The AMIS DAISY Player is available at no cost, easy to use for beginners, yet powerful enough for the advanced computer user
Zurich, Switzerland, May 6, 2009 - The DAISY Consortium announces the new release of AMIS software, which combines a talking interface with powerful navigation features to provide access to DAISY multimedia to people with visual impairments, cognitive and learning disabilities, and people who are unable to hold a keyboard or printed publication.
The tragedy of our Information Age is that millions of people cannot access printed information. DAISY breaks such barriers to information access through technology. The Adaptive Multimedia Information System (AMIS) is a free, open source DAISY software. The AMIS DAISY Player gives readers one-touch access to their book. Users can navigate through sections, pages, and even individual phrases. They can search, set bookmarks, and pick up where they left off. The multimodal experience of synchronized text and audio is further enhanced by offering custom font and color styling options. AMIS is easy to use for beginners, yet powerful for the advanced computer user.
AMIS is available in different languages, therefore notable for developers' efforts to provide playback software in local languages and to address multiple disabilities by offering a variety of ways to interact with DAISY media. A growing list of language packs available include Bangla, Filipino, Hindi, Indonesian, Malay, Nepali, Sinhala, Thai, and Vietnamese as well as several European languages. AMIS enables readers with disabilities in different parts of the world to enhance their reading experience through a variety of navigation techniques. While a variety of DAISY playback tools are available for purchase worldwide, as a free, open source tool, AMIS is available to individuals who face economic, as well as physical or language barriers to information access. By making its source code available to others, AMIS' developers are ensuring that the particular strengths of their product (language localization, playback and navigation options) can be adopted and adapted for use in other DAISY playback tools.
AMIS 3.0 is now available for download from http://daisy.org/projects/amis/. This release includes several improvements and new features, including:
The DAISY Standard (officially ANSI/NISO z39.86 Specifications for the Digital Talking Book) has revolutionized the reading experience for people with print disabilities around the globe. DAISY, the Digital Accessible Information SYstem, is the world's most widely used assistive technology for reading. Formed in 1996 by like-minded organizations around the world, today the DAISY Consortium consists of nearly 70 non-profit organizations representing 35 different countries and more than 20 for-profit companies which provide products and services to meet the needs of the DAISY community and the people it serves. These organizations and companies are working together to develop and promote international standards and technologies which enable equal access to information and knowledge by all people with print disabilities and which also benefit the wider community. More information about the DAISY Consortium and the DAISY Standard is available at http://daisy.org/.
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