[bksvol-discuss] Article: XML Levels Educational Playing Field for Blind &Visually Impaired

"Shelley L. Rhodes" <juddysbuddy@xxxxxxxxxxxx> · Wed, 9 Feb 2005 13:48:32 -0500

This may be a tool we can use to persuade publishers with.

Business Wire
Tuesday, February 08, 2005

XML Levels Educational Playing Field for Blind & Visually Impaired

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 8, 2005-- Visually Impaired Students No 
Longer Have to Wait Six Months or Longer for Accessible Textbooks, Thanks to 
XML and Data Conversion Laboratory

For the blind and visually impaired new technology has opened doors to 
education. They can listen to a textbook on a computer or read using 
refreshable braille. Yet students with print disabilities needed to wait six 
months or longer for an accessible textbook to be made available.

This will change with the reauthorization of the Individuals with 
Disabilities Educational Act (IDEA). The act, signed December 3 by President 
Bush, gives students with print disabilities equal access to educational 
materials as their sighted peers.

Key to the act is requiring a standard file format for each textbook. This 
makes conversion into accessible formats such as braille, large print or 
digital text much faster.

"An historic milestone," says Mark Gross, president of Data Conversion 
Laboratory (DCL), a New York-based technology firm and a supporter of the 
new standard. "Like Eli Whitney's invention of interchangeable parts leading 
to the industrial revolution, an accepted standard will revolutionize 
document preparation for the blind and visually impaired."

Digital Talking Book

Based on an ANSI NISO standard, the text portions are called Digital Talking 
Book (DTBook), an XML standard coordinated by the DAISY Consortium and the 
Library of Congress.

"Publishers can help libraries serving persons with disabilities by 
providing XML files in DTBook or other XML vocabularies that can be 
transformed to this standard," says George Kerscher, secretary general for 
the DAISY Consortium.

Data Conversion Laboratory now provides conversion to DTBook, as part of its 
"Books2Bytes" service (www.books2bytes.com).

"The new service allows authorized organizations to easily produce materials 
without capital investment and without long term commitments" says Gross.

FURTHER INFORMATION

DATA CONVERSION LABORATORY, INC. (http://www.dclab.com)

DCL has over 20 years experience in document conversion, wrote the data 
conversion chapter in the "Columbia Guide to Digital Publishing", and has 
clients in the publishing, library, aerospace, pharmaceutical, defense, and 
software industries.

BOOKS2BYTES SERVICE

http://www.books2bytes.com

DAISY CONSORTIUM (http://www.daisy.org/)

The DAISY Consortium was formed in May, 1996 by talking book libraries to 
lead the worldwide transition to Digital Talking Books. DAISY denotes the 
Digital Accessible Information System.

Contacts

Data Conversion Laboratory, Inc.
Shavy Schwimmer, 718-307-5767
sschwimmer@xxxxxxxxx

http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20050208005505&newsLang=en

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