Resources for FAQs on Accessible Instructional Materials compiled by Joy Zabala

As the school year begins, families, educators, and others who provide supports to students often have concerns and questions about Accessible Instructional Materials (AIM) and if those materials could be needed by their students. Since assistive technology plays an important role in the delivery of accessible instructional content, the AIM Center has identified some resources of special interest to Friends of ATIA. We invite you to explore and share.

Where can I go for a quick introduction to accessible instructional materials? 

• AIM Basics for Families (2011): This booklet, available in English and Spanish, will help Individualized Education Program (IEP) team decide whether a student needs accessible instructional materials, what type of specialized format the student needs, how to access the materials for the student, and what supports the student needs to use AIM.
• AIM: A Technical Guide for Families and Advocates (2011):  This guide includes background information on AIM provisions in IDEA, definitions of terms, a thorough description of the decision making process for AIM, and where to find additional resources.
• AIMing for Achievement Series: What Educators and Families Need to Know about Accessible Instructional Materials. This series of articles originally published in Closing the Gap Solutions addresses the complexities, challenges, and opportunities related to the provision of accessible instructional materials.   

Is there anything available to help IEP Teams and other teams make thoughtful decisions about AIM?   

• Check out the AIM Navigator, an online decision-making tool. The AIM Navigator facilitates a 4-step process of decision-making around accessible instructional materials for an individual student. Guiding questions, resources and scaffolds of support are built in to provide access to information at the level needed to assist the team in making informed, accurate decisions.

What do purchasers and users of educational materials need to know about accessibility?

• Check out the PALM Initiative (Purchase Accessible Learning Materials) to learn about the PALM Initiative and find supporting documents and presentation materials on accessibility issues with digital learning materials.
• Read AIMing for Digital Equity by Bowser and Zabala, reprinted with permission from the International Society of Technology in Education (ISTE).   

How can students and families get accessible books for students to read for pleasure?    

• If a student meets the criteria for membership, sign up for individual accounts at Bookshare and Learning Ally, the two major libraries of accessible media.   

Who can be contacted for more information? 

• For textbooks and other educational materials, a student's IEP team coordinator would be an important place to begin. The district's Director of Special Education can be of assistance.
• If additional assistance is needed or to find out contact information for any state's AIM Coordinator and additional information about the state, see the list of states located at this AIM Center Web page.     

How can students and families get accessible books for students to read for pleasure? 

• If a student meets the criteria for membership, sign up for individual accounts at Bookshare and Learning Ally, the two major libraries of accessible media.    

How can we learn more and stay up to date about AIM?  

• Attend AIM Center webinars and presentations. 
• Visit the AIM Center Web site. On the AIM home page; sign up to receive the AIM Connector e-newsletter. 
• Contact the AIM Center via email.  

--Joy Smiley Zabala, Ed.D., director of technical assistance, National AIM Center and the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST).   

Early Bird Registration Deadline:  

September 28th, 2013. Register Now 

What Makes Orlando Hot (aside from the weather)?

ATIA's Orlando conference annually provides assistive technology professionals, educators, developers, researchers, users, and family members an opportunity to come together and learn from one another in a welcoming, high-energy, tech-enthused environment. Here device and software developers network with one another and with individuals who use their products; non-profit disability organizations raise awareness about their services and activities; policy makers, researchers, and service developers (from around the country and globe) connect and plan; and of course educators, therapists, and others receive many hours of continuing education as they learn from our community's most respected, dynamic, and experienced practitioners. 

What's New for 2013?

This year's conference features new and expanded education strand offerings as well as remote access to conference materials through mobile technologies. Also exciting is a new option for those who cannot travel: recorded sessions. Read on for the complete conference scoop...

Conference Offerings Now Browsable Online   

All 300+ educational sessions and 21 pre-conference options are now available to browse online. Workshops, labs, presentations, smack-downs, etc. are organized thematically into strands. This year strands are dedicated to:

• Accessibility (New)
• Augmentative and Alternative Communication 
• Community Access Through Technology (Expanded)
• Core Standards (New)
• Education/Learning 
• Everyday Technology 
• Higher Education 
• Policy to Practice 
• Research and Professional Development 
• Sensory Impairment 
• Transition  
• Workplace and Vocational Rehabilitation (Expanded)

Also look for special BYOD sessions designed for hands-on learning with your own devices (i.e. smart phones and tablets)! Learn more about BYOD sessions 

Mobile Access for Conference Planning 

• access to the Schedule-at-a-Glance;
• conference session and speaker profiles;
• build your own conference by tagging favorite sessions/exhibitors on My Planner;
• an interactive exhibit hall map;
• conference Twitter feeds ;
• real-time conference scheduling updates.

Look for more information about mobile access closer to the conference dates. 

Affordable Group Training: the New Conference Recording Purchase Option

• ATIA will record the selected ATIA 2013 Orlando sessions and make them available for online viewing one week after the conference has concluded (see the listing of sessions below).  
• Each session will include a synchronized audio recording with the presentation slides, including comments and questions from attendees.
• Archived sessions will be viewable from home or office with the ability to stop/start and take breaks. All sessions will be closed captioned.

Recorded sessions will only be available as a bundled purchase. Pricing and packaging options are available at this ATIA conference recording Web page, and all costs are inclusive of CEUs (available from the AAC Institute, an authorized I.A.C.E.T provider). Note: conference recordings are not available as a part of the ATIA Webinar Subscription program.  

Online registration for the ATIA 2013 Orlando Conference Recording Series is now open!  

Know what's in the closet. Many schools have storage closets for unused AT. Is anyone benefitting from the investment in that device while it sits on the shelf until it becomes obsolete? If you don't have an inventory system, make some quick notes of available devices and share the list with all Special Education teachers. There may be a student who needs that device, even if it's not specified on the Individualized Education Plan.

Know your local reuse program. If you haven't already done so, make contact with your nearest AT reuse program. Find out what types of devices they handle and if they may be of benefit to your students. After all, even students with access to financial coverage can end up waiting for a device that might be borrowed or obtained through the reuse program more quickly. And, if they lack the financial means, the program may be able to provide a needed device. If you don't know where to find a reuse program, check out the Pass It On Center Reuse Locations Database to locate one near you.

Be alert for situations where a lightly-used device might be very helpful. Last year a former colleague called about a middle school student who used a heavy manual wheelchair. Transporting the chair back and forth every day was a real issue for the student and the parent. Sometimes a second device (located at school) can solve a lot of problems. The local reuse program may be able to provide that second device.

Network with your colleagues, within the system and beyond, to optimize the use of AT. AT School Exchange, a reuse program active in several New England states, is gaining traction. Learn more about it from the Pass It On Center's free webinar archive. Look for "Going Green in Schools: An Effective AT Reuse Experience," originally presented in February 2011. You'll find an audio recording of the webinar, a transcript and the presentation slides from Sharon Alderman of Vermont and Karen Langley of Massachusetts. You'll find contact information for Sharon and Karen on the slides and they would be delighted to chat about their school reuse programs.

No idle AT, please: relocate it, retrieve it and reuse it.

--Trish Redmon, consultant for the Pass It On Center.

Parent Night is an exciting way some of ATIA's webinar subscribers are using their webinar registrations. Subscribers organize an evening of comprehensive training to parents using their support staff along with presentations from the ATIA education-on-demand archive. Using laptops or a screen for collective viewing, Parent Nights offer a way to build community while delivering high quality education on AT solutions and practices of interest to families.

This fall, Indiana's PATINS Project (Promoting Achievement through Technology and INstruction for all Students) is launching two Parent Nights in collaboration with The Indiana Resource Center for Families with Special Needs (IN*SOURCE).  PATINS staff will work alongside IN*SOURCE staff to assist the parents at both events. "Collaborating with IN*SOURCE to provide these Parent Nights allows us a way to support parents in a more efficient and direct manner," reports PATINS Project State Director Daniel G. McNulty. "This, in turn, allows parents to better support their children with tools and materials they may be utilizing in school." The venue and offerings, McNulty recognizes, serves the organization's primary goals. "PATINS works statewide to assist Indiana public K-12 local educational agencies in the utilization and creation of accessible learning environments and instructional materials. This means that we primarily serve K-12 school personnel, but we recognize that a truly accessible learning environment includes family."   

The two Parent Nights in Indiana will take place in different cities and dates during the month of September. Have an innovative way your organization is using its ATIA webinar subscription? Looking for implementation assistance to set up a webinar-enriched Parent Night in your own community?  

Contact ATIA. 

Students are returning to school after the summer break. They are being asked to reengage with the curriculum: connect to prior learning, tackle new concepts, and apply learning to problems and challenges in the real world. Many of us in the AT field are engaged in a similar process. The ATIA Research Committee, for example, is taking a look back at our original mission, assessing where we are today, what has been accomplished, and preparing to identify next steps.

Since the ATIA Research Committee was commissioned in 2009 (made up of individuals from ATIA member companies and leading researchers engaged in or interested in AT research), it has had a remarkable record of accomplishment. Charged with raising awareness of the value of AT research among AT member companies, and to find ways to share AT research with a broader audience, the committee has:

1.    Produced a compilation of Research Tools including:

*    Reference Management Software

*    Statistical Analysis Software

*    Electronic Data Capture

*    Behavior Imaging Software

*    Qualitative Research Analysis Software

*    PC Survey Software Tools

*    Crowdsourcing Tools

 
2.    Developed a Research Primer (in collaboration with the National Center for Technology Innovation - NCTI) entitled AT Research Matters which includes "how-to" discussions of:

*    Literature Search

*    Types of Research Design

*    Key Concepts

*    Funding Resources

*    Collaboration between Academic & Corporate Researchers

3.    Prepared and presented (with NCTI) of a series of webinars discussing these research topics:

*    Usability Studies

*    Market Research

*    Case Study

*    Single Subject Research

*    Quasi-Experimental and Experimental Research

4.    Co-hosted the first AT Research Symposium (with RESNA's Research Committee) in conjunction with the ATIA Conference in Orlando. (The second Research Symposium is scheduled for Orlando on January 30, 2013. Visit this ATIA Research Symposium Web page to learn more.)

5.    Presented a series of webinars featuring researchers who shared particular insights into current and emerging issues.

The ATIA Research Committee has been led by Co-Chairs Cheryl Volkman Knight (co-founder and CEO emeritus of Ablenet) and Annalee Anderson (manager of clinical programs at Prentke Romich Company). Cheryl is retiring this fall, so we want to acknowledge her leadership and passionate advocacy for AT research in all of these endeavors. Her co-chair, Annalee Anderson, will continue in her leadership role and be joined by Ben Satterfield, Ed.M, from the Georgia Institute of Technology. Other member companies represented include: American Printing House for the Blind, Attainment, Dynavox, and Lingraphia.

As the committee revisits its mission and accomplishments and looks for new ways to support and encourage the effective use of research, they will be looking for input from the Friends of ATIA. We are all looking forward to this collaboration to help find answers to the questions before us.

--The ATIA Research Committee

Explore the tools, articles, primer, and archived research webinars at this ATIA AT Research Web page. 

   

• using recorded webinars as homework assignments or as supplemental resources to our AT Team Seminars training;
• augmenting our existing online professional development offerings;
• providing more options to our designated regional AT advisory committee members to customize their own learning;
• providing online activities to extend the reach of professional development in AT and related areas which address our continuous improvement plans, statewide.

--Kirk D. Behnke, M.Ed., A.T.P.
Senior Education Specialist, Special Education Solutions
Lead, TATN