Low-vision and Textbook Accessibility
At Carnegie Learning, we know that having a student with a visual impairment can present certain instructional challenges, and we also know that the classroom teacher has an opportunity to make a huge and lasting impact on the student’s attitude toward education, and by extension, on their future, and we are committed to supporting you by providing accessible materials for all learners. For us, this means making our files available in a format that enables the creation of the materials your student needs in class.
Finding your textbooks on NIMAC
What is NIMAC?
The National Instructional Materials Access Center—NIMAC—was created by IDEA in 2004. It is a federally-funded, searchable, online file repository of K-12 print textbooks in XML based NIMAS format. NIMAS source files can be used to create accessible specialized formats (i.e., Braille, audio, digital, large-print, etc.) of print instructional materials.
Carnegie Learning and NIMAC
Carnegie Learning is committed to providing accessible materials to all students and has a deep catalog of CL courses available in the NIMAC repository. We work with a vendor to create NIMAS formatted files, which we upload at the NIMAC website. Once NIMAC confirms that the uploaded files are correct and complete, they become available for download.
How can schools obtain the files?
After our files have been successfully uploaded in NIMAC, it is up to the state to continue the process. Most states partner with an organization that produces accessible formats for student who have different print needs. A teacher or other staff member of a US education agency can download the NIMAS books for qualifying students once they are secured by the partner.
You can search NIMAC here https://nimac.overdrive.com/ContentInventory to find out if the materials you need have already been created and uploaded. If you search NIMAC and don’t find a CL product you need, contact the Carnegie Learning Product Management team.
| National Title | NIMAC Identifier | ISBN(s) |
|---|---|---|
| Texas Math Solution, Grade 6 | 9781638620518NIMAS | 9781638620518 |
| Texas Math Solutoin, Grade 7 | 9781638620556NIMAS | 9781638620556 |
| Texas Math Solution, Grade 8 | 9781638620594NIMAS | 9781638620594 |
| Texas Math Solution, Algebra I | 9781638620631NIMAS | 9781638620631 |
| Texas Math Solution, Geometry | 9781638620693NIMAS | 9781638620693 |
| Texas Math Solution, Algebra II | 9781638620754NIMAS | 9781638620754 |
Partners
Partners may include national third-party authorized entities (such as Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic, American Printing House for the Blind, Bookshare.org, and Talking Tapes), regional or state conversion organizations (such as Texas Region IV ESC Braille Services and other state instructional materials resource centers), software developers and file conversion services, and accessible media producers (such as Braille transcribers).
Who is eligible?
K-12 students with IEPs are eligible for accounts with the state’s partner.
What to do if you have a student with different print needs.
If you receive notification that you will have a student with different print needs in your class, the first step is to contact the school district office to request the modified materials for the student. In most cases, the school district office should take it from there, although if they’ve not had a student who requires these materials in the past, there may not be an established protocol that anyone is familiar with. What follows is the typical path to securing materials for a student.
The district should:
- Contact their NIMAC partner directly, or transfer the information to the state department of education’s NIMAC Coordinator,
- The district should request that the materials be added to the NIMAC partner’s repository so the materials can be accessed by either a teacher or a designated staff member for local printing.
Online partner resources
Most partners have different online platforms and products for student use. For example, Bookshare.org has Bookshelf, which is a repository where the teacher can assign titles to the student, and the student can download and read books on a screen. Many organizations have web readers, which allow students read books online and take advantage of Google Chrome’s accessibility features.
Student access to these tools will require the district to create an individual account for the student with their partner organization.
Additional Information to help your low-vision learner
With the greater availability of authoring tools, educators often opt to create their own supplementary materials to support classroom curriculum. Most of these authoring tools include accessibility options, but sifting through the requirements can be daunting.
- This website distills down requirements and offers helpful ideas for making self-created materials accessible for all learner.
- Curious about accessibility strategies for your low-vision learners?
- Want more ideas on how to craft your physical space to accommodate low-vision learners?
- This is a helpful perspective on visual impairment and its lesser known effects on learning.
- Effective Classroom Adaptations for Students with Visual Impairments
- Bookshare.org is a great place to explore with your low-vision learner.