The Department of Education has endorsed the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS). NIMAS is voluntary standard that serves as a guide in the production and electronic distribution of instructional materials. NIMAS facilitates the conversion of information to Braille, text-to-speech, and other accessible formats. NIMAS was developed by Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST), a not-for-profit education research and development organization through federal funding from the National Center for Accessing the General Curriculum (NCAC). The goal of NIMAS is to enable students with disabilities to participate in the general curriculum as mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).