Welcome to the National Center on Accessible Digital Educational Materials & Instruction

Introducing the National Center on Accessible Digital Educational Materials & Instruction (NCADEMI), pronounced "n-cademy.” We are a groundbreaking technical assistance center funded by the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) at the U.S. Department of Education.

We know schools are striving to ensure that learners with disabilities can access and engage with technology at the same time and with the same ease and independence as learners without disabilities. This requires coordination across the education system. The mission of NCADEMI is to improve the quality, availability, and timely provision of accessible digital educational materials and instruction for learners with disabilities, from early intervention through high school graduation.

Who We Serve

NCADEMI will help empower educational agencies, school leaders, teachers, service providers, and families. Our goals are to support:

• State and Local Educational Agencies to increase the provision and use of accessible digital educational materials and instruction,
• Part C Lead Agencies to improve the preparation of children with disabilities and their families to use accessible digital educational materials and instruction in Part B programs,
• OSEP-funded Technical Assistance & Dissemination Centers to improve the accessibility of their products and services,
• OSEP-funded Parent Information Centers to improve the preparation of parents and caregivers to communicate the needs of their children with disabilities for accessible digital educational materials and instruction, and
• Pre- and In-service Educator and Administrator Programs to improve the preparation of new teachers and school leaders to create, select, and use accessible digital educational materials and instruction.

Everyone with an interest in increasing the availability and use of accessible digital educational materials and instruction in schools will have access to free and openly available resources and activities offered by NCADEMI.

Resources and Activities

We are excited to offer multiple ways for people to engage with us. NCADEMI’s website is currently under construction and will serve as the hub for our resources and activities, all of which are designed to improve the evaluation, procurement, selection, creation, and use of accessible digital educational materials and instruction in schools. These include:

• Webinars and virtual coaching
• Guides for developing policies and procedures
• Tools for evaluating materials and technologies for accessibility
• Web-based learning modules for CEUs and micro-credentials
• Professional Learning Groups and Communities of Practice

In-person training will be available at national conferences. Most immediately, you’ll find us:

• October 7– 9 at the National Association of State Directors of Special Education (NASDSE) Conference
• January 30 – February 1 at the Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA) Conference

In the coming months, we will be inviting input on what is most urgently needed to improve the quality, availability, and timely provision of accessible digital educational materials and instruction in schools. Virtual listening sessions and an online survey will be open to everyone. Virtual focus groups of members of our target populations will be organized with assistance from OSEP and our partners. What we learn will help us develop the most relevant and useful resources and activities possible. Stay updated for information.

Our Team

NCADEMI is based at Utah State University in the Institute for Disability Research, Policy & Practice (IDRPP). We are part of the IDRPP’s Technical Assistance Division, where our work is informed by over 40 years of technical assistance provided by the Center for Technical Assistance for Excellence in Special Education (TAESE) and 25 years of web accessibility training and services provided by WebAIM.

• Principal Investigator: Brenda Smith
• Project Director: Cynthia Curry
• Technical Assistance Specialists:
  • Rob Carr
  • Katie Emmett
  • Jena Fahlbush (bio coming soon)
  • George Joeckel
  • Alex Langevin
  • Sue Olsen
  • Kristen Perez-Rickels
  • Christopher Phillips
  • Jonathan Whiting
• Digital Accessibility Senior Advisor: Jared Smith
• Program Assistant: Natalie Cardenas
• Graphic Designer: Joana Magalhaes Franco
• Communications & Dissemination: JoLynne Lyon, Mindy Johnson
• Technical Editor: Casey Allen
• Website Developer & Software Engineer: Cam Lund

Our Partners

We are proud to partner with:

• True North Evaluation, Inc.
• AEM Corp
• State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA)
• Institute for the Study of Knowledge Management in Education (ISKME)
• Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA)
• OCALI AT&AEM Center
• Natalie Shaheen, Ed.D.
• Described & Captioned Media Program (DCMP)*
• IRIS Center*

*Activities with this partner begin in a later year of the project.

Stay Updated

To stay in touch with our work, bookmark our website and sign up for email notifications. In the coming months, we’ll be expanding our presence using additional social media channels and by publishing a quarterly e-newsletter.

Contact Us

• Email: info@ncademi.org
• Phone or Text: (435) 554-8213

The contents of this website were developed under a cooperation agreement with the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs (Award No. H327Z240007). However, those contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government. Project Officer, Rebecca Sheffield, Ph.D.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/