Resources permitting for general documentation, consideration should be given to providing audio versions of key documents. The use of quality voice synthesizer programmes may be useful in this regard, and we recommend mp3 as a standard format for audio.
For essential documents regarding an individual’s rights, this format is a necessity, and must be provided as soon as possible from the time of the request.
The required technical standard for digital documents is “Digital Accessible Information System” (DAISY format). These are currently based on mp3 and xml formats. All documents need to be searchable by phrase.
Meeting the DAISY standard requires the inclusion of:
- a package file (a set of metadata describing the document)
- Textual content file (containing the textual content in xml)
- Audio files (human or synthetic speech)
- Image files (for visual displays)
- Synchronization files (synchronising the different media files during playback)
- Navigation control file (for viewing the document’s hierarchical structure)
- Bookmark/highlight file (support to set user highlights)
- Resource file (for playback management)
- Distribution information file (maps each .smil file to a specific information unit).
(list from Wikipedia: digital accessible information system) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Accessible_Information_System?wprov=sfti1
For more information, see the DAISY Consortium: https://daisy.org/