Each Friday the Instructional Materials Center Team will provide answers to questions asked by educators throughout the week in the IMC FAQ Friday post. We hope these are helpful as schools place orders for students who need accessible educational materials.
Does your student need access to online materials in braille? PDF files of the curriculum are typically available from most publishers. Please request the PDF files from the publisher before requesting the material in Athena. It is also important to verify whether there is an ISBN associated with the material before placing your order.
Even if the publisher provides NIMAS (National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard) files, we still require a PDF file to produce the material in braille. NIMAS format is not intended for direct distribution to students; it requires conversion to ensure full accessibility. Publishers provide NIMAS source files that contain all the text and images from the curriculum. However, this format does not retain all the layout details found in printed copies or PDFs. To ensure accurate formatting in braille, transcribers must reference the printed material.
Questions? Contact IMC Staff at imclibrary@blind.state.ia.us or 515-281-1323.
The IMC Team will provide answers to the questions we have received during the week in our FAQ Friday posts. We hope these are helpful!
