During the past 25 years, digital technologies have steadily altered the culture of the classroom. Surprisingly, the primary resources used in most elementary and secondary classrooms— textbooks and associated materials— continue to be print-based.

Using technology, educators, curriculum developers and advocates for diverse learners are developing new ways to create and deliver curriculum materials. For some students with disabilities—those with visual and/or physical impairments—new mandates for states and districts are included in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004. Beyond addressing the needs of students eligible for this specialized distribution system, states and districts are charged with providing accessible instructional materials to any student receiving special education services who may require them. How can schools prepare for this change?

For teachers, the availability of core materials in different formats will expand their toolbox. Many classroom computers already have talking word processors ranging from freeware products such as ReadPlease 2003 to commercial ones like Write:OutLoud. Most developers of this type of software are already planning to add support for digital talking book file formats. In addition, the availability of HTML-based textbooks is expected to expand, and products like ReadingBar2, SOLO and Mozilla’s Firefox browser have the ability to magnify, speak aloud and translate HTML pages into languages other than English.

Two elements that are encouraging states and curriculum publishers to explore market-based solutions are the U.S. Department of Education, through the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard initiative (which aims to make digital versions of textbooks and other teaching materials available in Braille, text-to-speech and other formats) and the associated expectations that learning materials be made more appropriate for students. States and districts can induce publishers to develop flexible digital materials by giving purchasing preference to publishers that offer these materials for sale alongside print textbooks. Publishers, in turn, are being encouraged to develop flexible, feature-rich digital materials that states and districts will want to buy. This approach frees educators from the costly and redundant task of retrofitting their recently purchased materials, and allows them to recommit that time to the art of teaching.

Skip Stahl has presented at many national conferences.