David Rose: The Tool Builder

A founding director of the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST), David Rose has not stopped the crusade to create essential learning tools for all students, regardless of their ability. Since Edutopia recognized him in 2004, his expertise has helped determine the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS), which guides the production of digital educational materials so that they can be more easily converted to special formats such as Braille or text-to-speech. Accordingly, CAST is now in charge of two NIMAS research centers.

Rose also coedited two books in the past two years -- The Universally Designed Classroom, and A Practical Reader in Universal Design for Learning -- and has advised members of Congress on CAST's Universal Design for Learning concepts and applications, and the need for more creative solutions to educational challenges. A faculty member at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, he paired this spring with the famed multiple-intelligences pioneer Howard Gardner and their Harvard colleague Kurt Fischer in a class called "Cognitive Development, Education, and the Brain," while his course on "Universal Design for Learning" remains one of the school's most popular.

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Sara Bernard is a former staff writer and multimedia producer for Edutopia.

This article originally published on 5/17/2007