Accessible information multi-channel publishing
Try this demonstrator now ! (registered users only).
Guidelines: You can visit the Open Document Format Structure Guidelines to prepare suitable documents with OpenOffice.org
Samples: A set of sample documents are available
This section introduces a publication chain for accessible information. The principle of this chain is to rely on a rich central representation of documents in XML and conversion tools making possible to produce different output formats for different target groups (Braille books, large print books, digital talking books or accessible eBooks, for instance).
The output formats are generated automatically, so that users do not have to be aware of technical details concerning the output format languages. In other terms, it is not necessary to know the HTML language for producing an HTML eBook.
Output formats are generated on demand, so that their production can be customised. This feature presents real benefits for accessibility, because it makes possible to apply specific rules to source documents according the the very specific needs of the reader. For example, one can decide that notes must not be rendered in page footers but at the end of the book. However, this customisation is only possible if source documents contain semantic information rather than layout information.
Another advantage of such a publishing chain is that it is designed to be easily extensible. Adding features for a new input/output format, can be done by just adding the appropriate converter. This converter will not modify the structure of the publication chain, nor the already existing converters.
The following picture shows the general scheme of this production chain.
