NCTI Thought Partners

NCTI collaborates with many entities to advance an agenda of greater awareness of and deeper utilization of learning and assistive technologies that benefit all students. Some of our key thought partners include:

AbleNet, Inc. is dedicated to making a difference in the lives of people with disabilities by creating products and ideas that make teaching students with disabilities easy, fun, and fulfilling. NCTI serves as an advisor to the AbleNet Research Consortium and co-produced and published the Consumer Guides, decision support tools for school administrators and ed tech vendors.

Assistive Technology Industry Association (ATIA) is a not-for-profit membership organization of manufacturers, sellers and providers of technology-based assistive devices and/or services. NCTI regularly attends and presents at the annual ATIA conference and disseminates information to ATIA members.

CAST and the National Center on Accessible Instructional Materials serve as a resource to state- and district-level educators, parents, publishers, conversion houses, accessible media producers, and others interested in learning more about and implementing AIM and NIMAS. NCTI coordinates awareness and technical assistance on issues related to NIMAS with our thought partners at CAST.

Center for Implementing Technology in Education (CITEd) is a technical assistance center that supports leadership at state and local education agencies to integrate instructional technology for all students to achieve high educational standards. NCTI collaborates with CITEd to understand the classroom and district environments in which innovative technology is implemented.

IDEAL Group is a professional services organization with the mission to drive the design of information and communications technologies (ICT) that are accessible by the greatest number of consumers as technically possible and economically feasible.

Microsoft Accessibility Group the is responsible for all product planning, engineering, regulatory issues, and marketing related to accessibility at Microsoft, provides the guidance and direction needed to make Microsoft products more accessible, and ensures that Microsoft Windows remains an outstanding platform that other companies can use to develop innovative accessible and assistive technologies. NCTI benefits from having Rob Sinclair, Director the Microsoft Accessibility Group, serve on the NCTI Advisory Board, as well as informal sharing on innovation trends and standards development. NCTI serves as a judge for the international Microsoft Imagine Cup competition, Accessibility Strand.

Special Education Assistive Technology (SEAT) Center at Illinois State University focuses on teaching pre-service and practicing professionals the skills they need to meet the technology needs of people with disabilities through instruction that is practical, “hands-on”, and performance-based. NCTI has collaborated with the SEAT Center to inform the technology-based writing tools and research that populates the TechMatrix.

Tech Museum of Innovation hosts the annual Tech Awards, an international awards program that honors innovators from around the world who are applying technology to benefit humanity. NCTI collaborates with The Tech Museum to promote the awards as well as highlight Tech Museum Laureates whose work improves the lives of individuals with disabilities in our series of Innovator Profiles.

WETA Learning Media develops and manages several education web services for parents and teachers nationwide that offer free, research-based resources and teaching tools that benefit millions of children each year. NCTI serves as a technology expert with a monthly Ask the Expert column and a monthly Technology Works Information Brief on the applications of technology-based products. See the WETA sites: AdLit.org; BrainLine.org; ColorinColorado.org; LDOnLine.org; and ReadingRockets.org.

WGBH-National Center for Accessible Media (NCAM) is a research and development facility dedicated to the issues of media and information technology for people with disabilities in their homes, schools, workplaces, and communities. NCTI collaborates with NCAM to further awareness among developers and educators about accessible media developments and applications. Join us at the NCTI-NCAM workshop at the NECC Conference in Washington, DC, June 28, 2009.