Presentation: DAISY in Higher Ed

Presenters

• Gaeir Dietrich - Co-chair DAISY in Higher Ed Working Group
  • Acting Director High Tech Center Training Unit (HTCTU)
• Sam Ogami - Co-chair DAISY in Higher Ed Working Group
  • AT Expert CSU Office of the Chancellor
• Jayme Johnson
  • Web Accessibility Specialist HTCTU

Overview

• Information about DAISY
  • What it is
  • How to use it
  • Tools to play it with
  • Where to get it
• Information about the DAISY in Higher Ed Working Group

DAISY

• Digital
• Accessible
• Information
• SYstem

History—May 1996

• Talking book libraries
  • Recognized that analog tape was on the way out
  • Recognized that digital audio was coming
  • Recognized need for a standard
• DAISY Consortium
  • Formed by talking book libraries to lead the worldwide transition from analog tape to Digital Talking Books (DTB)

Creating a Standard

• In 1998
  • DAISY 2.0 standard was released.
• February 2002
  • Bookshare.org opened and offered DAISY books
• March 2002
  • DAISY 3 (DAISY NISO 2005) approved by ANSI
• September 2002
  • Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D) provided DAISY books to its users

NIMAS

• July 2004
  • U.S. Department of Education endorsed the National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard (NIMAS), a subset of DAISY/NISO (DAISY 3.00)
• January 2007
  • K-12 publishers required to make NIMAS files available

What this means…

• Students in K-12 are beginning to receive DAISY books.
• Once students have used DAISY, they will not go back.
  • Simple audio tapes or MP3 files are far less accessible.

Expanding Vision

• DAISY is designed to incorporate new features and functionality
• Expandable
  • “Cheese pizza” analogy
• First expansion
  • MathML

Understanding DAISY
DAISY “Flavors”

• Text Only
  • Format used by Bookshare
• Structured Audio
  • Audio only
  • Format used by RFB&D
  • Format used by NLS
• Audio and Full Text
  • Can be created with commercially available publishing tools

Benefits for Higher Ed

• Navigation
  • By page, heading, phrase
• Bookmarks
• Player memory
  • Knows where you left off
  • Can keep track of your place in multiple books at the same time
• Time jumps (audio only)

Requires DAISY Hardware or Software

• Hardware also plays MP3 files and sometimes TXT and DOC files
  • Victor Reader Stream
  • Classmate
  • Plextor PT 1
• Inexpensive software players available
  • Dolphin EasyReader
• Free software players available
  • AMIS

Players
Sources of DAISY Books

• RFB&D
  • www.rfbd.net
• Bookshare
  • www.bookshare.org
• Read How You Want (for purchase)
  • www.readhowyouwant.com
• National Library Services (NLS)
  • www.nlstalkingbooks.org/dtb/
• Produced on campus

Playing RFB&D DAISY

• Audio-only DAISY
• Requires RFB&D authorized player
• Can purchase players through RFB&D
• Other players can be sent to RFB&D to have “key” installed
• User requires code to “unlock” books
• RFB&D players can play other DAISY books
• Players have firmware upgrade from DAISY 2.02 to DAISY 3

Playing Bookshare DAISY

• Text-only DAISY
• Requires player with TTS built in
• Software player comes free with membership
  • Note: Membership free for all students
• Can also play on other systems
  • OpenBook, Kurzweil 1000/3000, WYNN

Comparison

• RFB&D
  • Small membership fee for all users
  • Audio only
  • Human narration
  • Requires RFB&D authorized hardware/software
  • Requires “key” to unlock books
• www.rfbd.org
• Bookshare
  • Free for students; small fee for others
  • Text only
  • Synthetic speech (TTS)
  • Software player comes with membership
  • Playable on some hardware players with TTS built in
• www.bookshare.org

Grow Your Own DAISYs

• Commercial software available
• Can begin with text and convert into Audio Full Text DAISY
• Check these vendors
  • Dolphin
  • IRTI
  • gh Braille
  • APH BookWizard

Save As DAISY (SADX)

• Plug-in for MS Word and Open Office
• SADX 2.0 saves documents as Full Text, Full Audio DAISY
  • Can be played on any DAISY software player – Can be downloaded to solid state players – Can be burned to CD for hardware players with CD

DAISY in the CCCs

• California Community Colleges (CCCs) were the first system of higher ed to support DAISY production
• HTCTU Phoneticom DAISY Generator
  • Over 500 books created to date
  • 100 users trained
• AMX Database

DAISY in Higher Ed Working Group

• DAISY Consortium provides
  • Presence on the DAISY.org Web site
  • Designated consortium liaison
• George Kerscher, Secretary General of the DAISY Consortium
  • Direct access to information about DAISY
  • Conference line
  • Discussion list
  • Free membership for higher ed

Purpose of the Working Group

• Feedback to DAISY Consortium on use of DAISY in higher ed
  • Raise awareness of higher ed issues
  • Attend DAISY meetings
• Work with disability service offices
  • Provide information/understanding
  • Provide training materials
  • Simplify process

Goals for First Year

• Establish the Web site
  • Information, FAQs, list of resources for DAISY books
  • Post the DAISY in Higher Ed Survey
• Establish information flow with other access groups serving higher ed
  • ATHEN, AHEAD, CAPED
• Share informational/training materials
  • Web, conference calls, survey

First Goal Met

• DAISY in Higher Ed Web site
• http://www.daisy.org/projects/higher-ed/
• Resources available
  • Ganeral information
  • FAQs
  • Partial list of DAISY books available worldwide

Second Goal Met

• DAISY in Higher Ed Survey
• Purpose
  • Learn more about DAISY use in higher ed
• Focus on three basic aspects
  • Awareness
  • Playback tools
  • Production

Survey Purpose

• We will use this information
  • To promote DAISY in higher ed
  • To support the needs of the higher ed community
  • To encourage vendors to create tools appropriate to the needs of higher ed

Survey Results

• Preliminary data
  • 77 took the survey
  • 80% work for public institutions
  • 55% work for 2-year schools
• Analysis

Joining the Group

• The DAISY in Higher Ed working group is forming now.
• Join the e-mail list to become part of the working group.
• Any higher ed faculty/staff member may join.
  • Free!

Joining the List

• Send a blank e-mail to
  • Join-daisy-in-higher-ed@mail.daisy.org
• No need for text in the subject or body of the email.
• You should then receive a conformation email within two days that you have been added to the email list.

Contact Us

• Gaeir (“rhymes with fire”) Dietrich
  • 408-996-6043
• Sam Ogami
  • 562-951-4201