Audio
The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education funds a limited number of Student Access Accounts for students with a documented print disability through Learning Ally. Account memberships will be offered to qualified Massachusetts public school students on a first-come, first-served basis. In order to receive a state-funded membership, schools need to complete a membership application and complete the certification online that each student has a qualifying disability. To learn more about these and additional services for schools, including webinars, see Learning Ally website
Learning Ally provides audio versions of textbooks for students with vision impairments, learning disabilities, or physical disabilities that make it difficult to use traditional text. These audiobooks are available primarily as downloadable audio and CDs, which can be played on a variety of portable devices and computers. Learning Ally’s audiobooks are recorded using the human voice and include descriptions of pictures, graphs, and figures.
If the current fiscal year is full, please contact their our Customer Care Team: 800.221.4792 or email CustomerCare@learningally.org to inquire about school licensing options.
For further questions, please contact Jennifer Dougherty at jdougherty@learningally.org or 617.500.2712.
Digital
Bookshare is an online, searchable accessible digital library for print disabled readers. Through a federal grant, they serve schools at no cost. If a student needs digital text for use with text-to-speech software, .brf, or DAISY files, educators can download files from Bookshare.
The district/school/organization needs to sign up for a school or group account before files can be downloaded, certifying that only eligible students will use the materials.
Please visit the Bookshare website for details.
NIMAC
The NIMAC was created by IDEA to serve as the national repository for digital source files to aid in the production of accessible formats for K–12 instructional materials such as braille, large print, digital text, and audiobooks. The NIMAC site lists all the source files received from publishers that were requested by school district purchasing contract. The files are in a special format called “NIMAS”.
The National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS) is a technical standard that curriculum publishers began using in 2006. NIMAS file sets are designed to make it easier and faster to obtain accessible instructional materials. They are source files and are designed to be converted into accessible formats by accessible media producers (AMPs), using specialized software for this purpose. NIMAS files are used by AMPs in the production of a range of accessible formats, including braille, large print, digital audio, and a variety of accessible digital text formats, including DAISY and EPUB.
As NIMAS files are raw and need to be converted, they are NOT available directly to school districts or students.
It is also important to note that NIMAS-derived materials are only available to qualifying students on an IEP and students on 504 plans are not eligible to use NIMAS-derived materials.
Publishers will send NIMAS files to the National Instructional Materials Access Center (NIMAC), only when requested to do so through a purchasing contract with a school district.
Therefore, school districts’ contracts or purchase orders with curriculum publishers should include a provision requiring the publisher to create NIMAS files and send them to the National Instructional Materials Access Center (NIMAC). The model contract language is suggested below:
