Presidential Proclamation 14th Anniversary of Americans with Disabilities Act

Students with blindness, low vision and print disabilities are expected to gain improved access to textbooks under a voluntary standardized format for electronic files, U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige announced today. On behalf of Secretary Paige, Deputy Secretary of Education Gene Hickok discussed the new standard at an event commemorating the 14th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. The event was co-sponsored by the Departments of Commerce and Education in Washington, D.C.

"President Bush believes that every single child can learn and deserves the opportunity to learn—that's why he pushed for the historic education reforms of the No Child Left Behind Act," Secretary Paige said. "Today, we're taking another step toward this goal with a new, voluntary standard that will enable students and teachers to more quickly access general curriculum materials, thereby opening more doors of opportunity to students."

When textbooks and classroom materials are produced using this voluntary standard, they will be in a standard electronic format that can be adapted to products ranging from Braille editions of textbooks to on-screen displays of text and graphics. In past years, the lack of a standardized format meant that publishers had to produce materials in multiple formats—often causing delays that meant students with disabilities did not receive their textbooks in time for the beginning of the school year.

To address these challenges, the Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs provided funding to the National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum at the Center for Applied Special Technology, Inc. to convene an expert panel to establish a voluntary, standardized format for materials. The 40-member panel included educators, publishers, technology specialists and advocacy groups.

In addition to establishing the new standard, the Department of Education will fund two centers to support further development and assist states with implementing the voluntary standard, thus improving academic results for students with disabilities.

The No Child Left Behind Act is the bipartisan landmark education reform law designed to change the culture of America's schools by closing the achievement gap among groups of students, offering more flexibility to states, giving parents more options and teaching students based on what works. Under the law's strong accountability provisions, states must describe how they will close the achievement gap and make sure all students, including students with disabilities, achieve academically.

For more information on the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard, please visit http://www.cast.org/NFF/NIMAS/.

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