Are Teaching and Learning Ducks in A Row? Not Without Accessibility! The AEM Center Can Help!
School doors open. Here come the students with an intriguing array of strengths and challenges. Facilitating their learning is elusive without attention to accessibility — not just arranging for physical presence in a room (access), but showing the know–how to create the conditions for learning. That means weaving together strategies, supports, and materials that assure that students make progress.
When the work by a school's curriculum, instruction, and accessibility teams align then that task is easier. When there is no accessibility team in place, the National Center on Accessible Educational Materials can help all teachers with personalization, being inclusive, and differentiating instruction for some while individualizing for others.
Aligning Curriculum, Instruction And Accessibility
Just out, the AEM Connector newsletter from the national center is a reminder that there are many accessibility resources available including news, technical assistance, website updates and webinars.
AIM-VA is proud to be included in the first newsletter of the 2016-2017 school year! Thanks for featuring us and the guest post on this blog by Mindy Johnson from CAST: 5 Easy Tips for Making Your Social Media Posts More Accessible. She offers ideas for personally practicing accessibiliy in and out of school. Join Mindy's webinar for the AEM Center on this topic on Nov. 9 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET. Details are available in the Events section of the AEM Center website.
Find Great Ideas
Here are some favorite resources from the AEM Center newsletter that help launch the school year:
- Bookshare's website has Brochures and How-To Guides for help about the technologies that read Bookshare books.
- Learning Ally has a new website, the 1in5 Initiative, to give students who learn differently a voice.
- The Center on Technology and Disability (CTD) and Pacer share two new "how-to" resources from their joint work:
- Perkins School for the Blind's Paths to Technology website keeps educators and families current on technology for students with visual impairments and blindness.
- The Inclusive Learning Network presented a "Playground: Making Digital Educational Materials More Accessible for All Learners" at ISTE 2016 in Denver. View videos from the Inclusive Learning Network Playground Playlist and see key accessibility features associated with a variety of media.
Upcoming AEM Center Webinars
- September 28, 2016: Is it Accessible? What Does that Mean?
- October 12, 2016: Acquiring Accessible Print Materials in K-12
- October 27, 2016: Acquiring Accessible Digital Materials
- November 9, 2016: Best Practices for More Accessible Social Media
Find more information about all of the webinars by logging on to the AEM Events webpage on the AEM Center website.
Want to keep accessibility in mind? Be sure to sign up for the AEM Connector newsletter.
We Are AIM-VA
Accessible educational materials (AEM) help to create access to the curriculum for students with dyslexia, learning disabilities, vision or physical challenges, and others. A federally funded AEM program in every state assures that books in alternative formats are provided free of charge to eligible students with disabilities whose education teams take action. The AEM program operates under a legal exception to federal copyright law. Check out the AIM-VA home page to learn more about eligibility in Virginia. In other states, contact a special education teacher, a school administrator or download a list of AEM state contacts.
.
Follow AIM-VA on Facebook 
, Pinterest , and Twitter at @AIMVirginia. and/or follow me @aimnoncat.. Subscribe to AIM-VA's new monthly newsletter. Sign up here.
RSS Feed For AIM-VA Blog