Wednesday November 29, 2006

Another ODF option coming: Corel WordPerfect Office

Corel Corporation has announced today their upcoming support for ODF and OOXML. This means that sometime in mid 2007, there will be another, major office suite which customers can use to read and write OpenDocument format files. Since many assistive technologies already support Corel WordPerfect on Windows, this means that many users of assistive technologies will have another option for using ODF (beyond using one of several technologies that import/export ODF into MS-Office; or using whatever level of support for existing ODF apps like StarOffice/OpenOffice.org that their assistive technology already provides).

Some assistive technologies - most notably the JAWS for Windows screen reader - provide a greater set of reading & editing features and functionality when used with MS-Office vs. with Corel WordPerfect. So Corel's upcoming release doesn't address all of the accessibility desires for ODF. It is, however, another significant step forward. And this step is completely in keeping with a growing trend: the increased adoption by customers, governments, institutions of ODF (as also reflected in the growing membership of the ODF Alliance) is resulting in increased support in applications. And likewise, increased support by assistive technologies for people with disabilities. (2006-11-29 23:00:34.0) Permalink