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Braille in DAISY

Phase 1 — Proposed Structures

The following proposed structures are in the order they were proposed.

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Table of Contents

Structure <toc>
Description Define the table of contents for a document. Allow page numbers to easily be removed/replaced when translating to braille. Textbooks also often have mini tables of contents at the beginning of each chapter that could benefit from further definition
Example 
  <toc>
    <tochd>Part xx</tochd>
      <toc1>
        <tocentry>Chapter x</tocentry>
        <tocpage>xxx</tocpage>
        <toc2>
          <tocentry>Section y</tocentry>
          <tocpage>xxx</tocpage>
        </toc2>
      </toc1>
  </toc>
Existing Constructs Not directly supported in DTBook; emulated through <list> and <lic> tags. TEI also uses lists in place of a defined structure
Alternate Approaches Docbook uses an attribute to define the page number <tocentry pagenum="xx">. It may be useful to take this approach so that print page and braille page can be retained
Outstanding Issues
  1. Number of levels deep to allow nesting or use unnumbered tags with a level or depth attribute
  2. How complex should the TOC structure be? (Docbook includes tocfront, tocback and tocpart tags for grouping the contents
  3. Any substructure elements?
Status awaiting discussion/resolution

Acknowledgements

Structure <ack>
Description Identify acknowledgements within a work. They may occur anywhere within the work and braille requirements for their placement in braille vary according to country.
Example 
  <ack>
    <p>Permission to use the lyrics...</p>
    <p>The following companies have...</p>
    <list type="ul">
      <li>DAISY</li>
    </list>
  </ack>
Existing Constructs Not directly supported in DTBook. Emulated through attributes on elements. TEI does not support the identification of acknowledgements
Alternate Approaches Docbook: ackno element for articles
Outstanding Issues
  1. Is this element necessary?
  2. There are at least 2 types of acknowledgements. Author acknowledgements thanking people and copyright acknowledgements containing permissions (for example)
  3. Would changes to braille rules remove the need for this element?
  4. Any substructure elements?
Status awaiting discussion/resolution

Cast of Characters

Structure <cast>
Description Define the cast of characters (dramatis personae) in a literary work. Braille may require special handling of the different parts of a cast list which can only be achieved by identifying each part.
Example 
  <cast>
     <character>
            <name>Lear</name>
            <desc>King of Britain</desc>
            <actor>William Shatner</actor>
     </character>
<character>
<name>Lear's Fool</name>
<actor>Jim Carrey</actor>
     </character>
</cast>
<cast>
     <chargrp>
            <hd>The Corporation Team </hd>
            <character>
                   <name>Juan Cabrillo</name>
                   <desc>Chairman of the Corporation</desc>
            </character>
            ...
     </chargrp>
</cast>
Existing Constructs Not supported in DTBook
Alternate Approaches TEI uses a similar castList element, which the naming of elements could reflect more closely. TEI does have a framework for dramatic performances that allow for definition of cast lists, set information, stage directions, performance information, speeches, etc.
Outstanding Issues
  1. Dramatic performances could be considered a large enough item to be an extension by itself. Similar to how Math has been handled.
  2. Any substructure elements?
  3. The sample above is based on a cursory investigation of dramatic works. Further samples should be obtained to ensure full coverage
Status awaiting discussion/resolution

Index

Structure <index>
Description Define indices
Example 
  <index>
    <indexgrp>
      <hd>A</hd>
          <entry>
             <term>about face</term>
             <pageList><page>12</page>, <page>123</page></pageList>
             <see>turnaround</see>
             <seealso>180</seealso>
           </entry>
           <entry>
              <term>animal crackers</term>
                  <subentry>
                      <term>soup and</term>
                      <pageList><page>212</page></pageList>
                  <subentry>
                     <term>sogginess</term>
                     <pageList><page>23</page></pageList>
                  </subentry>
                  </subentry>
            </entry>
   </indexgrp>
  </index>
Existing Constructs Not supported in DTBook; emulated through <list> and <lic>.
Alternate Approaches
  • Docbook: only allows entries three levels deep
  • TEI: does not support an index, only the identification of points in the document to index.
Outstanding Issues
  1. Index is another very large and complex document structure, examples should be gathered.
  2. Assuming the "see" and "see also" sections are not handled any differently in braille, there may be no need to identify them separately. Good design would dictate keeping them
  3. Any substructure elements?
Status awaiting discussion/resolution

Textinput

Structure <textinput>
Description Inline and block empty element that indicates where entry fields are located in the document (fill in the blanks, exercise entries, etc.). Instead of adding unnecessary and at times arbitrary series of underscores, the tag would use one or two attributes (size or brsize) to set its length.
Example 
<p>Write your answer below:</p>
<textinput size="50"/>
<p>George Kerscher is the <textinput brsize="7"/> of the DAISY Consortium.</p>
Existing Constructs Not supported in DTBook.
Alternate Approaches HTML input and textarea tags, but these would prove problematic as they define a different and unwanted behaviour in browsers.
Outstanding Issues
  1. May still require manual cleanup after translation to braille if the size is not set properly (although standard sizes could be defined).
  2. Workbooks and testing are a high interest item which will likely be addressed in DTBook as well.
  3. Attributes defining size (for example)
Status awaiting discussion/resolution