Increasing access to information for the print disabled through electronic documents in SGML

There is a growing conviction that the Standard Generalized Markup Language, SGML, can play an important role as an enabling technology to increase access to information for blind and partially sighted people. This paper reports on mechanisms that have been devised to build in accessibility into SGML encoded electronic documents, concentrating on the work done in the CAPS Consortium—Communication and Access to Information for People with Special Needs, a European Union funded project in the Technology Initiative for Disabled and Elderly People (TIDE) Programme—and by ICADD, the International Committee on Accessible Document Design.