CAST to Lead Effort to Improve School Technologies for Students with Disabilities
Date:
Thursday, April 4, 2019
CAST is partnering with the American Institutes for Research (AIR) to establish the Center on Inclusive Technology and Education Systems (CITES). The Center will address a pressing, nationwide need to improve the effective use of assistive and instructional technology for students with disabilities and their families. The US Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs will provide $3.5 million for CITES over five years.
CITES will create and disseminate a framework of evidence-based practices to help instructional technology and assistive technology programs at local education agencies (LEAs) work together to enhance the use of technology to support all students’ success. The Center will also provide technical assistance to LEAs, educators, and families to ensure that students with disabilities are able to use the technology tools they need to foster learning and life success.
By 2023, CITES will provide LEAs around the country with tools to develop more efficient and effective technology services—breaking through the educational silos that often hamper the delivery of those services to students with disabilities.
“Building on CAST’s two decades of leadership in promoting the development and use of accessible educational materials, we look forward to building a scalable solution that improves students’ lives,” says Joy Zabala, EdD, CAST’s Director of Technical Assistance and the Principal Investigator of CITES. “We are delighted to be partnering with AIR—one of the premier education research and technical assistance organizations in the world—and with Parent Training and Information Centers and other collaborators across the country.”
Learn more about the CITES project
About CAST
Founded in 1984, CAST is a nonprofit whose mission is to transform education design and practice until learning has no limits. Winner of the Smithsonian Innovation in Education award and many other honors, CAST conducts research and development, provides technical assistance and professional development, and publishes exceptional media for the education market. CAST authored the renowned Universal Design for Learning (UDL) framework and UDL Guidelines.
About the American Institutes for Research
Established in 1946, with headquarters in Washington, D.C., the American Institutes for Research (AIR) is a nonpartisan, not-for-profit organization that conducts behavioral and social science research and delivers technical assistance both domestically and internationally in the areas of education, health, and the workforce. AIR Assessment, a division of AIR, combines statistics, technology, and content into powerful K-12 formative, summative, and supplemental products and services.