Database of Federally Funded Technical Assistance and Research Centers

Bookshare

Bookshare makes reading easier. People with dyslexia, blindness, cerebral palsy, and other reading barriers can customize their experience to suit their learning style and find virtually any book they need for school, work, or the joy of reading.

Bookshare is an ebook library that makes reading easier. Members can access a huge collection of ebooks and read their way with the most customizable ebooks for people with reading barriers.

The library has 1,233,523 titles and is the most extensive collection of accessible ebooks in the world. It includes books for school, career, and reading pleasure, as well as titles in over 34 languages. The collection is supported by a dedicated volunteer community and partnerships with over 1000 US and international publishers.

Director(s): Ayan Kishore, CEO

Specialty Area

  • Accessible Education Materials

Primary Audience

  • Families
  • Schools
  • Teachers

Services

  • Content Expertise

Regions/States

National

All States

Level of Support

General

Additional Information

National Instructional Materials Access Center

Created by IDEA 2004, the NIMAC is a federally-funded, searchable online repository of source files for K-12 instructional materials. We receive files in the XML-based NIMAS (National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard) format, and states use these materials in the production of accessible formats such as braille, large print, and digital text. The NIMAC currently has over 74,000 files from more than 160 publishers.

Director(s): Rebecca Sheffield, U.S. Dept. of Education OSEP Project Officer for NIMAC

Specialty Area

  • Accessible Education Materials
  • Educational Technology

Primary Audience

  • Administrators
  • Families
  • School Counselors
  • School Districts
  • Schools
  • State Education Agencies
  • Teachers

Services

  • Content Expertise

Regions/States

National

All States

Level of Support

General

Additional Information

Rhonda Weiss Center for Accessible IDEA Data (Weiss Center)

The Rhonda Weiss Center for Accessible IDEA Data improves state capacity to report Part B and Part C Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) data in accessible formats.

The Weiss Center, along with trusted partners, works closely with states to help them deal with challenges related to making IDEA data accessible.

The services delivered by the Weiss Center will benefit state education agencies in the following ways:

  • Improve knowledge about accessibility needs, standards, best practices, and how to apply them.
  • Build skills and competency needed to make state-level data more accessible in dynamic formats.
  • Enhance ability to sharing knowledge about accessibility with other states, local education agencies (LEAs), and early intervention (EI) programs.
  • Increase access to data by people who have historically been excluded. This will improve data quality due to broader data use and analysis.
Director(s): Fred Edora, M.B.A., Project Co-Director, Johan Rempel, B.A., Project Co-Director

Specialty Area

  • Data Systems
  • Part B – 619
  • Part C

Primary Audience

  • State Education Agencies

Services

  • Assessment Tools
  • Content Expertise

Regions/States

National

All States

Level of Support

General

Additional Information

The Center for the Integration of IDEA Data (CIID)

The Center for the Integration of IDEA Data (CIID) provides technical assistance to state education agencies (SEAs) to increase the capacity to report high quality data required under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Part B Sections 616 and 618. CIID supports the integration of IDEA data systems and processes with the statewide longitudinal data system (SLDS). CIID is working directly with SEAs to resolve the challenges associated with fragmented IDEA, SLDS and EDFacts data management practices and data systems architecture. When IDEA data are fully integrated into the SLDS, SEAs will be able to more efficiently complete federal data reporting and have higher quality IDEA data to inform decision-making for improved educational outcomes.

Director(s): Bill Huennekens, M.A., CDMP (AEM), Director

Specialty Area

  • Data Systems
  • Part B – 619

Primary Audience

  • State Education Agencies

Services

  • Content Expertise

Regions/States

National

All States

Level of Support

General

Additional Information