NIMAC

About NIMAC

The Cape Cod Collaborative has been designated as a NIMAC (National Instructional Materials Access Center) authorized user for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. NIMAC receives and maintains a catalog of print instructional materials, including textbooks, in accessible media.  These are provided, free of charge, to blind or other persons with print disabilities in elementary schools and secondary schools.  Anyone can search the NIMAC repository for texts or other print materials; however, only an authorized user is able to download materials.

For more information, to have a text book or other print materials submitted to NIMAC, or to get materials to use with students, contact the Cape Cod Collaborative at 508-420-6950.

How to access NIMAC materials

For the purposes of NIMAC, print disabilities include visual impairments and blindness, reading disabilities, and physical impairments that make it difficult or impossible to read printed books. “Print instructional materials” means printed textbooks and related printed core materials that are written and published primarily for use in elementary school and secondary school instruction.

Each school district is responsible for completing a Proof of Disability Form for each student who will be using the NIMAC materials.  This must be signed by a qualified professional in the field of disabilities services, education, medicine or psychology. This professional must be a recognized expert who attests to the physical asis of the visual, perceptual, or other physical disability that limits the applicant’s use of standard print.

Under the Copyright Act, a person with a disability is:

  • a person without sight; or
  • a person whose sight is severely impaired; or
  • a person unable to hold or manipulate books or to focus or move his or her eyes; or
  • a person with a perceptual disability.