National AEM Center Announces Upgrades to the AEM Pilot, a Web-based Self-Assessment Tool for the Quality Indicators
Date:
Saturday, February 11, 2023
Did you know that your state or district can take practical actions to improve the timeliness and quality of accessible educational materials (AEM) and accessible technologies provided to all learners, including students who require them due to disabilities? AEM can be any material selected or created for the general education curriculum that is designed or enhanced in a way to be usable by all learners. By being planful and collaborative, states and districts can ensure that accessible textbooks, websites, videos, apps, open educational resources (OER), teacher-created materials, etc. are provided to all students in a timely manner.
The National AEM Center at CAST, funded by the U.S. Department of Education, provides technical assistance for states and districts to implement the Quality Indicators with Critical Components for Providing AEM and Accessible Technologies in K-12. The Quality Indicators offer evidence-based practices for improving the timely provision of high-quality AEM and accessible technologies. The AEM Pilot is a free web-based tool to guide self-assessment and progress monitoring activities that are grounded in the experiences of states and districts that have been using the Quality Indicators over years. Based on user feedback, features of the AEM Pilot were recently upgraded, improving the tool’s functionality for team collaboration, documenting progress, and generating reports.
The AEM Center is incredibly proud of our partnership with committed state and district leadership teams that provide us with feedback to continuously improve our technical assistance. These early adopters of the AEM Pilot enabled our team to make the tool more relevant, useful, and functional for all states and districts that are ready to take action on accessibility.
Cynthia Curry, CAST Director of Technical Assistance