• Introduction• State of the art & related work• odt2braille approach• odt2braille architecture• Accessibility checker• Future work

OVERVIEW

Jan Engelen

odt2braille brings Braille to your Office

• Braille production = expensive, time-consuming• Typical workflow = multi-stage process

– scanning, OCR– verify, edit– add markup– Braille formatting & translation

• Separate tools for each task, duplication of documents, synchronization issues, ...

INTRODUCTION

Jan Engelen

odt2braille brings Braille to your Office

INTRODUCTION

Jan Engelen

odt2braille brings Braille to your Office

• Need to:– reduce cost of Braille production– provide open translation systems– make Braille production more open, available and

straightforward for individuals

INTRODUCTION

Jan Engelen

odt2braille brings Braille to your Office

RELATED WORK

Jan Engelen

• AutoBraille/NorBraille• DAISY XML Braille• Norway, Denmark, Iceland

• BrailleBlaster• DAISY XML / HTML / DOC / PDF Braille• open-source, multi-platform, fully accessible application

• Dotify• open-source translation system for Java• define components for sharing between implementations• establish more modular approach to Braille translation• (17h00 @ room HS 8)

odt2braille brings Braille to your Office

APPROACH

Jan Engelen

odt2braille brings Braille to your Office

• Open Document Format (ODF) as master format– more common and more general-purpose than DAISY– widespread, well-established– many authoring applications– truly accessible (cfr. accessibility tools)– automatic conversion to Braille, DAISY (odt2daisy), Bliss

(Concept Coded Framework), large print, etc.

APPROACH

Jan Engelen

odt2braille brings Braille to your Office

• Free and open-source– http://odt2braille.sourceforge.net– OpenOffice.org / LibreOffice extension

APPROACH

Jan Engelen

odt2braille brings Braille to your Office

• Smooth integration in a major office suite– not mimicking word-processing features– integrated in existing mainstream word-processor– flat learning curve (experienced in Braille or not)– all functionality embedded in authoring environment– greatly simplifies Braille production workflow

APPROACH

Jan Engelen

odt2braille brings Braille to your Office

• Separation of content and style– 1 content, multiple forms– provide different presentations on an on-demand basis

using stylesheets• Ink-printing: rich layout (for sighted users)• Braille: basic Braille layout• DAISY• ...

– Braille stylesheet is stored with content and other stylesheets in the ODT file

APPROACH

Jan Engelen

odt2braille brings Braille to your Office

• Large scope and flexibility– ambitious: targets all of Europe (& whole world)– broad range of Braille alphabets, rules & conventions– flexible

• impressive number of languages• high degree of layout customisation• suitable for professionals

– understandable & user-friendly• transcribe according to existing Braille formatting guidelines,

requiring minimum of user interaction

APPROACH

Jan Engelen

odt2braille brings Braille to your Office

ARCHITECTURE

Jan Engelen

odt2braille brings Braille to your Office

• Preproccesor– transform original content/stylesheets to alternative

representation that is suitable as input for Braille formatter• Formatter

– produce Braille file in PEF-format– Liblouisxml/Liblouis

• PEF processor– convert PEF to other file formats– print on a Braille embosser– Braille Utils

ARCHITECTURE

Jan Engelen

odt2braille brings Braille to your Office

• Liblouisxml– open-source library for Braille transcription of XML– on top of Liblouis: open-source Braille translation and

hyphenation engine

ARCHITECTURE

Jan Engelen

odt2braille brings Braille to your Office

• Braille Utils– cross-platform API for embossing and converting Braille– Portable Embosser Format (PEF)

• accurate & unambiguous• structure: markup (XML) ↔ control characters• content: locale-independent Unicode Braille ↔ ASCII• PDF of Braille

– embossers: Index Braille, Braillo, Interpoint, ViewPlus, CIDAT, Enabling Technologies, Mountbatten

ARCHITECTURE

Jan Engelen

odt2braille brings Braille to your Office

• Valid & usable Braille < accessible source document• OpenOffice.org / LibreOffice extension• Make checking accessibility as straightforward as

checking spelling– errors & warnings– repair suggestions– (semi-)automatic repair functions

ACCESSIBILITY CHECKER

Jan Engelen

odt2braille brings Braille to your Office

odt2braille brings Braille to your Office

• More extensive embosser support• More accurate Braille translations• Availability on more platforms (i.e. Mac OS)

FUTURE WORK

Jan Engelen