Open Document Format published as ISO standard

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) published the Open Document Format (ODF) as an official standard. The ODF file format—the XML-based open format for text, spreadsheet, database, and presentation files.

ODF is being positioned as the accessible file format by accessibility groups, as the open standard must face public peer review to evaluate its accessibility as opposed to other,  formats (such as .doc). Since it is specified as a public document, the idea is that anyone can create software for it under any platform at any time for those with disabilities without worrying about royalties or implementation barriers.