The Challenge
States face the challenge of providing students with print disabilities access to the general education curriculum. Every student having accessible educational material is critically important to improving performance and is required by federal and state laws.
Two Approaches
Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE)
Illinois’ decentralized system provides an annual appropriation to:
- Fund Learning Ally’s program at 328 schools
- Purchase specialized playback equipment
- Provide in-person, onsite technical support and educator trainings
In the last school year the Learning Ally/ISBE partnership served 14,527 Illinois students, with more than 25,000 accessible books utilized.
AIM-Virginia
The Virginia Department of Education (DOE) decided to consolidate all accessible materials delivery into a clearinghouse called the Accessible Instructional Materials-Virginia (AIM-VA) program. AIM-VA coordinates:
- Access to Learning Ally’s library of more than 65,000 titles
- Each school district’s designated a digital rights manager (DRM)
- Up to five regional training sessions for DRMs on the use of Learning Ally’s audio textbooks and playback equipment.
Every Virginia student with an IEP for accessible materials has access to the Learning Ally library.