NIMAC UPDATE

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• NIMAC UPDATE

Julia Myers Nicole Gaines January 2008
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Why did APH establish the National Instructional
Materials Access Center?

• The Individuals with Disabilities Education
  Improvement Act (IDEA) of 2004 named APH to house
  the NIMAC.
• The same legislation requires states to adopt
  the National Instructional Materials
  Accessibility Standard (NIMAS) file format for
  source files for accessible materials for their
  K-12 students.
• NIMAS NIMAC in IDEA
• http//nimas.cast.org/about/idea2004/index.html

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What Is the NIMAC?

• NIMAC is a central repository for NIMAS files.
  NIMAS files are source files that can be used to
  produce accessible, student-ready specialized
  formats, such as Braille and audio, for students
  in K-12 with qualifying disabilities.

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NIMAC FACTS

• What does the NIMAC do?
• The NIMAC receives and catalogs publishers'
  electronic files of print instructional materials
  in the NIMAS format.
• We also sign up registered users and provide the
  searchable web interface.
• OverDrive, Inc. is the vendor who is providing
  the database software and off-site storage for
  the NIMACs file sets.

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NIMAC FACTS

• How does NIMAC obtain files?
• States and local education agencies instruct
  publishers to send us files when they contract
  for their textbook adoptions/purchases. This is
  the only mechanism for us to get files. The NIMAC
  itself is not granted any authority to request or
  require that files be submitted by any publisher.
• Can NIMAS files be used to produce formats for
  any child with a disability?
• No, IDEA provides the definition of students who
  may be served.
• Will college students with qualifying
  disabilities be able to get files from NIMAC to
  produce accessible formats?
• No, IDEA restricts the mission of the NIMAC to
  serving students in elementary and secondary
  school.

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NIMAC Stats January 2008

• Accepted file sets 4,100
• Publishers working with NIMAC 49
• States Coordinating 44
• Authorized Users 58 (from 31 states)
• Accessible Media Producers (AMPs) 45
• Unique Downloads by AMPs 71
• Unique Downloads by AUs 294

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Outreach and NIMAC

• Outreach was an important part of NIMACs
  inaugural year and will continue to be a key
  aspect of our work.
• NIMAC routinely offers training webcasts and does
  further outreach through conference calls and
  participation in conferences and workshops.

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Outreach in 2007

• In 2007, NIMAC conducted 27 Webcast trainings and
  outreach conference calls with various user
  groups.
• Participants included Authorized Users NIMAC
  State Coordinators NIMAS/NIMAC coordinators
  vendors publishers and Accessible Media
  Producers.
• Conference calls and meetings with individual
  publishers, state or local educational agency
  staff, NIMAC Advisory Council, OSEP, OverDrive
  were also conducted.

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More Outreach in 2007

• NIMAC staff also presented at
• Two webinars hosted by other organizations EASI
  and the National Center on Disability Access to
  Education (NCDAE)
• Ten conferences workshops, including NIMAS
  Development Committee New York Institute of
  Special Education Association of American
  Publishers RPAC SLATE IRCBVI State Vision
  Consultants APH Annual Meeting AFB NIMAS
  Training Getting In Touch With Literacy and
  APH ESAC and EPAC

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Hot Topics

• Indemnification
• Definition of Core Print Instructional
  Materials
• Advance Copies
• Transcriber Training
• Images and ALT-Text
• Images and File Size
• NIMAC Outreach

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Indemnification

• On December 26th, 2007, President Bush signed
  H.R. 2764 (the Consolidated Appropriations Act of
  2008) into law. This legislation included
  language indemnifying the NIMAC.
• On January 2, 2008, NIMAC released a revised
  NIMAC Limitation of Use Agreement (LUA) with the
  indemnification clause removed.
• This new LUA has been distributed to all
  registered NIMAC users and is available on our
  website www.nimac.us.

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Core Print Instructional Materials

• (C) PRINT INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALSThe term
  'print instructional materials' means printed
  textbooks and related printed core materials that
  are written and published primarily for use in
  elementary school and secondary school
  instruction and are required by a State
  educational agency or local educational agency
  for use by students in the classroom.
• http//nimas.cast.org/about/idea2004/index.html

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Advance Copies

• NIMAC has issued a policy statement that file
  sets for advance copy versions of textbooks
  will not be accepted.
• We ask that SEAs and LEAs craft their contracts
  with this in mind and to please avoid using
  language that would lead to publishers
  submitting file sets that do not correspond to
  the finalized print version that will be used in
  the classroom.
• For more info, please refer to the policy
  statement found at the NIMAC web site
• http//www.nimac.us/advance_policy.htm

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AFB Offering NIMAS Training for Transcribers

• American Foundation for the Blind (AFB) has begun
  offering braille translation software training
  with NIMAS updates.
• For more information, contact Mary Ann Siller at
  siller_at_afb.net.

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Images and Alt Text

• NIMAS file sets are source files to be used to
  produce accessible formatsthey are not
  student-ready.
• The current NIMAS specification does NOT require
  alt text for images nor any other description of
  the educational content contained within them.
• Most textbooks have thousands of images, many or
  most conveying educational content. Making this
  educational content accessible is part of the
  value-added process that AMPs can provide.

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Images and File Size

• Images--their number and size--drive NIMAS File
  size.
• NIMAS File Sets are commonly 2-3 GB in size and
  may reach 12 GB in size--or more.
• NIMAS Textbook Files contain thousands of images.
• File size can mean slow downloading, even for
  those with fast connections.
• PNGs are 5-10 times larger than JPEG.
• NIMAS File size in context typically a 90-minute
  movie is less than 1 GB. (This is due to
  compression method used for MPEG.)
• Impact Huge file sizes are a considerable
  obstacle for end users attempting to download
  files.

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NIMAC System Development Key Remaining Issues

• MAC compatibility must be rolled out once other
  development is complete.
• Louis/NIMAC federated search is on development
  list.
• APH is please to announce that we have contracted
  with Quality Solutions to move Louis to a new
  system that will support federated search via OAI.

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Upcoming and Continuing NIMAC Outreach

• Webcast Trainings for AUs and AMPs
• Quarterly Conferences Calls for Publishers
• NIMAC Advisory Council (Quarterly)
• NIMAC User Group (Bimonthly)
• Upcoming Conferences
• --AFB NIMAS Training (February 2008)
• --CTEVH (February 2008)
• --PA AER (April 2008)

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NIMAC Team

• Julia Myers, Project Director
• Nicole Gaines, NIMAC Manager
• Anne Ledford, NIMAC Support Specialist
• OverDrive NIMAC Team

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How to Reach Us

• http//www.nimac.us
• 502-899-2230
• 1-877-526-4622 (1-877-52-NIMAC)
• NIMAC_at_aph.org