New England Regional Unit
58 Charles Street
Cambridge, MA 02141
Contact: Christina M. Raimo
(617) 577-1111, ext. 11
traimo@rfbd.org
NEWS RELEASE
FREE RESOURCES FOR MASSACHUSETTS PUBLIC
SCHOOL DISTRICTS
September 5, 2007 (Cambridge, MA) - Recording for the
Blind & Dyslexic® (RFB&D®) and the Massachusetts
Department of Education have announced a collaboration that will
allow all Massachusetts public school districts to participate
in a new federal program aimed at making it easier for students
who have print disabilities to quickly receive copies of textbooks
in accessible audio format.
Beginning this month, public school districts will be able to
enroll in RFB&D's services at no cost as a result of the program.
RFB&D membership will allow districts to provide their students
who have documented print disabilities with digital textbooks
from RFB&D's CV Starr Learning Through Listening® Library
and the recently established National Instructional Materials
Access Center (NIMAC), a new entity that houses electronic files
of recently published K-12 textbooks.
NIMAC originated with the Individuals with Disabilities Education
Improvement Act (IDEIA) of 2004, which requires states to address
the critical difficulty facing students with disabilities in obtaining
accessible textbooks. In 2006, federal legislation mandated that
publishers adopt a new file format, the National Instructional
Materials Access Standard (NIMAS) for all textbooks published
after July 2006.
Upon the request of schools and districts, publishers are also
required to deposit the electronic files into the NIMAC, housed
at the American Printing House for the Blind in Louisville, KY,
where they are available to producers of accessible educational
materials in audio, braille and other formats used by students
with print disabilities. RFB&D has been selected by the state
as a provider of NIMAC books in digital audio format, which can
be produced in a timely manner and shipped to educational institutions
who request books for their students from the NIMAC repository.
So that all eligible public school students in Massachusetts will
have access to this program, the Massachusetts Department of Education
is making basic district-level memberships available to all public
school districts, along with playback capabilities for participating
schools. These memberships will make it possible for eligible
students with disabilities to access newly published textbooks
as digital audio books on CD through RFB&D's library.
RFB&D is a national nonprofit organization with local chapters
in Cambridge and Western Massachusetts. Currently, more than 9,000
Massachusetts students with print disabilities utilize RFB&D's
audio textbooks; nationally, RFB&D serves more than 150,000
members. The organization is a leading producer and distributor
of audio textbooks, literature and other educational materials
for students who have visual, learning or physical disabilities
and are unable to read standard print effectively. The RFB&D
library contains more than 37,000 recorded titles, spanning all
subject areas and grade levels, produced in digital audio format
and provided to students on CDs that allow the user to navigate
to specific pages and chapters easily. All of the audiobooks that
RFB&D distributes to students can be played back on specialized
digital CD players or on a laptop or personal computer loaded
with specialized playback software. NIMAC books played back on
a laptop or PC will provide the audio of the book being read and
highlighted text on the computer screen.
Based in Cambridge, the New England Regional Unit of RFB&D
will oversee and implement this program throughout the next year.
The unit operates three recording studios in Cambridge, Lenox
and Williamstown, which work with nearly 500 community volunteers
who record several hundred new audio textbooks each year for students
with print disabilities.
For additional information about this program contact Jeanne Guiney,
Regional Director of Educational Outreach at the New England Regional
Unit, (617) 577-1111, ext. 18,
or email jguiney@rfbd.org.
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