OASIS OpenDocument ISO/IEC Interoperability, Programmability, Accessiblity and Adoption ● Michael Brauer – Technical Architect Software Engineering – StarOffice/OpenOffice.org, Sun Microsystems – OpenDocument TC Chair

Agenda ODF: past, present, and future ODF v1.1 – Accessibility Panel Interoperability Programmability Adoption

The Past ‏ OpenDocument v1.0 gets approved as OASIS standard ‏ (OASIS) OpenDocument submitted to ISO ‏ Foundation Of Accessibility Sub Committee ‏ Foundation Of Formula Sub Committee ‏ Foundation Of Metadata Sub Committee ‏ Foundation of ODF Adoption TC ‏ OpenDocument v1.0 gets published as ISO/IEC

The Present ‏ OpenDocument v1.1 gets approved as OASIS standard Includes Enhancements for Accessibility ‏ OpenDocument v1.2 is worked on Within the three SCs: Accessibility, Metadata, Formula Within the main TC ‏ First OpenDocument v1.2 drafts get published 2007

The Accessibility Sub Committee Purpose (extracted from charter) To liaise with the disability community to gather accessibility related feedback on [...] OpenDocument v1.0 To gather [...] feedback from implementors To produce a formal accessibility evaluation of the OpenDocument v1.0 file format. SC membership includes many accessibility experts

The Accessibility Evaluation Completed May 2006 Lists 9 accessibility issues for ODF v1.0 If these are resolved, the SC believes that OpenDocument will meet or exceed the accessibility support provided in all other office file formats as well as that specified in the W3C Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0. Examples: No alternative text for non-text image map elements No alternative text for drawing objects No clear relationships between drawing objects and their captions No tables in presentations

The Accessibility Sub Committee Status 8 issues were resolved in ODF v1.1 1 issue will be resolved in ODF v1.2 “Table Shape” for presentations An accessible workaround does exist for ODF v1.0/v1.1 SC agreed to continue its work after v1.1 was completed Ongoing accessibility review of ODF v1.2,... Implementation guidelines are in progress

The Formula Sub Committee (OpenFormula) Purpose (extracted from charter) To create a [standardized] specification for a formula language that should be used in OpenDocument spreadsheet documents [..] Status OpenFormula draft is available publicly Specification is nearly complete and in the stabilization phase

Metadata Sub Committee Purpose (extracted from charter) To gather use cases for the application of metadata in OpenDocument documents To propose metadata related enhancements What is Metadata? Structured data about data, that Describes, explains, locates, or otherwise makes it easier to retrieve, use, or manage an information resource Typically used to describe documents, images, contacts, events, and so forth

Metadata Sub Committee Status Use case and Requirements document is available First Proposal is available Based on W3C RDF and W3C RDF/XML

The Future OpenDocument v1.2 Includes A formula specification A meta data specification Many other enhancements that: Are new office application features Improve interoperability with ECMA-376 (OOXML) Will be reviewed by Accessibility SC Aimed to be finished 2007 Planned to be re-submitted to ISO ODF Accessibility Guidelines

OpenDocument Format - Accessibility...the details Pete Brunet Accessibility Software Engineer IBM Software Group

ODF Accessibility – Initial Problem In Federal Government bids software must be accessible by Persons with Disabilities. Section 508 – US Rehabilitation Act Now becoming important for States, e.g.Commonwealth of Massachusetts Also California, Texas, Minnesota ODF Accessibility issues were highlighted by Microsoft lobbyists in Massachusetts. Leaders from IBM worked with the ODF TC to form the Accessibility SC (see next slide). OASIS ODF AccSC was formed and responded very quickly.

Committee Formed IBM – Rich Schwerdtfeger (co-chair), Dr. Chieko Asakawa, Dr. Hiro Takagi, Pete Brunet Sun – Peter Korn (co-chair), Malte Timmerman Design Science – Steve Nobel The Paciello Group – Mike Paciello Capital Accessibility – Janina Sajka Institute of Community Inclusion – David Clark Royal National Institute for the Blind – Dave Pawson New member: Duxbury Systems (Braille translators)

GAP Analysis The Accessibility Subcommittee (AccSC) was formed in January 26, A GAP analysis was conducted. Comparison to W3C WCAG 1.0 and the Microsoft Office suite Nine issues were identified and submitted to the TC during May 2006.

Influence of Lotus Notes 8 Spec effort helped by IBM's implementation of ODF into Notes 8 during Additional issues were encountered and fixed in the spec, e.g. usage of table headers. Both spec and implementation were improved due to development in parallel.

Nine Recommendations Soft page breaks - for transformation to talking book formats, e.g. DAISY Usage of table row/column headers clarified – important for orientation for users who are blind Logical navigation order for presentation – keyboard navigation order was usually not correct Alternative text for graphical objects, image maps, drawing layers and hyperlinks (4 recommendations) – descriptions needed by users who are blind Association of captions to captioned content – helps screen readers find caption without guessing Tables as first class presentation objects – helps navigation through tables by users who are blind

Guidelines A non-normative accessibility guideline provided in Appendix E Title, Description and Caption of Graphical Elements Hyperlink Titles Tables in Presentations A much larger guideline is being created for ODF 1.2

TC Approval Eight of the nine issues were approved Tables as first class presentation objects will be in ODF workaround – embed as spreadsheet ODF 1.1 announced February 13, 2007

Cross team collaboration resulted in an Accessible solution １． File format enabled for accessibility ● ODF 1.1 – ODF AccSC team of accessibility experts ２． Guidelines for Doc Authors and App Developers ● ODF AccSC team ３． Transformation from ODF to accessibility API ● Notes 8 Development team – IBM China SW Dev Lab ４． Accessibility API to provide access to content IAccessible2 – IBM Accessibilty Architecture team ５． Assistive Technology, e.g. Screen Readers using the standardized API JAWS – Development team from Freedom Scientific Window-Eyes – Development team from GWMicro

Influence on Windows A11y IAccessible2 exits due to need for access to ODF docs. Adds features to complement MSAA. Adds access to rich content provided by ODF docs (see next slide). On Windows IAccessible2 will improve accessibility and usability for PwDs beyond ODF docs. Examples: Firefox and Eclipse

Office Suites Microsoft Office is no longer the only solution. ODF 1.1 enables access to documents based on open standards: IBM Lotus Notes 8 Productivity Editors, Open Office, Sun Star Office, KDE KOffice Notes 8 editors accessible from JAWS and Window- Eyes Demo: JAWS with an IBM Lotus Document

Fostering Innovation - DAISY ODF 1.1 based docs can be used as content for DAISY talking books. Dave Pawson from RNIB is an XML and XSLT expert and he made very significant contributions to the spec. Soft page breaks were added to ODF 1.1 ODF 1.1 content is being transformed into DAISY content. Open standards developed by industry experts facilitate innovation.

Fostering Innovation - Duxbury Duxbury Systems Tooling to create Braille content Compared to Word 2003 Duxbury gives ODF higher marks in the area of documentation, simplicity -- and reusability: ODF importer shares code in common with importers for OpenXML, HTML, DAISY/NIMAS, and generic "XML". ODF allowed re-use of table importer between word processing and spreadsheet editors This ease of reuse lowers the price barrier for creating Braille content.

Fostering Innovation - Validation ODF validation – more innovation UIUC - Illinois Center for Information Technology Accessibility Web based accessibility checker IBM's Tokyo Research Lab aDesigner Demo

Introducing our panel Michael Brauer, ODF TC Chair Pete Brunet, ODF AccSC, IBM SWG Accessibility Architecture Alan Clark, ODF Adoption TC, Novell Rob Weir, ODF TC, ODF Adoption TC, IBM Lotus