Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Get Started
  3. AEM Center Resources
  4. Learning Series
  5. Module 5: Providing Accessible Formats for PreK-12 Learners

Module 5: Providing Accessible Formats for PreK-12 Learners

Share:

Visit the AEM Center's Online Learning Series.

Understanding accessible formats requires some background knowledge of the barriers many learners with disabilities experience when reading or accessing information in text-based materials. Once a team determines that a student needs materials in one or more accessible formats, steps are taken to select the appropriate format(s) and identify the sources of those materials.

This module is composed of a recorded webinar and up to four hours of additional activities. Each level has a time commitment of approximately one hour. Choose how many levels you complete by the amount of time you want to spend developing your skills.

Begin by watching this one-hour webinar, which explains:

  • The meaning of accessible formats of materials
  • The process for determining a student’s need for accessible formats
  • Navigating sources of accessible formats

Digital Handout (AEM Navigator)

Webinar Slides (PowerPoint)

Level 1: Start

Goal: Explain the importance of providing accessible formats for students who need them.
Time Commitment: 2 hours (including the one-hour webinar)

Build Understanding

Reflect & Take Action

Explain the importance of providing accessible formats and share that with a colleague who is new to the topic. In your explanation, include:

  1. An example of a barrier that some students experience when using text-based materials.
  2. A description of how one or more accessible formats might remove that barrier.

Level 2: Reach

Goal: Describe the characteristics of a student who needs accessible formats of instructional materials. 
Time Commitment: 3 hours (including the one-hour webinar and the Level 1 activities)

Build Understanding

Reflect & Take Action

Describe to a colleague the characteristics of a student who needs accessible formats. In your description, include:

  1. Specific evidence of the difficulty the student experiences when reading or accessing some or all text-based materials used in the curriculum. 
  2. Your rationale for determining the student will make adequate progress if exactly the same information is presented in one or more accessible formats, as opposed to the need for a modified curriculum.

Level 3: Stretch

Goal: Demonstrate the process for selecting and acquiring accessible formats for students who need them. 
Time Commitment: 4 hours (including the one-hour webinar and the Level 1 & Level 2 activities)

Build Understanding

Reflect & Take Action 

For the student you described in the Level 2 activity:

  1. Select an accessible format needed for an instructional material used in the curriculum or content area of your choice (e.g., social studies, science, mathematics, English language arts). 
  2. Identify a source for the accessible format of the material selected.
Top of Page