookshare.org with his own account to get texts that he can hear. With the access to this, an on-screen reader and Classroom Suite, we are able to modify content so he can have access to the curriculum needed at his level.

The Joubert Syndrome Foundation website has some great information and support links. I would highly recommend checking them out to learn more.

Remember to check into the latest edition of our AT Blog Carnival and the interview with Patricia Sublette coming up this morning on No Limits to Learning Live.

All the best to you!

Lon

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Putting Print Disability Access to Work...the Process of Implementation Begins

I was driving through a spring snowstorm in the mountains Wednesday morning at 6:45. I was on my way to an implementation training session. I would be facing a superintendent, a principal, several teachers, a speech pathologist, a resource specialist, a parent and her advocate. I had been up late the night before preparing some copies of information on Internet sites, links to resources, talking book and braille subscription services, ideas for implementing the e-text for the group to look through (the blog posts I wrote here on the topic were used for a lot of it). We had been able to establish eligibility for the student with Bookshare and now were ready to look at the state service sanctioned by NIMAC and how to put this all together for the student.
Since we have been exploring e-text and print disability this week, I thought I might bring in this experience because it seems to add some relevency to the discussion. Because after all, when it comes down to it, if we can't successfully implement AT we feel is worthwhile, what good will it do the student? So...I will continue.
We split our 3 hour work session into 2 parts. The first section was spent reviewing 2 main objectives for the student, going over Oregon Special Education Law as it addresses access to printed materials and IDEA and access in a timely manner. We then took time to go over the services and tools I had outlined in their packets.

Here is where we began to see useful strategy planning for implementation:
We used a large pad and taped our brainstorming strategies on the wall. We had identified one main task/objective and set out to identify the strategies that would work, who would implement them, how often the teachers would meet to discuss the process and make adjustments, what training I would come back to do later and how often, etc. We left the meeting with a concrete training day next month, a list of things to learn, an in-service meeting before school next fall and a start to what looks like a promising action plan.

I left the meeting proud of the cooperation by the group, the postive way everyone contributed and the effort that was put out and seen by all as necessary in the coming year.
As I reflected on the processes of the morning and tried to sort out why it all clicked, I tried to pat myself on the back for being a great group leader, organized and ready to guide the group into a succesful inmplementation plan, but, even though I know those elements need to be there and were to a certain extent, they still could have meant nothing if... if what? ...if people couldn't have put their own differences aside and looked out for the best interests of the student.

I can have the best laid plans, but if the folks I am working with take sides and can't work together - well then, the only one truly hurt is the student. I know that there are probably things about my personality that help disarm hostitlity and help folks relax and see that we are a team, that no one is going to bite their head off because they tried something that didn't work, etc. but still, as I drove on, I kept coming back to that principle of being positive and being a part of a solution.
Supporting the team and being a contributing member is so important and it really made itself evident in the group process today. I believe that behind every positive and successful implementation of assistive technology, there is a collaborative, cooperative team willing to put out their best effort for a child.

I just have to say thank you to all those folks that worked so hard and were willing to give in - and also say thank you to everyone reading this who are doing the same in all your corners of the world. My hat goes off to you!

All the best!

Lon

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Bookshare.org: Another Electronic Book Resource

In this section on Electronic Books, I wanted to share with you some other resources I hadn't talked about yet.

Bookshare.org:
Bookshare.org received federal grant funds to provide free accounts for downloadable text for students that have been identified by the school or district as having a print disability. I was informed at our state meeting that if a school submits a name for a free account to Bookshare.org, they should have the print disability identification documentation in the student's file to support your claim. You will need to fax that identification letter to Bookshare.org in order to set up the account. If you don't know who can identify a student as having a print disability, check my post yesterday on access and legal definitions. You can also read through the Bookshare.org legal requirements page. They give a list that includes a learing disability specialist, i.e. a school psychologist.
Once a school has submitted a student for eligibility to the Bookshare site and they are approved, the student is assigned a quantity of download files and a password. The downloadable texts are free. If you have the eligibility documentation but are not in school, the cost is $50 a year and a one time fee of $25. Books can be downloaded in BRF - a cross platform Duxbury braille format file for braille readers and printer/embossers, and in DAISY: Digital Access Information System Consortium - a digital talking book format used by several readers - explained bwlow. You can read about the format at Bookshare here. You can also search a list of NIMAS format texts on the site.
There is a catch to this system:
If you believe that print text should be freely accessible to all folks with disabilities, then you might think twice about this site - especially if you don't have the money to maintain eligibility after you are out of school. One of the comments made by a very well-informed colleague who has been commenting on this topic should be noted. He shares that after an individual is out of school, and even in college years, maintaining the required documentation for eligibility can be quite costly. Being seen by a specialist and having a documentation letter written every three years to maintain status is difficult for many.
He says:

"I believe in "lifespan" solutions, not things that are only useful in school. And once students leave school they will need to have medical coverage in order to remain "listed as disabled." In fact, students who move from high school to community college to universities often need to pay large amounts to be re-certified as "disabled" because their school psych reports are now "over 3 years old."

I think this is very important to remember. I am addressing tools for education for the most part here, so I will present the information and leave your use of these tools -based on ethics of these issues - up to your own discretion. Maybe we need to explore options to get a continuing diagnosis freely provided for those with print disabilities. I'm sure there are groups lobbying for it as we speak.

There is a great article from Reading Rockets on Accessible Textbooks that is a great guide for parents. I discovered it reading a post on Charles Fox's Special Ed Law Blog in a search though his posts on assistive technology.

Don Johnston Company has just announced that they are in the process of providing their Solo: Read Outloud format on Bookshare.org. in the 2008-09 school year. Their texts will be free to all Bookshare.org members. For more information on the Read Outloud tool go to the Don Johnston website here. The company also has a reader called the Classmate Reader which I will present tomorrow. I am going to explore seeing if Don would be available to discuss the Read: Out Loud component to Solo and the Bookshare.org relationship they are building. It could be quite interesting.


P.S. I discovered another great archive of links to public domain texts of all kinds... check out:
http://bluephoenix4book.blogspot.com/

All the best to you!

Lon

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Access to Materials for Print Disabilities - Copyright and Legal Definitions

In continuing the topic of electronic books, I am going to attempt to tackle a somewhat confusing topic. The topic is access to electronic text materials, who gets them and how they qualify.

IDEA, section 300.172 requires that textbooks and related core instructional materials be provided to students with print disabilities. They are to have them in specialized formats and in a timely manner. Timely manner is perceived to be when the other students receive instructional materials and the specialized format can be braille, audio, digital text or large print. Students with print disabilities are to receive these materials to gain the information needed to complete tasks, master IEP goals and reach curriculum standards.

Chafee Ammendment and Disabilities Defined:
Under the Chafee ammendment to the copyright law in 1931, students with print disabilities are those who have been certified by a "comptent authority" as unable to read printed materials because of a visual impairment or blindness, physical limitations or an organic dysfunction.
Blind is defined as having a visual acuity of 20/200 or less and those whose visual disability with correction prevents the reading of standard printed material.
Other persons with print disabilities is defined as those who are unable to read or use standard printed materials as a result of a physical limitation or resulting form organic dysfunction and of sufficient severity to prevent the reading of printed materials in a normal manner.
Competent Authority:
The list is long as to who is designated competent to make a diagnosis for qualification. It ranges from M.D.'s in medicine, osteopathy, opthamology, optometry, registered nurses, therapists, and institutions and public welfare agencies. In absence of these, it states that certification may be made by professional librarians or by any person acceptable to the Library of Congress. See an attorney if you are wanting legal advice on who should qualify in your situation as competent if it varies from qualifications listed in these ammendments.

NIMAS:
I have been at several state-wide sessions to discuss the implications of the NIMAS formatting of text materials and how foks qualify. NIMAS is the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard. You can read an overview on NIMAS at the U.S. Dept. of Education site under IDEA HERE. The site lists some legal definitions, but it basically spells out that states needed to provide a standard format NIMAS for those with print disabilities starting in July of 2006.
Publishers of textbooks have been demanding strict protection of any files of their current textbook series. The files have to be administerd by NIMAC the access center for NIMAS, and given out on a case by case qualification basis through an approved state agency that administrates the flow of files to indentified individuals. In Oregon, that identified agency is
The Oregon Textbook and Media Center, housed at Willamette ESD. The American Foundation for the Blind lists a directory by state for these centers. You can look up your instructional resource center for the blind and visually impaired here: (AFB Centers Directory) They also list some nice information about NIMAS and frequently asked questions and self study tool, etc.

I have more to share on this that has to do with Bookshare.org and some companion services as well as formats and readers. Also a great resource article link for parents. I think that will be continued tomorrow since this is probably enough information overload for one day!

I would like to acknowledge Gayle Bowser, now retired, but the developer and presenter on a lot of the information I shared today. She is a gold-mine of information and her clear thought processes have helped us sort this out and explore it's implications. I would like to have her on a podcast or the talk radio show to discuss this with us. I'll have to work on that one.

All the best to you!

Lon

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