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American Foundation for the Blind
Textbooks and Instructional Materials Solutions Forum

Electronic Files/Research & Development Work Group
Plan of Action

Updated February 28, 2002

Statement of Purpose:

Two purposes define activities of this Work Group. 

1. Exploring and defining issues related to the creation, production, and distribution of electronic files provided by textbook publishers for the production of textbooks in braille and other special media.  
2. Identifying new trends, technologies and research that may affect production, accessibility and delivery of textbooks.

Short Term Activities Completed: 

• A national survey: "Survey of Multimedia Presentations for Students with Visual Impairments," to identify needs in the areas of assistive technology, teacher training, accessibility, barriers, and solutions as they relate to multimedia textbooks.
• Distributed survey results with analysis completed by Dr. Anne L. Corn and Dr. Rob Wall of Vanderbilt University.
• Completed a fact sheet "Use of Multimedia Presentations and Technology" about the survey.
• Participate in the creation of and join the Joint Technology Taskforce 
• Present "Accessible Textbooks-Industry and Education Partnership- Update and Future Plans" at the Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference (CSUN) to announce the formation and goal of the Joint Technology Taskforce. 
• Participate in the development of the File Specifications for the Digital Talking Book - National Information Standards Organization (NISO) to be used in the creation of braille textbooks.
• Participated in the development of the The Instructional Materials Accessibility Act of 2002 (IMAA 2002)

Activity Areas - Projected for 2002:

• Develop an ongoing relationship with the Software and Information Industries Association, formally the Software Publishers Association. 
• Support passage of federal legislation:  Instructional Materials Accessibility Act (IMAA) of 2002.
• AFB Joint Technology Task Force (Electronic Files/Research and Development Work Group) continue testing and evaluation of the NISO Digital Talking Book file specification use by publishers and braille translation software in order to optimize the process and tools.
• AFB Joint Technology Task Force (Electronic Files/Research and Development Work Group) in develop a training workshop that will assist publishers and their vendors in their use of NISO tag sets.
• Develop strategies to ensure that multi-media accessibility is "built-in" to textbooks and instructional materials.
• Define the process for producing a braille or large print textbooks from the NISO Digital Talking Book file specification.
• Develop a website for the sharing of "printer ready" tactile graphics for use with braille embossers and capsule/swell paper raised line drawing production machines.

Activities - Future

• Support implementation of the Instructional Materials Accessibility Act of 2002 by assisting states and/or local education agencies to develop the required "statewide plan designed to ensure that instructional materials required for classroom use are made available in specialized formats..."
• Support states and/or local education agencies access to the proposed Capacity Building Grants as identified in the Instructional Materials Accessibility Act of 2002.

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Last Revision: January 15, 2004