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The limitations of print raises barriers to access, and therefore to learning.
They may be students who have an identified disability in reading or are "unidentified" struggling readers.
Students who have language learning disabilities often struggle with making meaningful connections with printed text, as do students who are English Language Learners (ELLs) and students with cognitive disabilities.
- Teachers select programs that remediate specific skills through individualized and/or repetitive practice or they select programs that compensate for a student's disability.

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National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard.
NIMAS files are text files from publishers that can be converted to a standard or specialized format.
Examples:
RTF (Rich Text Format)
HTML (Hyper-Text Markup Language)

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To ensure the development of high quality ad consistent text source files in order to create specialized formats for students with print disabilities.
State and Local Education Agencies ( SEAs and LEAs) must ensure that students who are blind, visually impaired or those with other print disabilities receive instructional materials in a timely manner.

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When schools districts who coordinate with NIMAC, purchase core materials or textbooks for elementary or secondary schools, they MUST request that the publisher send a NIMAS source file to the NIMAC.
The authorized entity will convert the source file into a useable format as requested by the school.

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Must send their Department of Public Instruction (DPI) an assurance form stating that district students who are blind, visually impaired or those with other print disabilities, will receive their materials in the appropriate format and in a timely manner.

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Whenever a school uses a alternative version of copyrighted text with a student, we need to be certain that it is a legal copy of the text.
The Chaffee Amendment is the law most frequently reference when providing alternate versions of text to be used with students with print disabilities.

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A decision making guide that follows SETT (Students, Environment, Task, and Tool) format with a subcategory of Sensory Considerations included with Student and Environment.
- Narrowing the Focus to help identify a specific task in order to select appropriate assistive technologies
- Implementation Plan to assign trials, dates, responsibilities and data collection
- Follow-up Plan to set a date for the team to reconvene and review the student's progress

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WATI Assistive Technology Decision Making Guide

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WATI Assistive Technology Decision Making Guide

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PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
Student’s Abilities/Difficulties
What are the student’s abilities &
difficulties related to reading?
• Physical considerations
• Communication considerations
• Visual considerations
• Comprehension of text-read or
listened to
• Phonemic awareness
Environmental - Considerations
What environmental
considerations impact the student’s
reading?
• Student’s distance from text
• Reading group size
• Visual clutter on page
• Lighting
• Computer operating system
Tasks
What reading task(s) do you want
the student to do?
Read:
• Standard Curriculum
• Modified Curriculum
• Community print
• Worksheets
• Tests
• Computer
Sensory Considerations
What sensory challenges does the student have that impacts
Reading? (i.e., visual, auditory, tactile).
Narrowing the Focus
Identify specific reading task(s)
for solution generation.
Solution Generation Tools & Strategies
Brainstorming only-no
decisions yet
Review the Reading Continuum
Solution Selection Tools & Strategies
Use a Feature Match Process to
discuss and select idea(s) from
Solution Generation.
Implementation Plan
AT Trials/Services Needed:
• Formulate reading objectives to
determine effectiveness of trial
• Training needed
• Date
• Length
• Person(s) Responsible
Follow-Up Plan
Who & When
Set specific date now.

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Students who have difficulty physically manipulating books, text, or other print based materials may benefit from assistive technology solutions to increase their accessibility to the text.

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- Does the student have difficulty turning pages in a book, magazine, or other paper-based material?
- Can the student support or hold the printed materials in a comfortable and accessible fashion without compromising his/her posture?
- Have you noticed a difference in the student's reading ability when the font size is smaller, larger, with or without a serif?
- What other physical considerations/questions are specific to this students?

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If a student has an identified language learning disability, is an English Language Learner (ELL), has a cognitive disability or otherwise lacks sufficient background knowledge, reading comprehension can be limited.
-Does the student benefit from "brainstorming" sessions using words or graphic maps?
- What other pre-reading strategies have been used, and with what success?

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It used to be assumed that students with cognitive limitations could only learn to read using a "sight-word approach".
Regardless of disability, successful readers need to build their skills to read and decipher unfamiliar words.
- Does the student have the phonemic awareness to identify similar and dissimilar patterns in words?
- Has the student established sound/symbol relationships?
- Does the student recognize familiar words and patterns?
- Can the student isolate individual sounds (i.e., initial, final, medial)?

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Word attack skills are important when encountering unfamiliar works, but if students need to decode every word they read in a sentence, their comprehension of the text will suffer.
Good readers have automatic sight word vocabularies that they can read without stopping to decode.
- Does the student have a sight word vocabulary?
- Does the student remember previously taught words?

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Some students are adversely affected by environmental stimulation that others can filter out or ignore.
Some common factors that can impact a student's learning and focus include hypersensitivity or hyposensitivity to stimuli such as
- visual clutter; fluorescent lighting versus full spectrum lighting; classroom and background noise; tactile stimulation; and awareness of physical space.

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Effective tools are discontinued for reasons that no longer exist such as computer conflicts, lack of training, lack of interest, or other reasons.
Differences in skill development, maturity, a different environment or other factors may make all the difference.

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Different environments have different levels of sensory stimulation.
If the team has determined that sensory impacts are influential for the student's learning, identify the sensory levels in each environment in which the student will be reading.

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Too many tasks can overwhelm the team.
Introduction of too many factors and tools may reduce your ability to determine effectiveness.
Some tasks may already be effectively addressed with the new tools/strategies that you are using. The tasks that remain can become your new focus at a later date.

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The team brainstorms strategies and assistive technology tools that may be of benefit for the student to complete the identified tasks in the given environments.

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Children's literacy learning is developmental, but not in the sense of proceeding in an irreversible, step-by-step progress.
Successful readers must be able to effortlessly recognize most word they encounter and have the skills to figure out unfamiliar words.
Comprehension is adversely affected when instruction emphasizes only one skills. When readers are taught to stop and sound out or consciously think about every word they encounter, they are expending cognitive resources that would otherwise be devoted to comprehension.