Table 1. What is the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard?
The National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS) is a technical specification that guides the production and electronic distribution of digital versions of textbooks and other print instructional materials so they can be more easily converted to accessible formats, including Braille and text-to-speech. The standard is based on the international DAISY standard which provides guidance for marking up content in XML for digital talking books. The underlying purpose is to implement a format that will result in the timely production and delivery of specialized formats to qualified students with print disabilities.
Textbook adoption states and local school districts will require publishers to submit NIMAS file sets to the National Instructional Materials Access Center (NIMAC) where they will be validated, cataloged and stored in a database. Reaching beyond the technical specifications are policies and procedures for protection of intellectual property rights, secure distribution of NIMAS source file sets and access to those file by authorized users qualified to convert them into student ready versions. The basic requirements for NIMAS are included in IDEA 2004 and related regulation.