| ODF 1.1 adds support for sight-impaired users |
Feb. 15, 2007
Members of OASIS, the international standards consortium, this week approved version 1.1 of the Open Document Format (ODF) for Office Applications (OpenDocument) as an OASIS Standard. A key enhancement in OpenDocument 1.1 is support for users who have low or no vision, or who suffer from cognitive impairments.
The standard provides short alternative descriptive text for document elements such as hyperlinks, drawing objects, and image map hot spots. Additionally, it offers lengthy descriptions for the same objects should additional help be needed, an OASIS spokesperson said.
The new version of the standard is the result of collaboration between advocacy groups for the disabled and open source and commercial software vendors, according to OASIS.
"The changes made in version 1.1 mean that OpenDocument now meets and even exceeds the accessibility support provided in other office file formats, as well as that specified by the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines," said Dave Pawson of the U.K.'s Royal National Institute of the Blind (RNIB), in a statement.
"OpenDocument 1.1 is a practical XML format that is readily transformable to the DAISY digital talking book standard for people with print impairments," Pawson continued. "The clear specification of OpenDocument v1.1 will remain usable long after commercial and proprietary formats have been condemned to the dustbin."
Curtis Chong, president of the National Federation of the Blind in Computer Science, added: "We are thrilled with the progress to date. Our views have changed over time. OpenDocument is no longer a thing to be feared, as we once thought. The OASIS process exemplifies what should be done if true accessibility to both a document format and the tools to manipulate it are to be achieved."
In addition to text documents and spreadsheets, OpenDocument defines presentation format.
"Navigating through slide presentations poses particular difficulties for blind users. Often, the keyboard navigation order does not match the visual flow of the slides," explained Don Harbison of IBM, co-chair of the OASIS ODF Adoption Committee. "OpenDocument 1.1 adds a provision for the author to define a logical keyboard navigation order."
Other OpenDocument accessibility features include the preservation of structural semantics imported from other file formats, such as headings in tables, and associations between drawings and their captions.
The new version of OpenDocument is the result of the work by the OASIS OpenDocument Accessibility Subcommittee, which is made up of accessibility experts from IBM, the Institute for Community Inclusion (ICI), RNIB, Sun Microsystems, and others. The subcommittee's recommendations were incorporated into the OpenDocument specification by members of the OASIS OpenDocument Technical Committee, which includes representatives from Adobe Systems, IBM, Intel, Novell, Sun Microsystems, and others.
OASIS (Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards) is a not-for-profit, international consortium that drives the development, convergence, and adoption of e-business standards.
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