AEM refers to print educational materials that have been transformed into the specialized formats of braille, large print, audio, and digital text.
Braille is a tactile system of reading and writing made up of raised dot patterns for letters, numbers, and punctuation marks. This format is used almost exclusively by people with visual impairments. Braille may be either embossed (a permanent printed document) or refreshable (electronically generated and accessed via a braille display device). Note: Oklahoma schools began the transition from English Braille American Edition (EBAE) to Unified English Braille (UEB) in 2016. Read the Oklahoma UEB Transition Plan approved by OSDE PDF or Word version.
Large print is generally defined as print that is larger than the print sizes commonly used by the general population (8 to 12 points in size). Some use a guideline for defining large print as 18 point or larger. A document rendered in large print format usually has more white space and may or may not look like the original document but contains the same information. Large print may be printed on pages that are the same size as a standard textbook page or on pages of a larger size.
Audio refers to sound files, which include navigation and other accessibility features. Audio format may consist of recorded human voice or synthesized speech.
Digital is an electronic format that can be delivered via a computer or another device. Digital text can be easily transformed in many different ways depending upon student needs and the technology being used to display the content. To accommodate the needs and preferences of a user, various features can be manipulated such as size, fonts, colors, contrast, highlighting, and text-to-speech. The digital text format may contain both audio and visual output depending upon the way the content is developed and the technology that is being used.
