ASSOCIATION OF INSTRUCTIONAL RESOURCE CENTERS FOR THE VISUALLY HANDICAPPED (AIRCVH): AN OVERVIEW

The following information was provided by the Association of Instructional Resource Centers for the Visually Handicapped (AIRCVH) and is used with permission.

The Association of Instructional Resource Centers for the Visually Handicapped (AIRCVH) is an organization of persons having statewide responsibility for the delivery of large print, braille and/or taped textbooks to school-aged students who are blind or have visual impairments. The mission of association members is to assist state education agencies in the delivery of materials and services to students in a timely manner and in an appropriate medium.

Most states have some form of "instructional resource center" which provides textbooks and instructional materials to schools for their students with visual impairments. The center in some states serves as a clearinghouse, ordering textbooks and shipping to school systems; other states have a depository, which also reclaim textbooks at the end of the year so they are available to loan to other schools; and still other states also include production facilities which enable them to produce materials that are not available through other sources.

Members of AIRCVH work within their individual states to provide accessible learning materials to students who are blind or visually impaired, but they also work with one another in an effort to ensure success at getting the right book to students at the right time. They strongly support activities that address critical issues in providing braille books which meet the highest quality standards and getting them into students' hands on the day the books are needed.

AIRCVH actively participated in the development of the National Agenda for the Education of Children and Youths with Visual Impairments, Including Those with Multiple Disabilities. Following the 1996 passage of the Chafee Amendment to PL 104-197, the 1975 Copyright Act, AIRCVH presented a series of questions to the copyright office to further clarify issues and concerns that related to transferring information into accessible formats.

Members of the association were also active in the development of the document "Blind and Visually Impaired Students, Education Service Guidelines" published by the National Association of State Directors of Special Education in 1999. Individual members of AIRCVH have been active participants in the American Foundation for the Blind's Textbooks and Instructional Materials Solutions Forum. Other members are working with Texas and the American Foundation for the Blind to establish standards and curriculum to enable braille transcribers to become professionals with degrees from an accredited institution while still maintaining standards established by the certification course from the Library of Congress/National Library Service and the Braille Authority of North America.

AIRCVH members meet annually at the Annual Meeting of the American Printing House for the Blind in Louisville, Kentucky. No other formal meetings are scheduled, but work activities related to the goals of the association occur by telephone, e-mail, and meetings that coincide with other scheduled events. To find information about the materials center within a particular state, consult the membership directory at www.tsbvi.edu/textbooks/afb/airc.htm.