Alaska Center for Accessible Materials (AKCAM)

making education accessible for Alaskans with print disabilities

What Are Accessible Educational Materials & Accessible Technologies?

Accessible educational/instructions materials (AEM/AIM) are print and technology-based educational materials that are

designed

or

ENHANCED

to make them usable by people with and without disabilities.

Some examples could include:

A curriculum that has been converted to Braille
A book that is made available through audio instead of text
A worksheet that has been converted to large-print text
A video that includes subtitles and descriptions

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) mandates that students who require materials in braille, large print, audio, and digital text have access to them.

What can AKCAM do for you/your students?

We can convert instructional materials to accessible formats, such as

Braille
large print
digital text and audio

We can also help determine what format is needed based on:

how the student will access information contained in printed materials
what format will allow the student to
- work as independently as possible
- develop literacy skills
- and help them make progress in the general education curriculum and their IEP goals

How does it work?

Contact Tyler Arsen with the name of the item that's needed
Describe what the product needs to be converted to (or Tyler can help you make that determination)
We take care of the rest!
We will contact you when materials are ready for mail or pick-up

Contact the Coordinator, Tyler Arsen for more information:

907-334-1320 or tarsen@sesa.org

Free Tools to help you get started:

ACCESSIBLE MATERIALS NAVIGATOR

This tool consists of a series of guiding questions to assist teams with decision-making about need, selection, acquisition, and use of accessible printed materials. Learning supports for completing each decision-making step are available throughout.

ACCESSIBLE MATERIALS EXPLORER

This tool is a simulation that combines grade-leveled digital text with access features common to most text readers and other supported reading software. Magnification, custom text and background colors, text-to-speech (synthetic and human), text highlighting, and layout options are presented in a logical sequence to help struggling readers.