Transcript Document

Accessible Instructional
Materials Center of Virginia:
AIM-VA
Date
Agenda for the Day

Morning Sessions:
AIM-VA Introduction and Overview
 Which Students are Eligible
 Digital Rights Managers
 Ordering Process and Policies


Afternoon Sessions
Recordings for the Blind and Dyslexic
 Don Johnston, Inc.

Date
Questions

Please wait until end of each presentation
We will have ample time to answer all
questions
 AIM-VA staff will be available all day
 Save opinions for personal contact with one of
our staff


Power Points and Handouts

Posted on Website – Next week
Date
Need for Accessible
Instructional Materials

Differentiated instruction that can be tailored to individual
student needs

Traditional print based curriculum materials can be one of
the barriers to progress and access in the curriculum for
students with print disabilities

Improved student outcomes -> AYP

Need to prepare students to be digital natives for the 21st
century

Timely delivery and instant access to specialized formats
Date
AIM-VA Staff

John Eisenberg - VDOE


Dr. Michael Behrmann – GMU- Kellar Center



Production manager
42 part time production staff
Jackie Peterson – GMU


Communications and technical assistance
Cindy George – GMU


Director of AIM-VA
Joyce Sharp – GMU


State Director of Accessible Instructional Materials
Librarian and help desk
Yoo Sun Chung – GMU

Database manager and programmer
Date
Partnerships
Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic
(RFB&D)
 Virginia Department for the Blind and Vision
Impaired (DBVI)
 Virginia Correctional Enterprises (VCE)
 AIM-VA, GMU (KIHd) Conversion
Specialists
 Don Johnston, Inc.
 American Association of Publishers

Date
Print Instructional
Materials
in the
Digital Age
Date
Date
Recent Headlines

The Death of Traditional Book Publishing . Sunday, December 11,
2007

The death of the printed author? Literary journalism seems to be
booming online in a way that is not in print. And ebooks are on the way.
Sunday, 14 September 2008

Will Digital Textbooks Work for Students? by Josh Catone

Textbooks Enter the Digital Era High-Tech options can save
money and boost learning By Alex Kingsbury and Lindsey
GallowayPosted 10/8/06

Digital Textbooks Ease Budget Burdens Textbook prices continue to
skyrocket. Can digital textbooks stop the madness?

Digital Textbooks—Revolution or Myth? By Ruth Ziolkowski

Digital Textbooks: New Hope for the Visually Impaired . A company
pioneers in the field of recorded and computerized educational books.
Date
The Era of Digital Natives
Digital Natives:
They are native speakers of
technology, fluent in the digital
language of computers, video games,
and the Internet.
Rough Estimates 15-20 year olds:
•10,000 hours playing video games
• 200,000 emails & instant messages
• 10,000 hours on digital cell phones
• 200,000 hours watching TV
• 5,000 hours of book reading
- Institute for Alternative Futures
Date
Digital Natives — Learning Style
(“Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants: Some Thought from the Generation Gap” Timothy
VanSlyke, The Technology Source, May/June2003)

Digital Natives:
 Demand information fast;
 Parallel process and multitask;
 Desire graphics;
 Want random access (hypertext links);
 Expect instant, frequent reward;
 Play games.

What about the rest of us?
 We are now considered digital immigrants
Date
Poll
Blogs
 Vlogs
 Twitter
 Facebook
 MySpace
 RSS Feeds
 Wiki

Wikipedia
 Flickr
 YouTube
 I-Tunes
 BiTtorrent
 Second Life

Date
You Know you’re a Digital
Immigrant if….
Printing out your email (or having your
secretary print it out for you
 Needing to print out a document written on
the computer in order to edit it (rather than
just editing on the screen)
 bringing people physically into your office
to see an interesting web site (rather than
just sending them the URL).
 “Did you get my email?” phone call.

Date
Virginia’s History with
Accessible Instructional
Materials
for
Students with Disabilities
Date
Virginia Stats


Commonwealth ethos
Hybrid system of textbook purchase





Recent VA Legislative Changes
132 autonomous school divisions
 Regional programs; Private schools growing daily
1,232,436 students served
172,704 students with disabilities served under IDEA
Potential Eligible Students under Copyright Exemption
 485 students with visual impairments
 911 students with orthopedic impairments
 15,354 students with developmental delay
 63,282 students with learning disabilities
Date
Accessible Formats – History

Large Print
 Photocopy machine
 Black and white
 Issues with contrast and clarity
 Only been available for students with visual
impairments - 485 to 80,032 possible eligible students

Digital or E-text
 Teacher generated
 Copyright violations
 Not always accessible - pdf
 Little or no navigation features
 Not universal to multiple software applications
Date
Accessible Formats – History

Audio
 Went from analog tapes to digital recording process
 Individual or school membership with RFB&D paid by
school division
 Less than 50% of divisions had contracts

Braille
 Huge cost - in excess sometimes of $30,000 per book
 Timely delivery
 Cumbersome transcription process
 Lack of access to AT devices that could use digital files
for refreshable Braille displays
 30 year history
Date
Goal and Challenge:

To build a system in Virginia that would
reduce teacher burden, move toward high
quality digital products, streamline the
ordering process, promote successful
partnerships and provide students the
books they need, in the formats they want,
in a timely manner.
Date
New Process for the Future

Virginia has developed a new system to
order, produce and deliver accessible
instructional Materials
Single point of entry system
 Library based system
 Digital production
 Partnerships with publishers
 Partnerships with entities that can produce high
quality accessible formats for students
 Faster turn around time

Date
Single Point of Entry

All orders regardless of format come
through AIM-VA

Online ordering system – database driven
 INMAGIC
Solutions
 Password protected
Online library
 Control copyright through Digital Rights
Managers – DRMs

Date
Library System





Contain entire state adopted book list
Requested materials to date
1,107 Books in system
Attempting to merge RFBD library
Search by multiple features
Date
Library System
Ability to request books not listed
 Which formats already available – now
current with large print
 Download PDF directly from ordering
system – coming very soon

Date
AIM-VA
Requests
Sept 29
Audio Large
Print
Snapshot
PDF Daisy
E-TEXT
Word
RTF
Braille
Requests 875
732
82
59
322
1726
100
3896 Total Requests
Date
Production

Digital production unit
High speed scanners and computers $500,000
 Book bindings cut and scanned
 Almost no electronic source material
 Small team of workers creating a variety of
formats: 2 full time – 42 students workers

 Accessible
PDF, word, Daisy
 Large print outputs
Date
Production

Currently can scan 20 books a day
Raw PDF
 OCR and Daisy mark up - 30 days per book


2 printing companies
Print 10 volumes a day each
 Most books have 3-8 volumes each
 Cost $100 a book – 1726 books requested

 $172,600
- not all orders are in yet
Date
Braille
Obtained for purchase from contacts
across US
 If not available sent to production with
transcribers
 Moving toward digital production
 Overall cost for books in excess of
$250,000


Does not include staffing costs, facility and
equipment
Date
AT Updates

AIMVA – statewide contract with Don Johnston
Inc. – Read:Outloud Universal Access

Every school in Virginia has a two year unlimited site
license




Use only for students with disabilities in any classroom on
any computer
Can be installed on students’ home computer
Cost is $2 per every student with a disability in Virginia
AIM-VA E-text can be used with any of the
leading text to speech software applications

Division can use current software or Read:Outloud
Date
RFB&D Model

Change in model from past
From state funded leveled memberships
 To statewide mega membership

 25,00

books
Integrating RFBD library with AIMVA
database
 Created
a series of issue and workarounds
Date
NIMAS
and
NIMAC:
Date
What is NIMAS?
National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard
34 CFR 300.172(d)(2): IDEIA 2004
•
A recommendation developed in 2004 by consensus of an expert panel of
40 key stakeholders
•
•
•
•
Based on the international DAISY Book Standard: XML
•
•
Approved by US Dept. of Ed in July 2004
Published in Federal Register on July 19, 2006
Additional regulations published on August 14, 2006
Digital Accessible Information System: Standard for producing accessible and
navigable multimedia documents
Purpose: “timely delivery” of high quality accessible specialized
formats to students with print disabilities
7/17/2015
30
Date
NIMAS Source File
31
Date
What is the NIMAC?
National Instructional Materials Access Center
(IDEA Part D, Sec. 674)
•
•
Establish and support a center at American Printing House
for the Blind (APH)
Receive and maintain a catalog of NIMAS instructional
materials deposited by publishers
•
•
•
Does not have student ready versions
Provide access to source files by accessible media
producers
Develop procedures to protect against copyright
infringement
http://www.nimac.us/
7/17/2015
32
Date
NIMAC Information




Virginia is registered with the NIMAC
All LEAs in Virginia opted into the NIMAC
Virginia did not have access to the NIMAC until
February 2008
Out of 3900 book requests:



5 found for Braille in NIMAC, 29 found for E-text
Almost no textbooks - all supplementals
Implications: 3860 books had to be scanned
Date
NIMAC Information

NIMAC indemnifies publishers against
copyright rules
Difference between print rights and digital rights
 Legal issue if publishers provide files directly to
LEA or AIM-VA
 Production time has increased ten fold


IDEA NIMAS provisions require LEA to
change contracts with publishers to require
NIMAC deposit

Does not require publishers to deposit files
Date
Important Division Reminders
Superintendents Memos:
 NO. 40 - Sept. 15, 2006

LEAs will play an important role in obligating
publishers to submit essential source materials to the
NIMAC. This will be accomplished by contract or by
including appropriate language in purchase orders
that require publishers to submit NIMAS-conformant
files to the NIMAC, or provide assurances that they
have already done so, for a specific title and version
that is to be purchased.
Date
Important Division Reminders

SUPTS. MEMO NO. 123 - May 9, 2008
Appointment of Digital Rights Managers
 Announcement of AIM-VA opening


AIM-VA Policy Statement
Attorney General requirements
 May 7, 2008


http://kihd.gmu.edu/assets/docs/kihd/AIMVA/Forms/VA_Policy_set_forth_2008.pdf
Date
Late Opening

February – May, 2008
Attorney General - Development of Policies
for Copyright Compliance
 Not approved until May 6th
 Doors opened for orders on May 9th
 Training materials posted
 No chance to do systematic training

Date
AIM-VA Issues







Production time
 Outside vendors charge over $1 page to scan
 $2-3 a page to turn into e-text
 300 page text book would cost us $900
Divisions not registering
Late or incorrect orders
No history of systematic process for OI, LD community
Printing companies
 Not typical process and state requirements
Learning as we fly – changing requirements
No additional federal funding to assist VDOE or AIM-VA
Date
Solutions






PDF copies of all orders before Sept 29
 Available soon through FTP site
5 new printing companies being sought
 State bid process
Push chapter requests instead of whole books
Buying 3 new scanners
Work with publishers
LEAS change contracts and request NIMAS
versions
Date