Boston, MA, USA; 13 February 2007 --
OASIS, the international standards consortium, today announced that
its members have approved version 1.1 of the Open Document Format for
Office Applications (OpenDocument) as an OASIS Standard, a status
that signifies the highest level of ratification. The result of a
unique collaboration between advocacy groups for the disabled and
open source and commercial software vendors, this new version of the
standard provides key accessibility enhancements to ensure that the
OpenDocument format (ODF) addresses the needs of people with
disabilities.
Dave Pawson of the U.K.'s Royal
National Institute of the Blind (RNIB) said, "OpenDocument 1.1
is a practical XML format that is readily transformable to the DAISY
digital talking book standard for people with print impairments. The
clear specification of OpenDocument v1.1 will remain usable long
after commercial and proprietary formats have been condemned to the
dustbin."
OpenDocument 1.1 supports users who
have low or no vision or who suffer from cognitive impairments. The
standard not only provides short alternative descriptive text for
document elements such as hyperlinks, drawing objects and image map
hot spots, it also offers lengthy descriptions for the same objects
should additional help be needed.
"We are thrilled with the progress
to date," said Curtis Chong, president of the National
Federation of the Blind in Computer Science. "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
reflects the work of 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.
"On behalf of our Committee, I
would like to especially thank the RNIB, the ICI, and the other
organizations and individuals who helped us analyze the OpenDocument
specification, identify deficiencies, and develop enhancements for
improving its accessibility," said Michael Brauer of Sun
Microsystems, chair of the OASIS OpenDocument Technical Committee.
"Version 1.1 is an important
milestone in the evolution of the OpenDocument OASIS Standard,"
said Erwin Tenhumberg of Sun Microsystems, co-chair of the OASIS ODF
Adoption Committee. "This release clears up several issues that
the OASIS Accessibility Subcommittee and the community had identified
early on. Version 1.1 addresses the features required by today's
document-centric applications while taking document formats to a
completely new level."
Participation in the OASIS OpenDocument
Technical Committee, Accessibility Subcommittee, and ODF Adoption
Committee remains open to all. OASIS hosts OpenDocument XML.org
(http://opendocument.xml.org), a community-driven web site on the
standard.
Support for OpenDocument 1.1
IBM
"We've enjoyed positive feedback
from the technical and disabled community about many aspects of ODF
1.1, but one underlying, enabling technology in particular has
generated some excitement. I'm referring to IAccessible2, software
interfaces that are now an open standard managed by the Linux
Foundation, and which dramatically extend Microsoft Active
Accessibility. IBM and many others were privileged to participate in
the project, which enables assistive technology to work in a more
granular way with ODF applications and many other environments."
- Richard Schwerdtfeger, IBM
Distinguished Engineer, and co-chair of the OASIS Accessibility
Subcommittee
Nokia
"Nokia is pleased to see the
further evolution of OpenDocument to support accessibility, providing
a schema that can satisfy the needs of both public and private
organizations. Nokia is a strong supporter of open standards and sees
the standardization of ODF 1.1 as an important milestone in
establishing a truly open and useful standard for document formats."
- Frederick Hirsch, Senior Architect,
Nokia
Novell
"ODF is the default file format
for users of the SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop and the Novell Edition
of OpenOffice, and we are a strong supporter of ODF. ODF has unique
vendor and community support, Novell encourages its customers to use
ODF, and we are proud to participate in the development and
evangelism of ODF."
- Nat Friedman, vice president and
chief technology officer, Linux and Open Source at Novell
Red Hat
"Red Hat is pleased to be able to
see the release of the OpenDocument 1.1 OASIS Standard. OpenDocument
is very important to allow people to collaborate in an increasingly
heterogeneous and global environment."
- Dr Mark Little, Director of Standards
for Red Hat
Sun Microsystems
"Sun is proud to have contributed
and worked on OpenDocument 1.1, which was developed in record time
and we expect will be adopted also in record time. This shows what
happens when whole communities of interest -- in this case commercial
enterprises, open source communities and accessibility ones --
collaborate and share their vision towards reaching a common goal."
- Crawford Beveridge, Executive Vice
President and Chairman, EMEA, APAC and the Americas, Sun
Microsystems, Inc.
Additional information:
OASIS OpenDocument Technical
Committee:http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/office/
OASIS ODF Adoption
Committee:http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/odf-adoption/
OpenDocument Accessibility
FAQ:http://opendocument.xml.org/accessibility-faq
Cover Pages Technology Report:
http://xml.coverpages.org/odf.html
About
OASIS:
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. Members themselves set the
OASIS technical agenda, using a lightweight, open process expressly
designed to promote industry consensus and unite disparate efforts.
The consortium produces open standards for Web services, security,
e-business, and standardization efforts in the public sector and for
application-specific markets. Founded in 1993, OASIS has more than
5,000 participants representing over 600 organizations and individual
members in 100 countries. Approved OASIS Standards include AVDL, BCM,
CAP, DITA, DocBook, DSML, ebBP, ebXML CPPA, ebXML Messaging, ebXML
Registry, EDXL-DE, EML, OpenDocument, SAML, SOA-RM, SPML, UBL, UDDI,
WSDM, WS-Notification, WS-Reliability, WSRF, WSRP, WS-Security,
XACML, XCBF, and XML Catalogs. http://www.oasis-open.org
Press contact:
Carol Geyer
OASIS Director of Communications
carol.geyer@oasis-open.org
+1.978.667.5115 x209 (office)
+1.941.284.0403 (mobile)
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