The Accessible Portable Item Protocol (APIP) Standard provides assessment programs and question item developers with a data model for standardizing the interchange file format for digital test items. When applied properly, the APIP standard accomplishes two important goals. First, the standard allows digital Tests and Items to be ported across APIP compliant test item banks. Second, it provides a test delivery interface with all the information and resources required to make a Test and an Item accessible for students with a variety of disabilities and special needs. Read the APIP Frequently Asked Questions.
In this version of the APIP Standard the focus is on:
The APIP standard is based on the IMS Question and Test Interoperability (QTI) v2.1 specification. The APIP Standard expands the QTI model into a comprehensive framework that encompasses the requirements for creating accessible tests. The IMS Access For All Personal Needs & Preferences (AfA PNP) v2.0 specification is also adopted as the basis for supplying the user preferences when using an APIP-enabled system. It is these accessibility preferences that are used by an assessment system to tailor, in real-time, the presentation of the question items to fit the accessibility needs of the user.
During recent IMS Quarterly Meetings, some of the suppliers involved in the APIP workgroup, including CTB McGraw-Hill, ETS, and Measured Progress demonstrated early implementations of systems that successfully create, edit, and store APIP Items and Tests. A recording of the demonstration between ETS and Measured Progress is available here:
As other demonstrations of APIP implementations and interoperability are made available, we will link to them from this page.
A conformance certification program and online validation tool have also been developed and deployed. The IMS QTI/APIP Accredited Profile Management Group maintains the QTI and APIP conformance tests. Members, Affiliates and QTI2/APIP Alliance participants have access to the tests in the QTI2/APIP Alliance.
Organizations procuring QTI or APIP products are strongly encouraged to require IMS conformance certification for all such products to ensure the highest levels of interoperability are achieved across the educational community. Products that have achieved conformance certification are listed and updated at imscert.org.
The following document is a primer on conformance and the relationship between QTIv2.1 and APIP. It is highly recommended that this document be read prior to reading the other specifications:
http://www.imsglobal.org/apip/IMSAssessmentPrimerv1p0.html
This version of the document is Candidate Final, meaning the technical solution described in the specification is as definitive as possible in the absence of numerous systems and content that have implemented the specification and achieved official conformance. IMS strongly encourages its members and the community in general to continue/begin developing to the specification now. When a sufficient number of systems have proven the solution works through successful conformance achievement, the Candidate Final specification will be submitted to IMS members for Final approval. IMS expects only minor refinements based on implementation experience during this Candidate Final period.
Revisions to the APIP specification will be posted here on this page.
The APIP Working Group welcomes feedback and advice from the community for the improvement of this proposed standard at the APIP Public Forum.
IMS Accessible Portable Item Protocol Specification - Version 1.0 Candidate Final Specification - HTML
APIP Technical Specification for Access for All PNPv2.0 Features
APIP Technical Specification for QTIv2.1 Features
APIP Best Practice and Implementation Guide
APIP Conformance and Certification
Schema files:
Download the collection of XSDs
Examples:
Coming soon...
Other Specifications Included in APIP:
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