What is the DAISY Modular Math Extension?

DAISY, which stands for Digital Accessible Information System, is a standard markup language used in creating accessible digital talking books. The standard allows users with print disabilities to efficiently navigate and access book content.

The 2004 reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) provided a National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS), a standard format, based on DAISY, in which publishers are to provide accessible curricular materials to students in grades K-12.

To ensure that mathematics is accessible within DAISY books, the DAISY Consortium formed a working group, which developed a mechanism for extending DAISY to include MathML support. MathML is a standard language for marking up mathematical formulas so that their content and structure can be displayed visually on the web and can be communicated to screen reader users or converted to Braille. The result of the working group's work is the Digital Talking Book Modular Extension for Mathematics, informally known as the DAISY MathML Modular Extension. This extension allows all of the features of a digital talking book (e.g., support for large print, customizable speech, Braille, navigation, and synchronized highlighting) to work for math just as they do for literary text.