[kids-lib] Audio Options of Print Resources for Students on 504 and IEP Plans

Fri Sep 27 15:42:28 PDT 2013

I posted the below email on the OASL listserv. The information may be of interest to children’s librarians.

FYI,
Jen

Jennifer Maurer
School Library Consultant
Oregon State Library
250 Winter Street NE
Salem, OR 97301
503.378.5011
jennifer.maurer at state.or.us<mailto:jennifer.maurer at state.or.us>

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From: oasl-all at memberclicks.net [mailto:oasl-all at memberclicks.net] On Behalf Of Jennifer Maurer
Sent: Friday, September 27, 2013 3:33 PM
To: Jennifer Maurer
Subject: [oasl-all] Audio Options of Print Resources for Students on 504 and IEP Plans

I recently received basically the same question from two different school librarians. They asked about sources for audiobooks or audio options of print resources for students on IEP and 504 plans. After doing some research, I shared the following.
But before we get started, here’s a random nugget: November is Picture Book Month. “Every day in November, there is a new post from a picture book champion explaining why he/she thinks picture books are important.”
            http://picturebookmonth.com/
And now back to our regularly scheduled email…
TBABS
Many IEP or 504 plan students qualify for Talking Book and Braille Services, a service based out of the State Library and which is free to the user. Qualifying patrons receive an audio player and access to downloadable or physical audiobooks. Note that textbooks are not part of the TBABS library. Elke Bruton is the TBABS outreach librarian. If you still have questions after viewing the TBABS website, Elke will be able to answer them.

http://www.oregon.gov/OSL/TBABS/pages/index.aspx
elke.bruton at state.or.us<mailto:elke.bruton at state.or.us>
            503.378.5455

Who is eligible for the service? The legally blind, visually disabled, physically disabled, deaf-blind, and reading disabled all qualify. Note that for reading disability only, the application must be signed (certified) by a doctor of medicine (MD) or osteopathy (DO). For all other qualifying conditions, you or the teacher could sign off on the application. That being said, if you’re unsure about whether or not a student would qualify, call or email Elke. Sometimes she/TBABS recognizes a qualification that we would miss.

http://www.oregon.gov/osl/TBABS/Pages/registration.aspx

Here’s info about BARD, the portion of the TBABS collection that can be downloaded straight to a mobile device or onto a flashdrive to use in the TBABS player.
http://www.oregon.gov/OSL/TBABS/Pages/bard_info.aspx

ODE-Adopted Materials and NIMAC
Per Melissa Glover with the Oregon Department of Education, all publishers whose instructional materials are adopted in Oregon must provide alternate accessible formats. The publishers do this through the National Instructional Materials Access Center, although some publishers also post files on their own websites. NIMAC is a “national electronic file repository that makes National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS) files available for the production of core print instructional materials in specialized formats. Created under IDEA 2004, the NIMAC receives source files in NIMAS format from textbook publishers, and makes these files available for download to Authorized Users (AU) in the United States and its territories through an online database.” While districts can have a designated NIMAC authorized user, there are also other ways to access NIMAC files. For example, Bookshare and Learning Ally offer access to NIMAC files.

            http://www.nimac.us/

Melissa Glover
Education Specialist, Oregon Department of Education
melissa.glover at state.or.us<mailto:melissa.glover at state.or.us>
            503.947.5811
Accessible Instructional Materials: http://www.ode.state.or.us/search/page/?id=1827

Bookshare
Bookshare bills itself as “an accessible online library for people with print disabilities” and claims to have over 200,000 titles. If offers both literature and instructional materials. On the How Bookshare Works page, it indicates that “through an award from the U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), Bookshare offers free memberships to U.S. schools and qualifying U.S. students.” Per Melissa Glover, any student with an IEP or 504 plan qualifies for Bookshare. To learn about audio options for Bookshare books, review the section called Reading Tools found under Getting Started. Learning Ally is another company with a similar mission, but best I can tell, it costs money for students to participate.

            https://www.bookshare.org/
            https://www.bookshare.org/_/aboutUs/howBookshareWorks
            https://www.bookshare.org/readingTools
            https://www.learningally.org/educators/

Audiobook Vendors
Vendors like Audible, Overdrive, and 3M  offer a large selection of audiobooks from a variety of publishers. Also, there are options from standards like EBSCO, Follett, Mackin, etc. It looks like Audible may not have a K-12 program? Overdrive and 3M are more known for eBooks, but their sites indicate that they have audiobooks, too. Plus, maybe eBooks can be listened to via Kindles, etc. (read-to-me features). If your school or district (special ed department?) won’t pay for this kind of access, you could see if your public library subscribes. For example, many belong to Library2Go, which is an Oregon public library consortium that contracts with Overdrive. Students or teachers with library cards could download audiobooks from Library2Go. It is not ideal to have to rely on an outside source, but it could help in a pinch.
            http://www.audible.com/                                                       http://www.flr.follett.com/intro/av.html
            http://www.overdrive.com/education/k-12-schools/             http://www.mackin.com/SITE/AUDIO_BOOKS.aspx
            http://bit.ly/15bXPiF                                                               http://www.ebscohost.com/ebooks/schools/subscriptions

Gale Databases
When you need informational text, remember that all articles found in the Gale databases, part of the statewide database package, can be listened to, and the audio files can be downloaded. It’s machine-read audio, but it’s pretty good. Click on this article (http://tinygaleurl.com?eit66lk) and click on Listen (towards the top left). If you are prompted to log in, try your school district’s Gale login. If there is only one textbox, usually you just enter the password portion of the login. Once you click on Listen, a small box will pop up, and in that is the download link. Depending on the database, the Listen feature is in different places towards the top of the page. An audio feature is likely available in periodicals and reference databases from other vendors, too.

FYI,
Jen

P.S. Please note that my mention of specific vendors is meant to serve as examples and is not an endorsement.

Jennifer Maurer
School Library Consultant
Oregon State Library
250 Winter Street NE
Salem, OR 97301
503.378.5011
jennifer.maurer at state.or.us<mailto:jennifer.maurer at state.or.us>

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