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Wed, 29 Jun 2005 09:12:15 -0400 |
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In case some are unaware:
--
Jonnie Apple Seed
With His:
Hands-On Technolog(eye)s
Troy R. Justesen, acting director of the Office of Special
Education Programs, U.S. Department of Education, would like to share
with you an important message about an addition to the proposed
regulations to implement the Individuals with Disabilities Education
Improvement Act (IDEA 2004).
_____
I'm pleased to tell you that since the draft proposed
regulations to implement IDEA 2004 were first made publicly available
on June 10th, we've been hearing from teachers, students, families
and state officials at an ongoing series of public meetings, as well
as through comments they are sending us by mail and email. This
dialogue with the public is of critical importance to us as we move
toward issuing the final regulations at the end of this year.
As reauthorized, IDEA 2004 provides for the Department to
establish the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard
(NIMAS), a standardized format for electronic files that allows
classroom materials to be adapted to products ranging from Braille
editions of textbooks to on-screen displays of text and graphics. It
provides students with blindness, low vision and print disabilities
improved access to textbooks.
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. The
use of this standard will allow students and teachers to more quickly
access general curriculum materials, giving students with
disabilities the same educational resources as their non-disabled peers.
Today I wanted to make you aware that the proposed regulations
for establishing NIMAS will be published in the Federal Register
<http://www.magnetmail.net/ls.cfm?
r=5834385&sid=571830&m=104565&u=Aspen&s=http://www.gpoaccess.gov/fr/
index.html> on Wednesday, June 29, 2005. As with the other proposed
regulations implementing IDEA, we invite public comment on the NIMAS
proposed regulations.
The schedule for the four remaining public meetings, as well as
information on how to provide comments, is available at our IDEA 2004
Web page at http://www.ed.gov/policy/speced/guid/idea/idea2004.html
<http://www.magnetmail.net/ls.cfm?
r=5834385&sid=571831&m=104565&u=Aspen&s=http://www.ed.gov/policy/
speced/guid/idea/idea2004.html> .
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