Purchase Accessible Instructional Materials (PALM)
Accessibility for All! A Call to Action!
The pressure for teachers and schools to “go digital” is reaching a critcal tipping point. Yet, if digital materials and the technology used to deliver and interact with digital content are not designed to be usable by all students from the start, many students risk being left behind. The National Center on Accessible Instructional Materials has launched the PALM Initiative to address this concern. We encourage publishers to create and purchasers to demand and purchase accessible, broadly usable learning materials.
How Can You Help?
- Require that all materials purchased are fully accessible
- Incorporate accessibility into your policies & practices
- Include accessibility in contract language
- Create lesson plans & units that include accessible materials
- Introduce PALM at a staff meeting
- Form an accessibility action team
- Talk with administrators, technology coordinators, & purchasing coordinators about accessibiltiy
- Present PALM to your stakeholders
- Share the PALM documents through your networks
- Include accessibility in your mission statement
- Form an accessibility taskforce
- Create an accessibility action group in your child’s school or district
- Inform school administrators about accessibility
- Talk with your child’s teacher about accessibility
- Talk with other parents & parent groups about accessibility
Ensuring ALL Learning Materials are Accessible for EVERYONE.
- No student should be denied the right to a high-quality education
- All education settings should be accessible to every student
- Materials in all settings, should be usable by every student from the start
- Schools cannot rely on parallel delivery systems or costly & different accommodations
Benefits of purchasing digital materials that are accessible from the start:
Purchasing accessible materials provides students with disabilies access to the general education curriculum using the same instructional materials, provided at the same time, for all students.
It is easier to plan instruction & subsequently teach when all students use the same materials rather than having individual students using different materials.
Benefits all students’ learning:
Many of the supportive features & scaffolds available in accessible materials can be of benefit to a wide range of students.
When accessible materials are purchased, complex questions around copyright, timely delivery, & student eligibility are reduced.
Reduces costly accommodations:
Schools don’t have to provide different sets of materials or provide accommodations for inaccessible materials, which can consume valuable fiscal, human, & infrastructural resources.
What are Accessible Learning Materials? Indicators of Accessibility:
- Content is represented in multiple ways so it can be used based on what students might need or prefer (e.g. video captions, alt text, audio, text-to-speech, digital braille)
- Mathematical, scientific, & music symbols, formulas, & notations are represented in multiple ways (e.g. explained with text, MathML)
- Content is structured in a predictable, coherent, & logical way
- Content is at an appropriate level for all students
- Supports & scaffolds for difficult content are available to students (e.g. glossaries, highlighters, sentence starters, spellcheckers, graphic organizers)
- Feedback on errors & progress is provided to students
- Both visual & non-visual forms of navigation are possible (e.g. keyboard shortcuts, screen gestures, voice)
- Location & progress supports are included (e.g. page numbers, progress bars)
- If writing is required, there are multiple ways to enter text (e.g. word prediction, on-screen keyboards, voice inputs)
- Timing & pace the student progresses through content can be controlled
- Content can be used on multiple devices & with different assistive technologies
- There is nothing to prevent access to built-in accessibility features or necesary assistive technologies (e.g. digital rights management [DRM])
- Products are tested by the publisher/developer to ensure compatibility with assistive technology (e.g. screenreaders, refreshable braille, text-to-speech, human voice reading software)
Required Contract Language: NIMAS
By agreeing to deliver the materials marked with “NIMAS” on this contract or purchase order, the publisher agrees to prepare and submit, on or before ___/___ /___ a NIMAS file set to the NIMAC that complies with the terms and procedures set forth by the NIMAC. The publisher also agrees to mark up materials eligible for NIMAS submission that contain mathematical and scientific instructional content by using the MathML3 (refer to latest applicable version) module of the DAISY/NIMAS Structure Guidelines as posted and maintained at the DAISY Consortium web site (http://www.daisy.org/z3986/structure/SG-DAISY3/index.html). Should the vendor be a distributor of the materials and not the publisher, the distributor agrees to notify the publisher immediately of its obligation to submit NIMAS filesets of the purchased products to the NIMAC. The files will be used for the production of alternate formats as permitted under the law for students with print disabilities.
Sample Supplemental Contract Language: AIM
- Vendor represents that the digital instructional materials delivered under this contract or purchase order conform to, at a minimum, the standards for accessibility as set forth in -
- Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended (29 U.S.C. § 794d), and its implementing regulations (36 C.F.R. § 1194), or
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 (minimum of Level AA conformance). Should any portion of the materials not conform to the aforementioned standards of accessibility, vendor agrees to provide a written explanation of the reason for non-conformance, agrees to provide an accessible version to students who meet the appropriate copyright criteria, and grants permission to modify the digital materials in order to create an accessible version.
AIM Center at CAST
The AIM Center at CAST, supported by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), works with states, technical assistance systems, disability advocates, national associations, technology experts, publishers, content conversion houses, authorized users and accessible media producers to improve the timely delivery of high-quality accessible educational materials to students with disabilities. http://aim.cast.org
Additional Information: PALM
For more in-depth information on the aspects contained in this document please visit: http://aim.cast.org/learn/practice/palm
Created by Michigan’s Integrated Technology Supports based on the work of the: National Center on AIM at CAST, Inc. | 40 Harvard Mills Square, Suite 3 | Wakefield, MA 01880-3233