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The WI AEM Center for Accessible Education Materials was designed to assist Wisconsin's Local Education Agencies (LEAs) in meeting the federal requirements of the IDEA reauthorization of 2004 by securing access to print instructional materials in specialized formats, in a timely manner, for a student who has been determined as having a print disability. The goal of the WI AEM Center is to improve educational outcomes for students with disabilities through the timely provision and use of AEM.
A student with a print disability is one who cannot access print in the way most students do and therefore needs an alternative or specialized formats such as digital text, large print, audio, or braille. A person with Print disabilities is someone who, regardless of any other disability, (A) is blind, (B) has a visual impairment or perceptual or reading disability that cannot be improved to give visual function substantially equivalent to that of a person who has no such impairment or disability and so is unable to read printed works to substantially the same degree as a person without an impairment or disability, or (C) is otherwise unable, through physical disability, to hold or manipulated a book or to focus or move the eyes to the extent that would be normally acceptable for reading.
Consideration of the need for Accessible Educational Materials (AEM) is required for all students with disabilities, regardless of the nature of the student’s disability. IEP teams determine which students require Accessible Educational Materials to use and learn from standard printed materials. Teams may assess the extent to which a student can:
- decode or extract meaning from print materials at or near grade level
- read for required lengths of time without tiring
- hold a book and turn pages
- see printed materials
- read with fluency
Once IEP teams have determined the necessary formats, school districts can acquire AEM through direct purchases from publishers or non-profit Accessible Media Producers that operate in the U.S. under a copyright exemption which are able to make books available to individuals with print disabilities.
Bookshare (www.bookshare.org)
Bookshare is an online library of digital books and textbooks that are available by subscription for individuals with a print disability. Schools can set up a free account for qualifying students.
Learning Ally (www.learningally.org)
Learning Ally is a non-profit organization that provides a library of human-read audiobooks including literature, popular fiction and curriculum-aligned titles for individuals who cannot effectively read standard print.
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