Rhode Island
State Education Agency Information
Rhode Island Department of Education
Providence, RI 02903
State NIMAS/NIMAC Coordinator
Jayne Rabideau, Northern RI Collaborative
640 George Washington Highway #200
Lincoln, RI 02865
AIM and NIMAS Web Site Resources at State Education Agency
Rhode Island SEA provides some policy and minimal procedure information relating to the NIMAS and some information regarding adoption of the NIMAS and coordination with the NIMAC in 
Regulations of the Rhode Island Board of Regents for Elementary and Secondary Education Governing the Education of Children with Disabilities [PDF].
Instructional Materials Acquisition (adoption or open territory)
Rhode Island is an open territory state with no centralized textbook acquisition. The selection and purchase of textbooks and instructional materials is a local district activity.
SEA Policies and Practices
NIMAC Authorized User(s)
Rhode Island Materials Access Center
Lincoln, RI 02865
Selected Accessible Media Producers (AMPs)
State Definition of Timely Manner for the Delivery of AIM to Students
Rhode Island posts the following information in a regulations document (PDF):
"300.210 Access to and purchase of instructional materials.
(a) General. Each public agency must
(1) Adopt the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS), published as appendix C to part 300, for the purposes of providing instructional materials to blind persons or other persons with print disabilities, in a timely manner; and
(2) Each public agency must ensure that children with disabilities who need instructional materials in accessible formats are provided those materials in a timely manner, and must take all reasonable steps to provide instructional materials in accessible formats to children with disabilities who need those instructional materials at the same time as other children receive instructional materials."
AIM-Related State Laws and Regulations
The same regulations document contains the following information (PDF):
"Each public agency that chooses to coordinate with the NIMAC, as of December 3, 2006, must
(1) As part of any print instructional materials adoption process, procurement contract, or other practice or instrument used for purchase of print instructional materials, must enter into a written contract with the publisher of the print instructional materials to
By agreeing to deliver the materials marked with "NIMAS" on this contract or purchase order, the publisher agrees to prepare and submit, on or before ___/___/_____ a NIMAS fileset to the NIMAC that complies with the terms and procedures set forth by the NIMAC. Should the vendor be a distributor of the materials and not the publisher, the distributor agrees to immediately notify the publisher of its obligation to submit NIMAS filesets of the purchased products to the NIMAC. The files will be used for the production of alternate formats as permitted under the law for students with print disabilities.
This is page __ of __ of this contract or purchase order.
(i) Require the publisher to prepare and, on or before delivery of the print instructional materials, provide to NIMAC electronic files containing the contents of the print instructional materials using the NIMAS; or
(ii) Purchase instructional materials from the publisher that are produced in, or may be rendered in, specialized formats.
(2) Provide instructional materials to blind persons or other persons with print disabilities in a timely manner.
(d) Assistive technology. In carrying out this section, the Public Agency, to the maximum extent possible, must work collaboratively with the SEA assistive technology program(s).
(e) Definitions.
(1) In this section
(i) Blind persons or other persons with print disabilities means children served under this part who may qualify to receive books and other publications produced in specialized formats in accordance with the Act entitled An Act to provide books for adult blind, approved March 3, 1931, 2 U.S.C 135a;
(ii) National Instructional Materials Access Center or NIMAC means the center established pursuant to § 674(e) of the Act;
(iii) National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard or NIMAS has the meaning given the term in § 674(e)(3)(B) of the Act;
(iv) Specialized formats has the meaning given the term in § 674(e)(3)(D) of the Act.
(2) The definitions in paragraph (e)(1) of this section apply to each public agency, whether or not the public agency chooses to coordinate with the NIMAC."
Parent Information & Advocacy Resources
The National Federation of the Blind of RI
Richard Gaffney, President
P.O. Box 154564
Riverside, RI 02915
tel.: (401) 433-2606
tel.: (877) 383-3682
info [at] nfbri [dot] org
The National Federation of the Blind: Parents of Blind Children
Elizabeth Frampton, President
Rhode Island Parents of Blind Children
Cumberland, Rhode Island
tel.: (401) 658-0516
ripbvi01 [at] aol [dot] com
Rhode Island Parent Information Network
1210 Pontiac Avenue
Cranston, Rhode Island 02920
tel.: (401) 270-0101
tel.: (800) 464-3399
fax: (401) 270-7049
info [at] ripin [dot] orghttp://www.ripin.org/
Rhode Island Department of Human Services
600 New London Avenue
Cranston, RI 02920
tel.: (401) 462-5300http://www.dhs.ri.gov/
Office of Rehabilitation Services
40 Fountain Street
Providence, RI 02903
tel.: (401) 421-7005
tdd: (401) 421-7016
espanol: (401) 272-8090http://www.ors.ri.gov/
Rhode Island Department of Human Services
Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired
40 Fountain Street
Providence, Rhode Island 02903-1898
tel.: (401) 277-2382
tel.: (800) 752-8088
Rhode Island Department of Elementary and Secondary Education
Office of Student Community and Academic Supports
J. David Sienko, Director
255 Westminster Street
Providence, Rhode Island 02903
tel.: (401) 222-8987
fax: (401) 222-6030
David [dot] Sienko [at] ride [dot] ri [dot] govhttp://www.ride.ri.gov/OSCAS/Default.aspx
Rhode Island Vision Education and Services Program
Sherlock Center on Disabilities
Rhode Island College
600 Mt. Pleasant Avenue
Providence, RI 02908-1991
tel.: (401) 456-8912
cirwin [at] ric [dot] eduhttp://www.ric.edu/uap
Library Services
Talking Books Plus
1 Capital Hill
Providence, Rhode Island 02908
tel.: (401) 222-5800
Advisor (Assisting the Development of Visually Impaired Students through Online Resources)http://www.e-advisor.us
American Foundation for the Blindhttp://www.afb.org
The American Printing House for the Blind, Inc.
1839 Frankfort Avenue
P.O. Box 6085
Louisville, Kentucky 40206-0085
tel.: (502) 895-2405
tel.: (800) 223-1839 (U.S. and Canada)
fax: (502) 899-2274
info [at] aph [dot] orghttp://www.aph.org
Family Connecthttp://www.familyconnect.org
IN-SIGHT
43 Jefferson Boulevard
Warwick, RI 02888
tel.: (401) 941-3322 http://www.in-sight.org
National Agenda for the Education of Children and Youths with Visual Impairments, Including Those with Multiple Disabilitieshttp://tsbvi.edu/agenda/
National Family Association for Deaf-Blind
141 Middle Neck Road
Sands Point, NY 11050
tel.: (800) 255-0411
fax: (516) 883-9060http://www.nfadb.org
SEA Web Links
Blind/Visually Impaired Education Services: http://www.ode.state.or.us/search/page/?id=796
Oregon Technology Access Program (OTAP): http://www.otap-oregon.org/Pages/Default.aspx