NIMAS in IDEA: Response to public comments and final regulations

The final federal regulations are now available for the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS) in Part B of IDEA 2004. They were published by the Department of Education Thursday in an "unofficial" form pending their publication in the Federal Register. Although the document is well over 1700 pages, staff from NCDAE (a partner) has collected only those items that pertain to NIMAS. Verbatim excerpts are divided into three sections:

1. A summary of changes to NIMAS
2. The Department of Education’s analysis of comments and change
3. The final regulation, including the technical standard

Currently, the regulations are only available as a poorly-styled Microsoft Word document or as an untagged PDF file. It is unfortunate that a document detailing accessibility standards is not structured in a more accessible manner. Still, it is an important set of regulations that should have a significant impact on the accessibility of instructional materials.

• Read a compilation of NIMAS excerpts on ncdae.org.
• Read "the final Part B regulations to implement the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA)" (all 1700 pages).