The National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS) is a technical standard publishers can use to produce source files (in XML) that may be used to develop multiple accessible formats (such as Braille or audiobooks).

In addition to the technical specification, our NIMAS Exemplars provide NIMAS-conformant filesets you can inspect to learn more about best practices based on the technical specification and the DAISY Structure Guidelines.

MathML is the recommended way to represent mathematical notation in NIMAS. For more information, visit MathML in NIMAS.

Visit Resources for Publishers and Conversion Houses on the NIMAC website for additional resources related to the production of NIMAS files.

Both State education agencies (SEAs) and local education agencies (LEAs) have responsibilities related to the provision of accessible formats from NIMAS files through the NIMAC for qualifying students. The State Director of Special Education leads the following activities on behalf of the SEA and LEAs.

Are some terms new to you? See the definitions section on this page or visit NIMAS & NIMAC. The NIMAS Q&A also provides answers to common questions related to the implementation of the NIMAS and coordination with the NIMAC.

The Need for a National Center for Systemic Improvement
State education agencies play a key role in policy development and implementation, striving to support the field in meeting the needs of students with disabilities and their families. To succeed, they turn to trusted partners to strengthen capacity to lead systems change that improves both learning conditions and outcomes.

NCSI is a critical partner to states in these pursuits, assisting them to both learn about and understand seminal research, as well as translate that research into practice. Paying attention to the systemic functions of data literacy, evidence-based practices, stakeholder engagement, and systems coherence, NCSI helps SEAs to cultivate knowledge and skills that enable them to achieve lasting impact for students.

About the AEM Center
The National Center on Accessible Educational Materials for Learning at CAST provides technical assistance, coaching, and resources to increase the availability and use of accessible educational materials and technologies for learners with disabilities across the lifespan.

Family members are the most important people on the educational team and in the life of a child or youth with deaf-blindness.

They are the one consistent presence as children move from early intervention to school, and then transition to adult life. Educational settings change and practitioners come and go, but the family is always there. In this section of the website, you will find resources to help you:

Connect to agencies and organizations
Learn about deaf-blindness and key topics for families
Access family stories
Find events

Welcome to NCDB's Info Center. Here you will find information about deaf-blindness, educational practices for children and youth, and the National Child Count. Our goal is to help users find high-quality resources and avoid information overload.

Information includes links to a wide variety of resources—factsheets, websites, articles, videos—for families, service providers, and anyone else involved in the life of a child with deaf-blindness. We have also kept all of our popular legacy publications from previous OSEP-funded projects (see bottom of page).

If you are having trouble finding what you need, please email support@nationaldb.org.

Practice Guides
One of NCDB's current product development projects is the creation of practice guides that outline essential components of instructional practices commonly used with children who are deaf-blind. They are primarily intended as a tool for state deaf-blind project personnel and practitioners to inform training and coaching needs.

A key purpose is to let technical assistance providers or coaches and practitioners know what a practice involves when implemented correctly. The more clearly the components of an intervention are known and defined, the better it can be successfully implemented (Fixsen et al., 2013). NCDB Practice Guides also serve as quick reminders of the purpose and key elements of a practice. The guides are not intended to provide instruction on how to implement a practice and should be used in combination with technical assistance/coaching and information resources (e.g., factsheets, articles, videos, modules).

Accessibility & Accommodations
Assessments should be designed to ensure that all test takers have the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and skills on what the assessment is measuring. Critical to realizing this is providing accessibility features so that assessments are fair, valid, and reliable.

“Accessibility” is a general term currently used for three levels of supports. Universal features, which might include use of a highlighter for example, are available to all test takers. Designated features, which might include text-to-speech, are available to all students for whom an adult or team of adults has indicated a need for them. Accommodations are provided only to students with disabilities and English learners for content assessments (general and alternate), and only for English learners with disabilities for English language proficiency (ELP) assessments.

Accessibility policies are state-determined, and often vary by content area. Universal features, designated features, and accommodations may be embedded in technology-based assessments or may be provided by a human. The terminology used for the levels, and the specific features included in each level, may differ by state and by assessment.

We believe that all deaf people can THRIVE.GROW.BLOSSOM.
As deaf people leave high school and prepare for college or careers, the National Deaf Center wants them to succeed. Our research shows that deaf people are not completing college degrees, getting jobs, or earning as much as hearing people. We’re here to change that.

Find guides, templates, overviews, publications, videos and more. Our resources are developed by experts, covering a variety of topics to support evidence-based practices in postsecondary outcomes for deaf individuals.

This website provides a list of webinars on the topic of Deaf education.

This unit from the Guyana ICT in Education for Teachers Course provides training so that teachers are able to identify key characteristics of classroom practices and specify how these characteristics serve to implement policies. (TL.1.a)

A unit of study for teachers to provide participants with clear directions so that they can continue to design a PBL project.

Personalizing the Writing Experience

A person using both a paper notebook and pen alongside a laptop computer
We often take for granted just how complex the act of writing is, and the range of mental and motor skills it involves. While we each go about the process of writing in our own unique way, some distinct steps are typically involved: pre-writing, drafting, revising and editing.

You may experience barriers in any of these steps of the writing process that can keep you from being a successful writer. Fortunately, the devices many of us already own have a range of built-in features to support you at each stage of the writing process, and many free or low-cost apps and extensions are also available.

Information and video tutorials to help teachers and students take advantage of built-in features, apps and extensions on a variety of devices to support a personalized and accessible reading experience for everyone.

A unit of study to introduce in-service teachers to the topic of properly arranging and managing physical resources so as to produce flexible learning environments, allowing learners to work productively as individuals or in groups.

This workshop, offered by the AEM Center, will explore the challenges and opportunities of transition and programmatic accessibility for workforce developmen...

The purpose of the Protocol for Creating Accessible OER is to provide detailed yet easily implemented techniques for creating accessible OER with Microsoft Office and Google Workspace. These are the two most commonly used authoring suites in schools, and documents created with them are often the source files for other formats, such as PDF and EPUB publications.The techniques presented can be implemented by any educator who creates or adapts materials for use by students and families.

The Protocol for Curating Accessible OER is provides detailed yet easy to implement techniques for evaluating the accessibility of OER content in a number of formats.

This unit from the Guyana ICT in Education for Teachers Course provides training so that teachers are able to describe and demonstrate the basic tasks and uses of word processors, such as text entry, editing text, formatting text and printing (TL.4.b ). This is done by summarising the impact of the Guyana ICT in Education policy