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NFF - Features & Functions List

Please send comments to Mary Ann Siller.

For more informaiton about the NFF

Guiding Principles

1. Digital content must be complete (i.e., graphics & tables should be included)
2. Digital texts will be used and viewed interactively - students should be able to access the digital materials in the same manner that non-print disabled students access a print text
3. The NFF should not produce barriers to "value added" features
4. The NFF should accommodate all fields of study, including math, science and foreign language
5. It must be possible to drop in/link to other technologies (e.g., video clips)
6. The NFF should be sufficiently robust to be rendered into multiple formats (digital book, Braille, etc.)
7. One large file format that has teacher's edition, student edition, and other forms as well - allow for multiple rendering alternatives

Text

Visual Representations

1. Font should be scalable
2. Flow should be scalable without losing ability to reference original text points of references (page numbers, paragraphs)
3. Text box access
4. Ways to access tables and charts

Auditory Representations

1. Set voice to read properly with TTS
2. Auditory and visual materials should be synchronized
3. Use of sound to distinguish items in a list
4. Provide verbal emphasis - auditory bold
5. Change of voice for change of speaker
6. Abbreviations, acronyms, etc. must be spoken properly

Tactile Representations

1. Easily translatable to Braille
2. Support for character sets for foreign languages
3. Logical representation of information to ensure that the meaning of the text in the context of the visual cues is represented (e.g., fractions, mathematical equations)
4. Semantics of visual representation should be included in the content - e.g., this is bold and is linked to a glossary
5. Text box access
6. Access to tables and charts

Cognitive Representations

1. Tagging for "value added" options (e.g., sign language clips, convertible text, highlighting, linking)
2. Consider ESL LD issues such as dictionary supports that consider level and selection of language (might be signed) - need to allow individual word selection

Graphics

General

1. Graphical material is important to learning, and includes: photos, images, charts, flow charts, tables
2. Break down flow chart into a linear stream
3. Tables should be treated more as "cells" rather than graphics
4. Access to graphics should not be restricted to tactile or text representations - multiple alternative representations should be available
5. Rules and standards for how tags are presented and how formatted for ALL publishers
6. Communication process with editors for content - to make sure that the graphical representations are rendered as intended
7. Representation should convey whatever information that is intended to be provided through the graphics
8. Multi-modal information - convey through synchronized audio, tactile, text
9. Animations, alternate multimedia sources to provide access to the graphical information - prototyping machine code
10. Multiple layers (graduated types of information) with different descriptions of the same graphic - side by side with student control
11. Graphical information from the publishers should contain not just the graphic but some additional information such as producer notes or long description
12. Layers should include descriptions that can provide explanation of what is happening in the picture
13. Different descriptions/modes for different implementations of the file format (Braille, large print, talking book, digital book, refreshable Braille)
14. SMIL will allow for use of multiple representations
15. Overlays to show successive layers of detail
16. Markup languages exist, but tools do not - ways to take information and repurpose it
17. Format should preserve the intended viewing order of the images
18. Tie graphics to the text (order/location)
19. Mechanism to identify which elements of graphic are salient
20. Ability to access text that appears in the graphic
21. Remove the middle man as much as possible - closer to the source by people with training
22. Technology should assuage the "Extraneous Art" issue - the further away move from the source, the more room for mistake
23. Appropriate use of graphics - logical representation of the graphic - make sure that the information conveys the point of the graphic

Visual Representations

1. Graphics in color and black & white
2. All graphics should be high contrast, preferably vector graphics, rather than bitmap
   1. Need a PNG or JPG formatted image that can survive 10X magnification (maybe TIF or SVG).
   2. Some prefer TIF for high resolution.
3. Ability to drill down with SVG.
4. Ability to change resolution, high contrast, colors to enable use of graphics
5. Enlarging/simplifying - look at quality of photograph, color contrast
6. Provide choice between scaled text alone or scaled text magnified image
7. Color information - how to convey when the color is of pedagogical importance (fill patterns)

Digitized photos

1. Ability to integrate video clips and animation
2. Graphics should have some link to the text
3. Ability to freeze image in a location and flow text by it
4. Mechanism to know that the graphic is present, and ability to jump to the graphic, move it, transform
5. Alt text

Auditory Representations

1. Encode the semantics of the graphic
2. Ways to identify which tags are superfluous (can remove them)
3. Descriptions that can provide explanation of what is happening in the picture
4. Mechanism to allow audio to be provided (captioning should also be provided)
5. Visual cues need to be incorporated into the text

Tactile Representations

1. Tactile images: three dimensional (topographical images - connect to machine that could form three dimensional representation of image - refreshable)
2. Layering of graphic to allow for simplification of the graphic for tactile representation of critical elements
3. Files should be in a format that can be disseminated to other devices to display/print locally
4. Tactile graphics coding should support a variety of methods for displaying
5. Visual cues need to be incorporated into the text
6. Differentiate between content graphics and navigational graphics
7. Style - look and feel by brand - may be important to preserve the style
8. Coding should allow for reviewing of tactile graphics in real time - format should be sufficiently robust to be extensible
9. Braille representations should include the data representing the bar chart or graph
10. Encode the semantics of the graphic

Cognitive Representations

1. Embedding levels of skills
2. Not only moving from graphic/photographic to text, but text to graphic/photographic (flexibility, for students with cognitive disabilities)
3. Layering, vector graphics - to be able to drill down to simplified version, or to build complexity for a student to follow along
4. Cognitive issues - graphic images in place of text

Layout/Navigation

Discussion introduction & framing statements by George Kerscher, Michael Moodie and James Pritchett, of the ANSI/NISO Z39.86 Maintenance Committee: Review of Z39.86 Document Navigation Features List from the Digital Talking Book Standards Committee (see www.loc.gov/nls/niso/navigation.htm).

Global Navigation

General

1. Tagging for headings, paragraphs, sidebars
2. Books divided into levels (chapters, sections, page, etc.)
3. May need summary and topic sentence tags added to DTD
4. Distinguish logical, semantic, and visual presentation elements - be able to cue to the correct places in a text
5. Pedagogical identifier for elements (graphics, sidebars, charts, etc.)
6. Order should be set up as should be read - linear presentation of information
7. Books are currently used side-by-side with traditional print books - must be an ability built into the file format to enable students to identify traditional print page numbers in the digital text and jump to that location in the digital text
8. Points of reference consistent between digital and print materials
9. Incorporating thumbnails - useful as a locator guide, to identify location on a page, for students with reading difficulties (overview information)
10. Ways to identify which tags are superfluous and remove them, e.g., to strip out the graphics or the text

1. Way to read headings before digging into body of text
2. Ability to alter linear sequences
3. Auditory Representations
4. Tactile Representations
5. Format issues - directions to the reader in Braille
6. Cognitive Representations
7. Search for synonyms
8. Search for items, whether or not they appear on the screen

Local Navigation

General

1. Access to text alone is insufficient: format, tracking back to print text must be built into the format
2. Rules for content in the front (visual or auditory)
3. Ability to do "look backs" to particular places in a text (both visual and audio)
4. Cut and paste ability (both visual and audio) for notetaking, doing student exercises and class work
5. Once reading, ability to read just topic sentences
6. Form interactivity (workbooks, exercises at the end of the book - devise ways to interpret the forms for use)

Visual Representations

1. Ability to manipulate how much text is viewable at a time
2. Flow should be scalable without losing ability to reference original text points of references (page numbers, paragraphs) - ways to locate and access particular pages, paragraphs as specified in the original text
3. Bold could be glossary link, cognitive or navigation (must provided semantic info for each instance)
4. Ability to act on the text - with a highlight bar - and save for later use
5. Must be able to distinguish items from a list - noise
6. Navigation between graphics and text versions
7. Visual tracking for reading
8. Cascading style sheets

Auditory Representations

1. Ways to represent visual cues
2. Ability to highlight text as it is being read
3. Must be able to distinguish items from a list - noise
4. Speed of tracking and reading should have flexibility

Tactile Representations

1. Ways to represent visual cues, and capture the logical meaning of representations and layout
2. Cognitive Representations
3. Use of dictionaries
4. Text tagging that allows students to have the ability of word prediction
5. Mark up word meaning for translation for both signing avatars and to other languages
6. Ability to extract meaning/context for children with cognitive disabilities
7. Ability to scan the content prior to reading (if at all)
8. Ability to highlight text as it's being read
9. Cognitive overview of tex

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Last Revision: February 10, 2003