So you need to make your classroom materials accessible?

Many state and local educational institutions are now requiring teachers, instructors, and professors to make classroom materials they create accessible to students with disabilities. In the past, this has been difficult to do, especially for materials containing math. MathDaisy now makes it possible for you to save Word documents containing equations as a DAISY electronic book that can be read by your students using MathPlayer-enabled DAISY player software on a personal computer or a dedicated eBook reader.

What is MathDaisy?

MathDaisy works with Microsoft Word, Microsoft's Save As DAISY add-in, and MathType. As you might guess from its name, Save As DAISY adds a "Save As DAISY" menu item to Word's File menu. This command saves the document as a DAISY Digital Talking Book ready to be used in an eBook reader. MathDaisy enhances the Word-to-DAISY conversion process, converting the equations in the document to MathML as required by the DAISY format.

What do I need to save my Word documents in DAISY format?

So you already have Microsoft Word XP, 2003, or 2007 and want to save your documents as DAISY Books so they can be read by your students with disabilities. Here's what you need:

• Microsoft's Save As DAISY add-in for Word (free download)
• MathDaisy (purchase or free 30-day trial)
• MathType for equation conversion (purchase or free 30-day trial)

These components may be installed in any order. Once they are installed, just choose Save As DAISY from Word's File menu to convert the document to a MathPlayer-enabled DAISY Book ready to give to your students.

What do I tell my students?

Your students may or may not be familiar with DAISY and DAISY players. Your Disabled Student Services or Assistive Technology Center (DSS/ATC) may be able to help the student. Also, please direct them to the DAISY for Students page where we explain DAISY and list features they should look for in DAISY readers that support math well.

What is DAISY?

DAISY stands for Digital Accessible Information SYstem and is a standard for producing accessible and navigable multimedia documents. This includes Digital Talking Books, digital text books, and synchronized audio/text books. DAISY is a globally recognized standard for accessible content and is part of NIMAS (National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard).

NIMAS/DAISY is part of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) reauthorized by the US Congress in 2004. It recommends that state educational agencies supply educational materials in the NIMAS/DAISY format to those students that need them. The impact of this legislation is just starting to be felt. Besides requiring teachers to produce accessible materials, all the major textbook makers are gearing up to produce books in the DAISY Book format.

To learn more about these standards, please visit:

• How is Design Science making math more accessible?
• The DAISY Consortium
• The NIMAS website

What if my situation is different?

The landscape of products supporting DAISY is constantly evolving. If you are interested in any of the following, please send email to support@dessci.com:

• Batch conversion to DAISY: A Disabled Student Services or Assistive Technology Center (DSS/ATC) worker supporting teachers and professors converting documents for student use might want to convert Word documents to DAISY Books in a batch process.
• Apple iWork: If you are interested in seeing Save As DAISY integration with Apple Pages, please let Apple know directly via their Pages Feedback page.
• OpenOffice: Teachers and professors authoring with OpenOffice instead of Microsoft Word.
• Converting PDF or scanned documents: InftyReader may be used to convert legacy PDF or scanned documents to MS Word format, then Save As DAISY used to turn that into DAISY format.
• Converting DAISY to other accessible formats: While DAISY format can be read directly with a DAISY player, it can also be converted to other accessible forms that the disabled student might prefer. Services are available for performing such conversions.