The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires each state to develop a state performance plan/annual performance report (SPP/APR) that evaluates the state’s efforts to implement the requirements and purposes of the IDEA and describes how the state will improve its implementation.

The SPP/APRs include indicators that measure child and family outcomes and other indicators that measure compliance with the requirements of the IDEA.

A state is required to submit a state performance plan (SPP) at least every six years. Each year, states must report against the targets in its SPP in an annual performance report (APR).

The mission of the Assistive Technology Act Technical Assistance and Training Center (AT3) is to increase access to and acquisition of assistive technologies by individuals with disabilities across the lifespan.

The Assistive Technology Act Training and Technical Assistance Center(AT3/AT3 Center) is a project funded under grant award # 90ATTA0001 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Community Living (ACL). AT3 provides technical assistance and supports to State Assistive Technology (AT) Programs funded under Section 4 of the Assistive Technology Act of 1998, as amended (P.L. 108-364). The AT3 Center is a sponsored project of the Association of Assistive Technology Act Programs (ATAP) The information on this website does not necessarily reflect the position or policy of ACL, and no official endorsement should be inferred.

Some students are challenging due to internal frustration, defensiveness and aggression. This resource provides teachers with appropriate responses.

This online module will provide strategies to manage cooperative and problem-based learning in the classroom

The Teacher’s Guide to Using Literature to Promote Inclusion of People with Disabilities has been designed to assist teachers who wish to use literature to promote inclusion of people with disabilities in all aspects of life. The Guide consists of two parts. Part 1 is a rubric for evaluating how short stories, books, poems, TV programs, movies, digital media, and other forms of literature portray characters with disabilities. Part 2 of the Teacher’s Guide to Using Literature to Promote Inclusion of People with Disabilities is a curriculum guide with learning objectives, lesson activities, and strategies for outcome evaluation. The curriculum guide is a resource for teachers who wish to design lessons using literature to teach about disabilities.

When working with children with developmental disabilities, teachers can accomplish a great deal by managing the learning environment proactively to prevent behavior problems and promote learning. But identified students may also experience behavior or learning problems because they lack key skills (e.g., capacity to interact with other children in socially appropriate ways). Children with developmental disabilities should therefore have explicit skills-training in deficit areas as a central component in their curriculum.

Resources to help educators enhance and enrich their teaching with accessible videos that include captions and/or audio description.

Top ADA Frequently Asked Questions
Below are the 13 questions that are asked most frequently. If you have other questions, please check out our ADA FAQ Knowledge Base.

The theory behind Universal Design for Learning inspires many educators. However, there are some common stumbling blocks teachers face when they start applying UDL to their instructional design. With years of experience implementing UDL in her own work at the University of Kentucky’s Center for the Enhancement of Learning and Teaching and as a CAST National Faculty member, Jennifer Pusateri offers six steps to jumpstart your practice. These easy-to-implement steps can help you meet the needs of the diverse learners in your classrooms.

The UDL Guidelines are a tool used in the implementation of Universal Design for Learning, a framework to improve and optimize teaching and learning for all people based on scientific insights into how humans learn. Learn more about the Universal Design for Learning framework from CAST. The UDL Guidelines can be used by educators, curriculum developers, researchers, parents, and anyone else who wants to implement the UDL framework in a learning environment. These guidelines offer a set of concrete suggestions that can be applied to any discipline or domain to ensure that all learners can access and participate in meaningful, challenging learning opportunities.

This past December, Congress passed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which replaces No Child Left Behind. And for the first time, the nation’s general K-12 education law defines and endorses Universal Design for Learning.

Understanding the VPAT®
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You may come across the Voluntary Product Accessibility Template (VPAT) as you research vendors of digital materials and technologies and consider their products for procurement. The VPAT is meant to help U.S. federal government agencies determine how well the products they purchase meet the Section 508 accessibility standards. Many organizations outside the federal government now require the submission of a VPAT in their procurement process, especially if they receive any kind of federal funding. This includes K-12 schools and institutions of higher education.

Start with general information about the VPAT, then review a sample Accessibility Conformance Report (ACR) similar to one a vendor would submit for your consideration. Each section of the sample ACR (which is just a filled out VPAT) includes comments to help you understand the information you would find in that section of an ACR.

The purpose of Unified Arabic Braille Portal is to present the Arabic Braille table in math and science signs/ symbols, as well as to develop the first eight-dots Arabic computer braille table to take benefit of its multiple features, such as writing or reading a single code in a single cell and supporting some computer signs.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a framework for learning design. It is based on research in the learning sciences that each individual is unique in how they learn, and within that variability are patterns that are systematic and predictable based on three neural networks that govern the learning process in the brain (Meyer et al., 2014). Knowing the sources and ranges of this variability helps learning designers proactively design to address it. UDL reflects a paradigm shift from curriculum-centered classrooms to learner-centered classrooms that allow for flexibility in learning. The goal of UDL is for all students to have access to learning and for all students to have agency as learners.

After a decision-making team has selected the accessible format(s) needed and identified where to acquire them, the team considers what types of supports are needed for a learner to use the accessible materials for school, at home, at work, or in the community.

In order to be successful with using accessible formats, learners will need a number of supports.

This lesson will step you through creating a copy of the Special Education verification form and filling it out.  This will allow you to verify that you are meeting the minutes on student's IEP's.  This will help your Special Education program remain in compliance and provide administrators a shareable document that will allow them to easily see schedules.

A set of questions that can be used to evaluate the accessibility of materials considered for procurement.

This google doc has links to videos and other resources organized by Topic. Many are only a few minutes long, and tightly focused on helping educators solve common assistive technology issues.