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Center Overview

The AIM Center provides technical assistance (TA) to state education agencies (SEAs), local education agencies (LEAs), and other stakeholders to (1) improve the implementation of NIMAS; and (2) to develop and implement unified distribution systems in SEAs that will improve the timely delivery of high-quality AIM to all children with disabilities who need instructional materials in accessible formats.

Methods

The U.S. Department of Education funded the NIMAS TA Center in September 2004 to support the implementation of NIMAS-related requirements and to provide TA and information to SEAs, LEAs, and other stakeholders in the preparation, delivery, and conversion of NIMAS filesets. However, the NIMAS TA Center targeted its efforts on addressing the need for AIM for children eligible under Library of Congress (LOC) regulations. Recent national surveys of states found that the implementation of NIMAS is underway within states, but that states have encountered difficulty in developing and implementing unified distribution systems for AIM to serve the needs of all children with disabilities (Project Forum, 2007 & 2009). SEAs and LEAs need substantial TA to provide high-quality materials in a timely manner and to improve their distribution systems because of the complexity of developing and implementing a unified distribution system that is responsive to IDEA requirements, the LOC criteria for eligibility, and section 121 of the Copyright Act. State systems must address simultaneously the concerns of multiple participants in the system, including students and families, teachers, local schools, SEAs and LEAs, educational publishers, software developers, accessible media producers (AMPs), and distributors. Continued TA can help states develop efficient state distribution systems so that all children with disabilities receive AIM in a timely manner.