The document discusses the odt2braille software project which aims to enable users to generate Braille documents from OpenOffice.org. It provides an overview of the motivation, objectives, methodology, results and future outlook of the project. The methodology involves building an OpenOffice.org extension that reuses existing Braille transcription libraries to convert OpenDocument Text files to Braille output that can be embossed or exported to file formats like Portable Embosser Format. An alpha version has been released that supports a small number of embossers. Future work includes adding support for other OpenOffice.org applications like spreadsheets and presentations as well as additional embossers and formats.

1. odt2braille: Generating Braille from OpenOffice.org Christophe Strobbe K.U.Leuven, Belgium [email_address]

2. Overview Motivation & Problem Area

3. Objectives

4. Methodology

5. Results

6. Conclusion & Outlook

7. (Time for demo?)

8. Motivation & Problem Area (1) Braille faces competition from TTS and digital talking books

9. important for functional literacy

10. only reading method for deafblind persons

11. Motivation & Problem Area (2) Braille production: current methods: RoboBraille: e-mail based Braille translation agent

12. AutoBraille & NorBraille: multi-volume Braille books based on DAISY

13. Dots: open-source Braille transcriber for GNOME (relies on liblouisxml)

14. Tiger Software Suite (TSS), Braille Maker, WinBraille: embossing from MS Word and other Microsoft applications

15. Objectives Enable end-users to produce Braille In a free, open-source and cross-platform office suite => OpenOffice.org as Braille authoring environment

16. Reduce or eliminate the need for editing Braille codes after export

17. Emboss directly or just export

18. Methodology Build OpenOffice.org extension

19. Reuse existing tools: liblouisxml: open-source library for Braille transcription of XML docs

20. liblouis: Braille translation engine

21. pef2text (DAISY Pipeline): converts Portable Embosser Format to generic or embosser-specific format

22. library from odt2daisy

23. odt2braille Components Architecture of odt2braille OpenOffice.org with odt2braille extension: uses UNO API and configuration information; configuration information is passed on to the XML transformation (which uses DOM and XSLT); output of XML transformation is fed to Braille transcription (which uses liblouisxml and liblouis); output of Braille transcription is fed to export or emboss process.

24. Results Alpha version ready for release: OpenDocument Text (ODT) can be embossed on small list of embossers (Interpoint, Index, Braillo)

25. Export to “Braille Formatted files” (.brf)

26. Export to Portable Embosser Format (PEF): embosser-independent; uses XML and Unicode

27. User preferences stored as metadata

28. Screenshot: Settings - General Screenshot of Settings dialogue Settings dialogue window with a list of steps on the left side and a form on the right side. The list of steps is: 1. General, 2. Lists, 3. Tables, 4. Page Numbers, 5. Languages, 6. Table of Contents, 7. Export/Emboss. The form on the left contains form fields for Language (currently showing English - US), Contraction level (currently level 2), Include transcription information (checkbox), Transcriber (name to be filled in), Include volume information (checkbox), Include list of special symbols (text field), Include transcriber'ts notes page (text field), Create preliminary volume. The bottom of the dialogue displays the buttons Cancel, Back, Next and Save.

29. Screenshot: Export/Emboss Braille Settings dialogue: step 7: Export/Emboss Settings dialogue window with a list of steps on the left side and a form on the right side. The list of steps is: 1. General, 2. Lists, 3. Tables, 4. Page Numbers, 5. Languages, 6. Table of Contents, 7. Export/Emboss. The form on the left contains form fields for Generic (unchecked radio button), Specific embosser (checked radio button), a drop-down list with embossers with 'Interpoint 55' as the visible option, Character set (drop-down list with 'US Computer Braille' as the visible option), Paper size (drop-down list with UNDEFINED as the visible option), Recto-verso (checkbox checked), Mirror recto-verso alignment (checkbox unchecked), Number of cells per line (currently set to 40), Number of lines per page (currently set to 25), Margins (for fields, all set to ). The bottom of the dialogue displays the buttons Cancel, Back, Next and Save.

30. Conclusion and Outlook Ideally not just Writer but also Calc (spreadsheets) and Impress (presentations)

31. Support for larger set of embossers

32. Availability on non-Windows platforms

33. Possibly support for other formats such as Universal Tactile Document (UTD)

34. Accessibility check to be run before (Braille/DAISY/PDF) export?

35. Contact Information odt2braille (LGPL 3): http://odt2braille.sf.net/ use it & contribute! http://www.AEGIS-project.eu/

36. Twitter: aegisproj

37. Christophe Strobbe: [email_address]