Robert Martinengo, CAMI Project Director, Georgia Institute of Technology
Disability Area: Topic Area:
Length of Session (in hours): 1-hr
Format: Lecture
Expertise Level: All Levels
Type of session: Not provided
Summary of Session
AMAC Accessibility Solutions & Research Center was awarded $3.8 million over four years to create the Center for Accessible Materials Innovation. This center will expand access to accessible digital content for students with disabilities, thereby improving retention and graduation rates.
Abstract
Students with disabilities comprise 11 percent of all undergraduate students and yet only 34.8 percent of them will complete college, versus 51.2 percent of the general student population. This is due in part to the limited availability of accessible instructional materials. As part of the Department of Education's First in the World program, AMAC Accessibility Solutions & Research Center was recently awarded $3.8 million over four years to create the Center for Accessible Materials Innovation. This center, which will target students at minority serving institutions (MSIs), will expand access to digital content for students with disabilities, thereby improving their retention and graduation rates. The center will develop an informational application related to accessibility features of instructional materials and will produce and distribute accessible textbooks and assistive technology.
Keypoints
Learn about an innovative project to improve the accessibility of instructional materials by creating a ‘digital accessibility label’ system.
Learn how the market for textbooks is becoming more accessible, and how you can contribute to the process.
Learn about research to address underutilization of accessible materials at minority-serving institutions.
Speaker Bio(s)
Robert Martinengo
Robert Martinengo is the Project Director for the Center for Accessible Materials Innovation (CAMI). . CAMI is a First in the World grant funded project to improve academic success for post-secondary students with print related disabilities Robert has been making instructional materials accessible to students with disabilities for 20 years. At Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (now Learning Ally), Robert was the Studio Director in Los Angeles, California when RFB&D developed digital production and distribution systems. Robert was the Supervisor of the Alternate Text Production Center of the California Community Colleges, where he instituted the first publisher file request system. Robert has written for Accessible Content Magazine, consulted for the Maryland Department of Disabilities, and given presentations on accessibility to the Association of American Publishers, the World Bank, the Text and Academic Author Association, and others.
