[Athen] FW: Microsoft Word files to serve as talking books

[Kelmer, Susan M.]

Anyone know anything about this and whether it will actually work?  Or
is this pie in the sky...
 


>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.