[Athen] The Thoughts of Chairman Bill

Daryl Murphy dmurphy at collegeofthedesert.edu
Mon Nov 19 14:07:16 PST 2007


The one thing I see and hear from people that are hoping for the holy
grail, is to bash Microsoft, even before they release a product or
add-in. If you seen some of the great things that Microsoft has done
for our population in Windows Vista (under "Ease of Access", which is
free with Vista) and the improvements in Office 2007, you might say
"Thanks Microsoft". With the Speech Recognition in Vista, Microsoft has
saved us thousands of dollars. Why don't we give both the Daisy
Consortium and Microsoft a chance to see the final product (that is free
with Word). After twenty years working with what we had back then and
what we have now, I say Thank you to all the Vendors and Software
Developers that have made our job easier.

-----Original Message-----
From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org] On
Behalf Of Robert Martinengo
Sent: Monday, November 19, 2007 01:45
To: Access Technologists in Higher Education Network
Subject: Re: [Athen] The Thoughts of Chairman Bill

Jim,

You may be right, and I am always hoping to be pleasantly surprised.

Thanks,
Bob

On Nov 19, 2007 4:13 PM, Marks, Jim <marks at mso.umt.edu> wrote:

> Thanks, Bob. If I'm understanding you correctly, you are saying that

> the MS Word save as Daisy plug-in will not necessarily result in

> readable files, and that you want Daisy to aim for the integration of

> its functions in mainstream publishing so that readability can be

> delivered completely. Both of these sound great by me. Only place

> where I would disagree is that we have to be pragmatic and move

towards

> the ultimate goals as best we can. I think the save as Daisy plug-in

is

> a pretty nifty thing in terms of evidence of our progress. For sure,

we

> have yet to arrive, but we just passed an important landmark just the

> same.

>

>

>

>

> Jim Marks

> Director of Disability Services

> University of Montana

> jim.marks at umontana.edu

> http://www.umt.edu/dss/

>

> -----Original Message-----

> From: athen-bounces at athenpro.org [mailto:athen-bounces at athenpro.org]

On

> Behalf Of Robert Martinengo

> Sent: Monday, November 19, 2007 12:10 PM

> To: Access Technologists in Higher Education Network

> Subject: Re: [Athen] The Thoughts of Chairman Bill

>

> Jim,

>

> So glad you asked that question - I'll try and keep the answer below

> novella length.

>

> DAISY is just a set of XML tags, plus a method for synchronizing audio

> to text (SMIL). When combined with a play-back mechanism, you have an

> accessible system that can do a lot of nice things for the user, just

> like Kurzweil is a nice system, one which is closed, instead of open

> like DAISY.

>

> Gates is saying that the important thing is to bring the functionality

> DAISY allows into mainstream publishing formats, something which

George

> Kerscher and others have been working on with the IDPF with real

success

> (see

> http://idpf.org/2007/ops/OPS_2.0_final_spec.html#Section2.4 ). But

'save

> as DAISY' puts the emphasis on DAISY as 'a thing of itself', something

> Gates does not see as 'creating the right dynamic', and I tend to

agree.

> The dynamic is, disabled people need a special format.

>

> Publishers are not against accessibility per se, they just don't want

it

> to open security holes or lose money. Publishers, and booksellers, are

> perfectly happy to sell accessible media, as long as it goes through

the

> same channels as other media (see the RNIB's innovative work in this

> regard,

> http://www.pls.org.uk/ngen_public/article.asp?aid=338 )

>

> Now, for those who may think I'm down on DAISY, take a look at a post

> from four years ago, where I proposed to do essentially the same thing

> as the plug-in (

> http://htclistserv.htctu.fhda.edu/read/messages?id=15467 ). The

project

> didn't get funded, but the idea has been out there for years (I think

> the DAISY Consortium's approach to educational content has often been

> inspired by pioneers like Sam Ogami and Gaeir from the High-Tech

> Center).

>

> So, if the Consortium leadership wants to push DAISY as a brand, they

> should focus on the functionality of all digital media. 'DAISY Ok'

> could be a 508-like certification of functional requirements, not

> adherence to a particular tag set. As folks have already pointed out,

a

> crappy Word file can be converted into a crappy DAISY file - technical

> compliance is not the goal - usability is.

>

> _______________________________________________

> Athen mailing list

> Athen at athenpro.org

> http://athenpro.org/mailman/listinfo/athen_athenpro.org

>


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