[Promotion-technology] Fw: Microsoft Word files to serve as talking books

[Robert Jaquiss]

Hello Colleagues:

     I thought this might be of interest.

Regards,

Robert

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "BlindNews Mailing List" <BlindNews at GeoffAndWen.com>
To: <BlindNews at FreeLists.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 13, 2007 6:48 AM
Subject: Microsoft Word files to serve as talking books


> CNET News
> Tuesday, November 13, 2007
>
> Microsoft Word files to serve as talking books
>
> By Elsa Wenzel
>
> Microsoft and open-source site SourceForge http://www.sourceforge.net/ 
> will offer a free plug-in early next year that will convert Office 2007 
> files to the DAISY format that translates text to speech.
>
> The free tool will add a "Save as DAISY" option within Word 2007, 2003 and 
> XP software. DAISY XML files can be read aloud by speech synthesizers, 
> paired with audio narration and used to create electronic Braille. Users 
> can navigate open-standard DAISY documents quickly by jumping between page 
> elements, such as headers and indexes.
>
> The DAISY Consortium of 70 nonprofits has aimed since 1996 to make all 
> published information available to people with visual impairments and 
> learning disabilities. The acronym stands for Digital Accessible 
> Information System.
>
> http://www.daisy.org/
>
> Digital narration serves computer users with visual impairments, people 
> with learning challenges like dyslexia, as well as those with Parkinsons 
> disease and other conditions that make it hard to type or hold a book.
>
> With the release of the Office 2007 suite in January, Microsoft shunned 
> the popular, XML-based Open Document Format for its own, new Open XML 
> format. The OOXML documents, which include Word files with the DOCX 
> extension, are easier to retrieve if corrupted than the older DOC files.
>
> Versions of Word prior to 2007 can open OOXML documents after a one-time 
> download of a free converter from Microsoft. However, critics gripe that 
> Microsoft's format change was unnecessary and clumsy. Microsoft maintains 
> that the new format enables greater flexibility, such as accessibility 
> features.
>
>
> http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9815836-7.html?tag=nefd.blgs
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