How does NIMAS affect local school districts when purchasing new texts?

Local school districts (as well as State Education Agencies) are expected to play an important role in obligating publishers to submit essential source materials to the NIMAC (the National Instructional Materials Access Center). Districts and States who have indicated that they will coordinate with the NIMAC must include appropriate language in contracts and purchase orders that require publishers to submit NIMAS-conformant files to the NIMAC, or to provide assurances that they have already done so, for a specific title and version that is to be purchased. A sample statement that could be included in a contract or purchase order follows:

Sample Language for Adoption Contracts and LEA Purchase Orders

By agreeing to deliver the materials marked with “NIMAS” on this contract or purchase order, the publisher agrees to prepare and submit, on or before ___/___/_____ a NIMAS fileset to the NIMAC that complies with the terms and procedures set forth by the NIMAC. Should the vendor be a distributor of the materials and not the publisher, the distributor agrees to immediately notify the publisher of its obligation to submit NIMAS file sets of the purchased products to the NIMAC. The files will be used for the production of alternate formats as permitted under the law for students with print disabilities.

This is page __ of __ of this contract or purchase order.

For additional information about NIMAS, please refer to http://nimas.cast.org. And, for additional information about the NIMAC, please refer to http://nimac.us. For information about locating and purchasing accessible texts, An Educator’s Guide to Making Textbooks Accessible and Useable for Students with Learning Disabilities is a good place to start.