[Dtb-talk] Microsoft Add-On Lets Anyone Create Talking Documents (Almost)

[Barry Levine]

Folks, if this has appeared before this, please forgive.
 
--Barry Levine
 
 
 

Microsoft Add-On Lets Anyone Create Talking Documents (Almost) 

By Leonard Klie - Posted May 23, 2008 

Microsoft recently released a plug-in for its popular word processing
program that will make it easier for anyone to convert text documents into a
format
that is accessible for blind and print-disabled individuals. 

The new Save as DAISY XML plug-in, designed for Microsoft Office Word 2007,
Word 2003, and Word XP, will allow users to save text files created in
Microsoft
Word into DAISY XML, which is short for the Digital Accessible Information
SYstem eXtensible Markup Language. DAISY XML tags and maps the text
documents
so they can be converted to eBooks and digital talking books later on.

"A DAISY XML document does require further processing to become an audio
file," explains George Kerscher, secretary general of the DAISY Consortium.
"DAISY
XML simply outlines and maps the text and creates the vocabulary that is
required by the DAISY Player or other devices to act on the file. It maps
the
file from a strictly visual presentation to something that can be
semantically styled."

"The Save as DAISY XML function saves the file in a format so it can be read
by the DAISY Player," notes Al Gilman, chair of the World Wide Web
Consortium's
Accessibility Committee.

Most DAISY XML files need to be run through the DAISY Pipeline, a free
downloadable transformation suite that supports the seamless conversion of
DAISY
XML into DAISY Digital Talking Books (DTB). The DAISY Pipeline gives users
the option to expand the DAISY XML documents to sound files or leave them as
text-only talking books.

However, there are a few DAISY players that can render/play a DAISY XML file
without further processing. They include the gh PLAYER Premium and  the
Victor
Stream from HumanWare. To do this, the player must have internal synthetic
speech generation and must be capable of internally dealing with the DAISY
XML
file, according to Lynn Leith, head of information services and
administrative support at the DAISY Consortium.

But regardless of where the conversion to an audio file takes place,
"synthesized speech is absolutely essential to the process. You couldn't do
any of
this if that kind of technology didn't exist. It depends on [text-to-speech]
for its lifeblood," Gilman says.

Those who will benefit from this technology are the more than 160 million
people worldwide who are blind or visually impaired, as well as the hundreds
of
millions of others with physical, developmental, or learning disabilities.
Of those, about 500,000 currently use DAISY Players, Gerscher estimates.

"This new Save as DAISY XML functionality for Microsoft Word has the
potential to break down barriers for millions of visually impaired
individuals around
the world and enhance the experience for virtually anyone who loves to
read," Chris Capossela, senior vice president of the Information Worker
Product
Management Group at Microsoft, said in a statement.

Gilman agrees. "To the extent that Microsoft Word is the lingua franca of
the office today, being able to dump to the blind-friendly DAISY format will
expose
much more of the ephemeral traffic of real work to access by people with
print disabilities," he said in an email. "Getting this path set up with
tools
is a major technological advance, as was the establishment of the DAISY
format in the first place."

Created through an open-source project involving Microsoft, Sonata Software,
and the DAISY Consortium, the Save as DAISY XML plug-in is available for
free

download
 to users of Microsoft Office.

 

 

Mike L. Marlin, Manager

Braille and Talking Book Library

California State Library

900 N Street, Suite 110

P.O. Box 942837

Sacramento, CA 94237-0001

Email: mmarlin at library.ca.gov

Phone: (916) 651-0812

Toll FREE in CA: 1-800-952-5666

Fax:     (916) 654-1119   

Web site: www.library.ca.gov/services/btbl.html