So You’re an AEM State Contact/NIMAC Coordinator Part 3

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Additional, questions okay. Cynthia are started a recording, and I'm hoping it's going to the cloud because, it didn't give me a option. But if it, comes to my system, I'll I'll make it available to everybody the, button is on on my screen so you're, perfect, I guess we're ready to start great, welcome everybody and thank you, for joining us, spending. Some of your Tuesday. We. Are the aim Center in the Naima I'm Cynthia Currie and the director. Of the, aim Center and this is the third part. Of what's. Becoming much, more than part three. Of three we have added, a, few more webinars. To this series which we'll share with you. Toward, the end and as. Always, part, of the series are Joy's abala and nicole games, i'm joy, i know you are on audio, so if you want to introduce yourself in a khole i think you are in. The, room but you may be on chat because, the last webinar was, all about the nine Mac and this one is the, aim Center describing, digital materials, and I'm so, Nicole you might introduce. Yourself, in the chat and, joy come, on over your audio okay, hi everybody it's nice to see you it's also nice to see such beautiful familiar, names in the the. Attendees. List and I, hope that as we go forward that, in, addition, to us zipping. Through the content, that you will jump. Right in and ask questions make comments I as I look at the group know but he's the silent person, so will, it be expecting. To hear from you as we go along so. That's it Cynthia, shall we go ahead alright we shall we. Have some. Big. Ideas. To. Share, with you throughout, the webinar. Tori, is going to talk about the rationale for accessibility. Why it's important, the. Meaning of accessible, because we know oftentimes that, term is misinterpreted, to, mean other, things and of course we have a definition. For accessible. That's specific, to students with disabilities. Joey. Will talk about the accessibility as, it relates to digital materials, and technologies, and assistive technology, and I'll be speaking to guidance. That's available for, State Education Agency. And local education. Agencies, and their procurement procedures and, of. Course we always leave you with supportive. Tools and resources. Okey. Doke so you can click ahead and I. Think one of the there's sort of two reasons that we do these but to me this is actually, the most compelling one that. Social, justice is the equitable distribution of, resources and, opportunities, in which outside. Factors, that categorize, people are irrelevant and we think that's that's why it matters and when we come to digital materials, especially. The. Way those materials, are designed is, what, makes, it irrelevant, why. Someone. Might. Have a barrier, by by. Some things we'll talk about as we go forward the next slide gets into those other reasons why we do this and that is, that we are required to do so by the. Individual, Disabilities, Education Act, in. 2004. When it was last reauthorized. And and we're way over time for reauthorization, but. It. Was really talking about printed, materials, and textbooks and the related core materials are those things that you would order on the same. Order. Form perhaps as a textbook, and, it, doesn't mean it's just related to course. Subjects. Related. To those materials, that go with the textbooks, one, of the things that people have difficulty. With often. Is thinking, that and. Let, me let me go back in position. This just slightly differently because you are people who are leading other people it's, I'm absolutely, know that you know these things but. To go over them and perhaps provide you with supports, that you can use with others it's an important, thing because, many people still think that, there's a requirement placed on publishers, to provide accessible, materials, where the requirement. Through. Idea is actually placed, on state and local education agencies. And, publishers are only compelled, to, do this legally. By your entering into contracts. For purchasing, with them and requiring them, to. Make those printed materials, accessible. Primarily, through then, I must files and into end through, the nine Mac and some other sources so. Continue. On please Cynthia. Again. An electron. I'm, sorry in 2015. There was in actually. In the culprit. Proposals. For the current, in center, the. This. Was how, accessible. Educational, materials was, focused, and basically it's it's exactly. The same as it, is with print except, that there's the addition, of technology-based.

Educational. Materials, and print, and electronic. Textbooks. So. With. With aim a II M, it's. Looking at that whole totality, of materials. And what's, important, is that the a I am, that we saw before. Actually, is subsumed, into AEM, because it talks about print, and technology. So it's not really an either/or this, one is the more inclusive. Statement. So. There, are also other, applicable federal legislations. And there are links, to these on the aim Center website, section. 504, and section 508 of the rehab act also talk about accessibility. Title. 2 of the Americans, with Disabilities, Act the Workforce. Innovation and Opportunity Act, and, the higher education, Opportunity Act also, include. Legislation. That, relates to, the, provision, of materials. In accessible formats. To to, students, so. I mentioned. A little bit ago that whole notion of, instructional. Materials educational. Materials, learning, materials, really. What we sort of tried to do to get that word less, of a concern, to people because, it does sometimes could, confuse. People. That. Basically all materials, have to be accessible and so we talked about accessible, materials, and accessible, technologies. Rather than really worrying too much about what's in the middle that way, the, the sort of confounding. Pieces, at least one of the confounding, pieces of the of the legal pieces is, put aside a bit so. Continue on please so the meaning of accessibility, and this is one that I'm really, extremely. Fond of continuing. There. Its Cynthia mentioned that we do have a definition. That relates to individuals, with disabilities and. Is it a joint, Dear. Colleague letter from, the Department of Justice and the Department of, Education, you know anytime the Department, of Justice is involved it tends to kick kick. The. I'm. Gonna, stop for just a second there's there are really loud keyboarding. Clicks. Coming across enough that somebody can mute their sound that may not work but anyway, so. Starting. Again the. Functional, definition of accessibility, is, looking, at providing, students, with disabilities. With the opportunity, to acquire the same information, engaging, the same interaction, and enjoy the same services as. Students, without disabilities with. Substantially. Equivalent ease of use and I think as we look at that definition, we. See, that there are some things that perhaps. We. Still have a long way to go on and. I think for me personally that, whole substantially. Equivalent ease of use is a really. Big one and when, we look at and talk about today, accessible. Digital materials. You. Really, begin to get, even even closer to, our. Concerns about that substantially, equivalent ease of use. So. What, are the things that that is an ongoing, issue. And an ongoing discussion, is there's this tendency to say is it accessible, is this material accessible is this technology accessible. And, one. Of the things that we know is that accessibility. Features. That are needed by one individual. Or group are not necessarily, the same, accessible. Features that, are. Useful to another so we have to think about accessibility as something much broader than one, set, of things or, another. Set of things that accessibility. Is basically, a moving target because certainly. Within categories. Of disability. There, are some things that would seem to make something more or less accessible. And then we also can think about accessible. To go, back to Simone please sorry but sorry.

I'm, Waiting for your pauses, accessible. To know Lord that I know sis to think right. Accessible. To whom where, and for what and then when you a little, example, of that, moving, target in the to whom someone. Called. One time and said you know I I'm, using, all, the definitions, I'm supposed to be using I'm trying to make everything work and. And I'm thinking, about a student, who's deaf, or hard-of-hearing but. This is a an early childhood person, who who, can't read yet and so. The. Whole notion of one of the really important, things for accessibility, for someone who's deaf or hard of hearing which, would be captioning, would, not work for this individual, so that to, whom. Becomes. An issue as well okay Cynthia go ahead so. We can see that play out in the next slide where you see a person, who is deaf and hard of hearing we, see someone who's blind someone. Who has a severe visual impairment, someone. Who has autism but, also a learning disability and. On the right hand side you see two people with cerebral palsy one, of whom is blind and uses. One hand to read Braille the other of whom is a, young child who, basically. Has, very. Little motor control, that's, that's, works. When she wants it to work so you, would know that accessibility. Might, not mean the same things and what happens a lot and I'm sure that many of you have faced this as well is that, when, people think, about. Accessibility, they often tend to think about it in the context, of people who are blind or visually impaired, and well. That's critically, important, the. People. That are expected. To be. Served. If you will under, accessibility, is, a much much broader a group, of people so. And. One. Of the things I think that also stands in our way sometimes, is we have this, sort of disability approach, and part, of that probably, comes somewhat, to the fact that in the some. Of the federal statutes, there are, relationships. Between, accessible. Materials, and people. With particular, kinds. Of disabilities, so, you look, at thinking. About increasing accessibility for, a student who is deaf, or hard of hearing, blindness, low vision and you can see the other things that are there as well so. Let's, look at a little bit different. Now. Cynthia I, did. A functional. Thank You there it is yes it, just took a little second so, what. If we considered, the possibility, of a functional, approach where. We're. Not really looking so much at the. Reason. Why. Somebody. Cannot. Use, do, a particular, thing but what is it that's actually, creating a barrier what. About a student, who needs an alternative, for visual information there. May be students. Who have many, reasons, why they need that the, same for auditory, information needs. Support, for physical interaction, and manipulation. Which. It takes this takes this out I think a lot more broadly rather than saying, do, they fit in this disability category. Or not, mostly, what, is it that is creating a barrier for them what, sort of alternatives. Do we make sure that we provide or that we make sure are included. In the. Digital, materials, that we acquire and so, you could and the reason that says is and on and on is there may be many, other things to think about as well. So. Then we get to how does all of this relate to accessible. Materials, and technologies. The. Key thing and I know that all of you have heard this many times before is, that there are two sides of the aim coin one, of them is the content, and the other one is the delivery, technology, or the delivery system and we, have to think carefully both, about, the. The, way. The, the content, is is, provided. And then also the. Delivery technology, that would be necessary for someone to. To. Perceive. Of and work with that content, so. When, we think about accessible, content we're, looking at sort of all materials, going back to that idea. Print. Or technology-based. That, basically when we think about accessible, content they those are materials that are designed or enhanced, in a way that makes them usable by the widest possible range of student variability and, it isn't just about print, it isn't just about digital, but graphical.

Audio-video. And and, you see and more you, see a, lot. Of that in media rich digital, materials, it may have multiple, kinds. Of things, that need to be accessible, and certainly interactivity. With all of that too but with the content, if it's, designed to be used as print or born print it, requires retrofitting. And you've heard a lot in the last couple of sessions about that, retrofitting. The kinds of things that we have available. Nicole, did a beautiful job of helping you not only see, what was available in the 9 mag but the movie plus database, where you can go and look you'll. Be hearing more about Bookshare, Learning Ally, and and. Then, certainly will be more talking it's, me talking more about publishers, and, then when the content, is designed to be used digitally. Or born digital it is difficult, to retrofit, if those accessibility. Features, are not. Embedded. From the start in the design process and, the implementation. Process, of, those materials, assistive. Technology service providers, are answer. And. Manufacturers. Are getting better at better at taking. Inaccessible. Things and, making them accessible by features that they put in their programs, but we want to be really careful that we're not just relying on that because. We, want to be sure that we're encouraging publishers. To, have, their their, materials, be as accessible. As possible with. Those rich features built into them because not only are they good for people with disabilities, they're also good, for. Everybody, else to be able to have access to and use if. Or. When they either want to or need to. So. Again, here's here's the picture that goes with the with the slide so. Continuous. So. When we think about accessible, technologies, this is an interesting piece because this is where the assistive, technology piece. Comes in we're, looking, at the, whole notion of whatever. It is device, hardware, software handheld. Equipment that. Provides access to life's activities. And the notion is that it can be used by people across a wide, range of disabilities or, or and abilities. So, the, two pieces that I think are important, here are they're directly, usable, they come out of the box and you, can go without. Assistive, technology, because of the way they're designed or. They. Are compatible, and made usable, with, assistive, technology and, for, a lot of people even when the materials, appear, to be directly, usable, if, perhaps. There. May be two kinds of input that's available that are built-in but, your student, needs something, that's very specific to that individual.

And May be using, assistive, technology for. Input. Or for. Perceiving. Output. That. Whole notion of interoperability. With. Compatibility. Between. What's. Being made for everybody and what. Is needed by an individual, so. The notion behind, accessible. Out-of-the-box you're fine the notion behind accessible, out-of-the-box is that it comes as, with as much built in as possible but, it also provides. That interoperability, so, that if something else is needed that assistive, technology, can can. Be hooked. Up without you having to go through a great deal of fumbling. Around so. The. Center for online learning talks. About, if. If, indeed. We. Have problems with accessibility, they could, be eliminated. If. There. Were various, and redundant, modes such as speech text and graphics, that make it possible to, deliver content based. Not only on individuals and, disabilities, but also on learner preferences and, what happens, a lot of times and those, of you who I think most of you that are here know, Dianna Carl and she talks about yeah but you know that redundancy, thing that doesn't sound like a good thing and. So. Let's look at the next slide. In. This particular, thing redundancy, is a good thing and if we think like an engineer for a moment then we look at redundancy. As if. Something, doesn't work there's, another way to do the same thing. It's. Not superfluous. Or unneeded, or too much, inaccessibility. We're thinking about it is critical, because of that, one, feature or format or one way of doing things is not available. To an individual, there's another feature or format. That is available that, conveys the same information, and provides the same interactivity. I think that's just a really. Really important, little piece right there that that in accessibility. Piece, from form down that's something that you might really want want to share particularly. If you talk about redundancy, and the importance, of redundancy, just to make it clear to people. So. What. We learned is, that accessibility. Is increased, if those multiple, options, are built in then, they can be turned off or on depending, on an individual's, needs or preferences, and. Another. Very critical piece is that everybody, is involved. Notice. What those options are, and they can participate, in the selection of the options they need and they, know how to manipulate the, options I remember, a long time ago there. Was a group. Of. Saw. A large, body. Of software, that was provided, to, people free of charge from, the Minnesota educational, computing, consortium, called neck software, and it. Had all these wonderful teacher. Options, that you could use and all you had to do is push ctrl T in this menu came up but. I, don't. Know how many people I ran into literally, hundreds, and hundreds of people who, had used make software for years and never knew about the, ctrl T and so, knowing, what the options are how to find them and how to manipulate them, is a critical, piece of making this actually happen. Great. Enjoy I would, I was, gonna I'd like to pause at this point because we're gonna be moving on to guidance. To. SAS and le A's and that, was a lot of information. So. I thought we would just pause and see if there are any, questions. Or, comments. We, are a small group which, can make you. Know a. Conversation. Intimate, which can be helpful during a webinar so. If anybody has any questions, or comments, about, the. Talking, about the accessibility what, exists what accessibility means. Definition. For accessible. Accessibility. As it relates to, materials, as it. Relates to technologies. That. Those are two sides of. The same coin I, think. The other thing, Cynthia that you actually put in the chat that it's. Really important, when we think about that accessible, definition, is the. The equally integrated equally. Effective, as well not not just equal. Ease of use but those, all three of those pieces together are, are really, important. Yeah. I agree, that the. Notion, of a. Regardless. Of whether it's a technology, or a material, even if it is a particular. If it's an instructional, strategy, I, mean this is what makes Universal, Design for Learning so, powerful, is that for. It to be accessible to all students, that, whatever. That is needs, to be equally, integrated meaning. That a student, doesn't you know have to go about accessing. It in a in a different way or through a different curriculum or through different. Strategies, it's equally, integrated and it's equally effective, meaning. That they have the same opportunity, for, achievement. And progress as students. Who may be using the. Traditional. Equipment. Or curriculum. I think. There's one other vocabulary, piece. I tend to I tend to be falling into the vocabulary in. Place a lot, and. I noticed it today on something, I was looking at but I hadn't noticed it before is that, when. We use the word accessible. And we're talking about accessibility.

Being. Able to participate, be, involved and all, of that people. Often use that term accessible. When they really mean available, you, know they would say oh yes it's accessible, 24/7, no well indeed. That is how people use that word and it's not an incorrect, use of the word but it's if we could start using the word available, when. We really mean available, rather than. Making. That a bit confusing, with. The accessible. Word. And you'll find that the more you reach out and revolved, with general. Education and I think Debbie you could probably speak. To this better than I can you, do have that use, of its accessible. Meaning. Available. Quite, a good bit, enjoy. When you say that. That tends to be an. Interpretation. Of the term accessible, in general education where I've seen, it really. Emerge. Is with. Open educational, resources, and, in a lot of publications, a lot of discussions, around open education, resources, is. That they are accessible, but. They are in that in that context. They're talking, about Oh er, s being. Free. Open. Source. Searchable. Low-cost. And. That's, not what we're talking about here, that's, that as you as you've described means. Available, those, are available materials. The. Term accessible, really should be reserved in education. In. The context, of access, for all students. In. Terms, of their unique characteristics and learning, needs. So. Now we've chatted. That. Was very educated. Thank you. And. Move on to guidance. For, state. Education agencies and, local education, agencies, when it comes to. We. Use that term broadly so. Whether it's. Something that's being purchased or, something. That's, being selected, something that's being created all. Of that falls under procurement. Processes, in. The, pursuit, of having. Accessible, materials, and technologies, provided, to students at, the point of learning so. Some, resources, that we have at. The aim Center one is the pom pom. Stands for purchase, accessible, learning materials, but you could replace, the term purchased, with procure. Right. Yeah yep suggested. It could be choose accessible. Learning materials you could get comm, actually. Chris. McKay suggested, that and I thought it sounded like anything. That sounds like calm sounds good to me yeah or it could be providing, accessible, learning materials. So. We are as I mentioned we're in the process of. Revising. The, palm because of some things that have changed obviously, in the last few, years around. The the options and the complexities, around digital. Materials, and technologies, but. Even. When it changes you'll still find some. Some, foundational. Things as part of the palm one. Is that there's draft purchase, order and contract, language available. In the palm that your agency, can use. Can. You can adapt that or you can use it as is, obviously. You probably want, to make, that language, that accessibility, language, your own so. That's would be the. What. You insert in your purchase order or contract. That puts. Vendors. On notice that you expect, whatever. They are going to be proposing for purchase from, your agency is going to be accessible, and there's some language around that in terms of what. Does that mean what, is the information that you should be giving to vendors. In that, statement. It. Also includes best practices, for publishers, and developers so, obviously the palm is not just a tool for procurers. Of materials. And technologies, but also for those who develop, those products, also. Includes, action steps for, purchasers. Purchasers. For, educators. For families, and. For, their student advocates. And. There's a link to this you'll, find I believe that, Leslie gave, you a link earlier, to, the, events page for, this webinar and you'll find both this PowerPoint, as well as a handout, a digital, handout that has links to all the resources that we're referring to including. The pom. Another. Helpful resource is the, web content accessibility guidelines. 2.0. Level, double-a is what's recommended so. These are international, standards, these. These, guidelines have been around for a long time, they. Have recently. Been. Elevated. To being. Aligned, or the section 508 standards. Of. The Rehabilitation. Act have, been aligned, to the. Web content accessibility guidelines. So. That, means that we have some consistency for. Publishers. And EdTech developers, around. What, is it that is required. Of them in order, to make the products, accessible, there. Are three levels, one. Is a the second is double-a, and the third is triple-a what's, commonly. Recommended. In what section 508.

Holds. Publishers. And vendors, to is is double-leg, so. They're developed by the World Wide Web Consortium the. Web accessibility, initiative and, this. Is an example of some guidelines and standards that, you'll find in the palm initiative and the. Guides that you can use when you're communicating with. Vendors. And publishers, around what you mean by, by. Accessible, when you use that word you're not you don't mean free. Or, easily. You're. Easily discovered, or, open. You really mean, accessible. In terms of, the. Web content accessibility guidelines. Or section, 508 of the rehab act. An. Acronym. That came, out of what. Keg 2.0. Is a. Series, of principles that have. Been given the acronym, pour pou. Are, the. The, four words. That make up poor are perceivable. Operable understandable. And. Robust. So. These are sort of for comprehensive. Principles. That, when you're either. Selecting. Your own materials, creating, your own materials, choosing, materials for, for. Your students, you're in the market purchasing, materials that, these these four words, can be these four terms can be used as a guide so by. Perceivable. We're referring to. Making. Sure that students, with wide-ranging, sensory. Abilities. Can, understand. The information, through. Seeing hearing. Ultimately. Feeling, but we know although, I think we're going to be seeing some technology, soon that allow for some tactile interact. Interactivity. With students, but, allowing the multiple ways to, interact through various, senses, operable. Meaning that students. Can interact with, information using, a variety of tools so, that, that technology. Or that material, is interoperable. With. Their assistive technology, or their specialized, software if it's, understandable, it means that students can understand, it that they have access, to the information, regardless. Of what level they. Be reading, at or listening, at and. That that information is predictable. That. It's organized and structured in a way that students, can follow and if. It's robust it means that the digital material works well with current, and future technologies. So, if a student's, assistive. Technology, or the specialized software changes, that. Material. Will continue, to to, work with. Their, existing. Technology, I. Think. Most of us who have had the opportunity to, see a piece that when. It was updated, it didn't work anymore. And so that's really why we're trying to get away from that, that, upgrading. Or updating. To. Another another. Iteration of a material, or, should. Not take, away the, features that it had before but, enrich those features, as it moves forward yeah, I think we. Often hear, of a. Material. That, somebody. Will ask well it's it's new it's just been it's. Just been, launched. Maybe a, program. Or maybe book, and somebody with concern, about access via. Screen readers might say well is that is that, accessible, to jaws, or voice over and sometimes, the answer is well if you have the most recent version. Or. If you just if you bought it yesterday and. Yes it is and of, course that's not what we want we want to make sure that people, don't you know have people who use assistive technology. Don't have to make additional purchases in order to be. Able to interact, and benefit. From the most contemporary. Technologies, and materials. We. On the aim Center website have, a brand new section, called designing, for accessibility with, poor our. Colleague, our new technical assistant specialist. Luis Perez developed, this section for us I just took a screenshot of, a video that opens, that section, but, you will find the, link is in the, as. Both, in the handout and Lesley has put the link in the chat when, you go there you'll find that we, have a series, of. How. To's, related. To each of the principles under. Por so examples, for what you. Know some of the things that you can do to make your materials, perceivable, for students, what are examples of, what makes materials, operable. Understandable and. Robust. And, that. Section is really focused. On what teachers can be doing at the classroom level, it's, not at the you, know state or the local level we're really designing that section was really designed with, teachers in mind and what, are they choosing what are they creating, for for their students. There. Are five things that we. Have identified, recently, that, that. Agency state, and local agencies, and. Even. Schools when they are choosing particular, products. To purchase, for for all students. Choosing. Something that's aligned with, a certain, curriculum, in a school district, or a. Particular. Grade. Level.

Product. What. Are five things that that. You can do to make sure that what is selected what ultimately, is purchased, is going to be accessible. And, these five things obviously. May, be a little bit misleading in, terms of coming, across a little bit simpler, than it probably in practice. But, these are really, important, things that you, know that you can have, available. To. You as you. Go about the process so these these, five things can be integrated, into, an existing protocol. Or best practices, so, the first thing is is to, require that all educational. Materials and technologies, be accessible, where, they're you're you you're, setting this, this. Standard, for a state level or a local level or first school if a teacher wants to set this as stance for themselves it's. Important, because if, you don't have this stance then obviously some learners are going to continue to experience access, barriers, plain. And simple the. Second is to incorporate accessibility. Into your procurement, practices, so. Using. The walk AG 2.0, double-a or section 508 conformance. Use. That for your criteria, in, communications. With vendors, and publishers, the. Third is to include accessibility, language, and contracts and purchase orders and of course the, pom that we just introduced, you to has sample, language, and. That's from both digital, and print, materials. Because there's a distinction between those, you. Can ask vendors for a voluntary, product accessibility template. Also. Known, by, there can be Pat this. Is a self-assessment, a self-report, by a vendor, on the, accessibility, of their product, it, was just, revised to a 2.0. Version so. It was recently revised it's, aligned with, the section 508, what, CAG 2.0. Double-a standards, and the, vendor is essentially. Reporting. The accessibility, according, to those standards it's. Just one piece of information. One, thing to look for is if the information, that's that's, reported by the vendor spotty if it, seems incomplete it gives. You an opening to ask them why and start you the. Conversation, about accessibility, because the vpad if you're using that sort of as a as. A, tool. Then. It's a point of conversation. That you can enter into with a vendor, to say this is what I mean by accessible and tell. Me more about your vpad. Recruiting. Students with unique access and learning needs so have before, making a purchase try. Out the technology ask, some of your students who use assistive technology. And specialized software to, test it out make sure that it's not just. Trying. The technology, out in a vacuum but give them some purpose, some context. For, using the technology, for, the reason that you were about to make the purchase so give them an authentic task, observe. How they interact, with the technology ask, them some questions about, their user experience and. With. That keep the definition, of accessible, in mind. So. The question would be will, this student, have. Be. Able to use the product in the equally effective, equally. Integrated manner, with, substantially, equivalent ease of use and if there's evidence that the student wouldn't be able to use this for a, curriculum, that is expected for, all students, to make, progress then. There. Should be some questions about whether or not that that, technology, or material, should be purchased. Some. Supportive, tools and resources that will leave you with of course, the aim Center, our website, has a wealth of information. At. Aim cast. Org. The, search field is excellent. So if there's something that you're looking for from today's presentation. And, you want a shortcut to find it I suggest. That you enter, into the search and it. Will come up as one of the very first results. Of your search, you'll. Find the, new section that we were just referring to on designing, for. Accessibility with, poor you'll find that under the creating, aim tab, of. Our site and, something. That we didn't include in. Today's presentation which. Was which, was an oversight, but we, do have quality, indicators, that are fairly new for. The provision of aim, and those quality indicators, are for both k12 and, higher ed. You'll, find those under policies, and systems, and, you can be on the lookout for, the aim Center to be developing, some more, resources and, will hold a webinar on how to use those quality indicators, in the near future. One. Of one. Of the most popular, resources on the aim Center website is the, this, is the simply said video understanding, accessibility and, digital learning. Materials, and. This. Is, based. Off of the common craft video. So it's very clever really. Puts aim. In, simple. Terms, for people who are just learning, what, accessibility means, as it relates to technology.

And, Materials, but most importantly, what it means to individual, students, and getting access to. Learning. Experiences. And again. Particularly, in the general education environment. CEDA the state education Technology, Directors Association, has. A, database known as the digital instructional. Materials, acquisition, policies, for States this is an interactive database. So. You can choose, your. State you can choose others. And not another, state you can choose you, could choose to compare your. State against, four other states in terms of multiple. Topics. That. Have to do with policy, and see. That has included, accessibility. Data within, the D Maps so. You could find things related, to does, the state have a. Definition, for accessibility. Of educational. Materials, does. The state have accessibility. Within the procurement. Policies. And, not. Only that but you can obviously, compare. States. Along, other other, areas, that. Are important, to. Procurement. Policies, and, I think and, it's important, probably to note that Debbie, and Victoria. Both of whom are on this call were active. Participants. In creating, what, those fields would be and there's, a lot of stuff in there from Florida and Texas and. Many, other states but have, a look at them and see what it says, yeah. It's a it's a terrific resource, and. For those of you who are not from texas, or Florida. Good. States to look at when, you go in 2d Maps, you, know comparing, your your state against, another. State like, Texas, or Florida that has made, a lot of progress in this area you, can use that to bring to some other. Decision, makers in your state to say these, are what Texas. And Florida are doing and they're really models, for, improving. Accessibility materials. For for. Students in their States and. So. We have a little we do have a couple of minutes join we've done well. We. Talked, at 400, words per minute. So. We do have a couple. Of minutes for for. Questions I will. Just, wrap, things up while you, consider those and know that you have access to the chat while we're finishing up if there are some things that you want to ask for comment. Have, some additional. Webinars coming up, as. Part, of our series so these three upcoming webinars, are specifically. For our aim State contacts, and I'm at coordinators, on March. 27th. We have Bookshare, joining, us on the, on, April, 5th learning, ally and, on May 9th American, printing house for the. Blind notice. That those are all different days and they're all different times so that's our challenge to, you. If. You, you, make sure that you get these on their calendars, on your calendars, we were accommodating. Multiple organizations. Obviously, in their schedules, but. All, of these organizations. Will. Be joining us and customizing. Their. Presentation. For the needs of the aim state contacts and I met coordinators, all of them have, information, for you on how to streamline. Access. To copyrighted, materials. For, for. Students with. Print disabilities and. The. Eligibility, criteria. For, each, of their services, and how those services work both. In. Terms, of signing students, up as well as how they work technologically. I think. - there's a there's, a sort, of a companion, to. This on. The aim Center website which. Is called the aim guide - amps accessible, media producers, and it actually has, quite a nice. Grid. That displays, Bookshare. Learning Ally, and APH is what. They do how, you go about getting. Involved. When it's, just quite a nice side-by-side. Comparison. That you can look at and. So, that would be worth worth, having a look at -. Yeah. So I just put that in the chat aim aim, guy - amps. Thanks, joy and. If. You put that in the search field at the aim Center website it will come right up. So. In conclusion we, have the contact, information. For the aim center. Lesley. Also just copied and pasted this into the chat thanks Lesley we also have contact information for Nicole, at the nine Mac and we know Nicole was, was. Quiet today. But. She, has not been so quiet in past webinars, and there's a lot of information. From from, the 9 mag. But. We decided for parts 2 & 3 of our webinar series that we would, the, first webinar as you know if you attended was, both, organizations. Sharing. Information, about our Center separately, and then, Nicole. Gave an excellent overview of the 9 Mac in part, 2 and then joy and I. I. Think we did well Leslie. Just put the link, to the survey in the chat thanks. Leslie we. Would greatly appreciate your, feedback if you, have suggestions, specifically. On what else, the aim, Center and then I'm at can be doing to support.

In. Contacts. And and 9. Mac coordinators, please don't hesitate to, include that in the survey we'd appreciate knowing, what. Specifically, what additional. Assistance. That you all could use and we will certainly respond. To that. And. I I would say thank. You for hanging. In there with us for this last, hour and. Hopefully. Some, of the thumping, around was at least mildly, entertaining, in your day so. That's. It. It's. Just been nice to be here with you yet again a pleasure. And. Brenda, asked, if we could provide, a copy of the PowerPoint, and. Leslie. Put it the link to today's events, page where you'll find the PowerPoint and a digital handout, for today. Earlier. In the chat but maybe Leslie could drop that there. And, she did so. Brenda and you'll just see the link that Leslie, just dropped and that will take you to the event page for today and that has both the PowerPoint, and the handout for today's webinar. Thank. You very much everybody and have a great rest of your day. Thanks. A lot.

2018-03-29

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