Making good on last year’s announcement, Microsoft, Sonata Software, and the Digital Accessible Information Systems Consortium (DAISY) have launched the free "Save as DAISY XML" add-on for Microsoft Word 2007, 2003, and Word XP. The converter enables users to save Open XML documents as DAISY XML, a format that that makes text documents more accessible to blind or visually-impaired individuals, or users with various print disabilities.
DAISY has also released a new version of DAISY Pipeline, a free tool that converts between DAISY XML and DAISY Digital Talking Book (DTB) format.
"This new ‘Save as DAISY XML’ functionality for Microsoft Word has the potential to break down barriers for millions of visually impaired individuals around the world and enhance the experience for virtually anyone who loves to read," said senior VP of Microsoft’s Information Worker Product Management Group Chris Capossela, in a statement. "This tool will make it easier for anyone—from a child writing to his or her grandparent, to a government agency providing vital information to its citizens—to create accessible content."
Estimates from the World Health Organization and other groups put the number of people in the world who are blind or who have significant visual impairments at around 160 million; typical paper- and screen-based media is inaccessible to most of these individuals, as well as people with print disabilities or reading impairments. The hope is that tools like the Daisy Pipeline and the Save as Daily XML add-on will enable individuals and organizations to more easily create and convert content that can be meaningfully accessed by those who need it.
