Sponsoring Organizations

National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum (NCAC)

In a collaborative agreement with the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), The Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) has established a National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum to provide a vision of how new curricula, teaching practices, and policies can be woven together to create practical approaches for access to the general curriculum by students with disabilities.

This five-year project brings together OSEP and five key partners: Boston College, the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), Harvard University, and the Parent Advocacy Coalition for Educational Rights (PACER) to effect change that will improve learning outcomes for all students.

To learn more about NCAC: http://www.cast.org/ncac
To learn more about OSEP: http://www.ed.gov/offices/OSERS/OSEP/index.html

The Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School

The Berkman Center for Internet & Society is a research program founded to explore cyberspace, share in its study, and help pioneer its development. The Center investigates the real and possible boundaries in cyberspace between open and closed systems of code, of commerce, of governance, and of education, and the relationship of law to each. The Center does this through active rather than passive research, believing that the best way to understand cyberspace is to actually build out into it.

The Center's faculty, fellows, students, and affiliates engage a wide spectrum of Internet issues, ranging from governance to privacy, to intellectual property, to antitrust, to content control, to electronic commerce. Their diverse research interests share a common understanding of the Internet as a social and political space where constraints upon inhabitants are determined not only through the traditional application of law, but, more subtly, through technical architecture ("code").

To learn more about the Berkman Center: http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/

Harvard Children's Initiative (HCI)

The Harvard Children's Initiative (HCI) seeks to focus all of Harvard's resources on an urgent issue: children's ability to grow to healthy, productive adulthood. To this end, HCI fosters collaborations among faculty and students from the many disciplines and fields that need to work together to address the complex challenges facing children today.
HCI also promotes interdisciplinary research, educational endeavors, and community activities related to children's development and well-being.

To learn more about HCI: http://gseweb.harvard.edu/~hci/

The American Association of Publishers (AAP)

The Association of American Publishers (AAP) is the principal trade association of the book publishing industry. AAP members publish hardcover and paperback books in every field -fiction, general non-fiction, poetry, children's literature, textbooks, reference works, Bibles and other religious books, and scientific, medical, technical, professional and scholarly books and journals. They also publish audio and video tapes, computer software, loose-leaf services, electronic products and services including online databases, CD-ROM and a range of educational materials including classroom periodicals, maps, globes, filmstrips, and testing materials.

The members of the AAP serve on committees including:

The AAP School Division Committee on Serving Students with Disabilities
This Committee was formed to facilitate the timely, efficient, and cost-effective production of accessible instructional materials for students with visual disabilities. Members meet with Braille specialists to discuss current technology and formats, and the School Division works with state administrators and legislators and keeps members informed of current state laws and regulations.

The AAP School Division Lawyer's Committee
This committee consists of School Division members' house counsel. Members meet to discuss legal issues relevant to school publishing and distribution, and provide expert advice to the Division when necessary.

To learn more about the AAP: http://www.publishers.org/

Policy, Property & Permissions:A Discussion of Accessible Curriculum Materials

Policy, Property & Permissions:
A Discussion of Accessible Curriculum Materials