[real-eyes] Microsoft Word files to serve as talking books
- From: "Andrea Breier" <abreier@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: <real-eyes@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 8 Dec 2007 07:48:22 -0600
: > 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
> BlindNews Mailing List
>
Happy Holidays,
Andrea M. Breier
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