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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Atlanta, GA | Posted: October 2, 2014
Lisa Herrmann
Director of Communications
College of Architecture
Summary Sentence:
Georgia Tech among 24 universities to receive grant money from the DoE's First in the World program
Full Summary:
No summary paragraph submitted.
Christopher LeeStudents 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 largely in part to the limited availability of accessible digital instructional materials that students have at their disposal.
As part of the Department of Education's First in the World program, AMAC Accessibility Solutions & Research Center, a part of the College of Architecture, 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. Christopher Lee, director of AMAC, and Julie Ancis, associate vice president for Institute diversity will be the principal investigators.
The center will develop an informational application related to accessibility features of instructional materials and will produce and distribute accessible textbooks and assistive technology. In addition, researchers will examine the causes of under-utilization of accessible textbooks at MSIs and will develop a related Massive Open Online Course (MOOC).
The First in the World program is a new part of President Obama's initiative to drive innovation in higher education. Over 500 proposals were submitted, with 24 institutions being granted funding. For more information on the program, visit http://1.usa.gov/1ov0Qij.
