Foreword—NIMAS Considerations

DAISY 3 Structure Guidelines
Last Revised: June 4, 2008

The 2008 revision of the DAISY Structure Guidelines incorporates markup examples for NIMAS, the federally-mandated U.S. National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard which identifies the minimum set of required elements from the DAISY/NISO Z39.86 Standard (the DAISY Standard) which make up the NIMAS Standard. In the U.S., textbook publishers produce K-12 textbooks in both print and electronic format. The required electronic format is DTBook; NIMAS requirements conform to the DTBook DTD, upon which the DAISY Standard is based.

The Creating NIMAS Files document available at the NIMAS Web site provides practical information about creating NIMAS filesets and includes some examples of mark-up of NIMAS XML files. Definitions for each element in the Standard can be found in the NIMAS Technical Specification. This revision of the DAISY 3 Structure Guidelines incorporates the addition of examples for each element in the NIMAS technical specification in order to assist U.S.-based publishers in the production of NIMAS files.

Many of the print constructs in textbooks can be confusing and it can be difficult to determine the correct markup approach. It is hoped that the greatly expanded set of markup examples and corresponding images of the print pages provided in this revision will clarify any potential ambiguities for both DAISY and NIMAS book production.

Multiple illustrated examples are given for each DTBook element, demonstrating the application of the elements for print publications. Each "Illustrated Example" includes three sections: "Page Sample" (image of the page), "Sample Code", and, "Comments and Alternative NIMAS Examples". In "Sample Code" the example is marked up to the DAISY Standard. The area "Comments and Alternative NIMAS Examples" contains a note indicating whether the specific element is optional or required in NIMAS. If it is optional, the NIMAS alternative markup is provided; if it is required, the full DAISY markup is presented as it is in the "Sample Code" for that element. Note that as a subset of the DAISY Standard, not all of the DTBook elements in that Standard are required in NIMAS formatted books, some are optional.

Although publishers in the U.S. producing K-12 textbooks are required to provide electronic versions of their publications in NIMAS format, it is hoped that with the aid of the DAISY Structure Guidelines and the NIMAS Guidelines, that they will incorporate full DAISY Standard markup, providing books that are as feature-rich and accessible as possible. Until that time, the alternate examples which are presented in the 2008 version of the DAISY 3 Structure Guidelines will provide guidance for publishers enabling them to meet the minimum legal requirements for NIMAS compliance.