Oliver Bell’s weblog

Cast your mind back to last November and you may remember Microsoft committing to working with the Digital Accessible Information SYstem (DAISY) Consortium to produce a translator to their DAISY XML file format (translating WordprocessingML to Daisy DTBooks format), this allows anybody with OpenXML files to convert them for use with a wide array of assistive technologies.

I’m pleased to say that as of today the translator is available, and will run either in the shell in Windows (right click to translate, just like the ODF translator) or will integrate well with Microsoft Office.

From the Microsoft press release;

Microsoft Corp. today joined with industry and advocacy group leaders worldwide to launch new software that will make it easier for anyone to create documents and content that will be accessible for blind and print-disabled individuals. The new “Save as DAISY XML” add-in, designed for Microsoft Office Word 2007, Word 2003 and Word XP, will allow users to save Open XML-based text files into DAISY XML, the foundation of the globally accepted DAISY standard for reading and publishing navigable multimedia content (www.daisy.org).

It is also worth noting that the code for the translator is up on SourceForge if anybody wants to go take a look for themselves, again from the press release; 

The “Save as DAISY XML” add-in was created through an open source project with Microsoft, Sonata Software Ltd. and the Digital Accessible Information SYstem (DAISY) Consortium and can be downloaded by Microsoft Office Word users for free at http://www.openxmlcommunity.org/daisy.

The open source nature of the Open XML to DAISY XML translation project enables technologists to utilize the source code and other resources for their own applications. As Open XML adoption continues to expand across the software industry for use on various platforms, including Linux, Windows, Mac OS and the Palm OS, solution providers interested in creating their own Open XML to DAISY XML translators can reference information available through the SourceForge open source project site at http://sourceforge.net/projects/openxml-daisy.

You might have caught a story in the press today about a translator project that Microsoft and the Digital Accessible Information SYstem (DAISY) Consortium are establishing on SourceForge that will provide both some new functionality in Microsoft Office along with an offline capability to convert Open XML files into DAISY format for use with a range of accessible technologies.

Here is a link to one of the stories from this morning from eWeek, the quote below is from Reed Shaffner, the Program Manager in the Office group who has been working on this from the Microsoft side;

The project is being hosted on SourceForge, with the first beta code expected by early next year and release by March 2008, Shaffner said, noting that the plug-in will work with all Word documents created with Office XP, Office 2003 and the current Office 2007.

“Essentially what will happen is that the plug-in will convert an Open XML file to an intermediate Daisy XML file in the Talk Book format. Customers can then use one of many tools, which are already available, to create a bunch of different accessible outputs, be it Braille or a really rich audio file that allows them to navigate by heading or page number and navigate tables with much more detail than they would typically be able to,” he said.

George Kerscher, secretary general of the DAISY Consortium, explains the DAISY translator plug-in project this way:

“Microsoft’s announcement is monumental in greatly facilitating the availability of text in DAISY books. It provides a clear, production path for organizations and universities who will be able to use the Microsoft plug-in to move into DAISY XML. Putting tools in the hands of people who create content is a giant step toward creating equal access to information … It’s going to move DAISY … from the niche of the libraries for the blind community into the mainstream.”

This project provides both a capability to convert Open XML based documents to the intermediate DAISY format, but will also deliver an open source based reference implementation that any other developer can use when building their own similar translators.