HOMENews Archive
Please forward this link to your list of contacts: June DAISY Planet.
Please forward this link to your list of contacts: May DAISY Planet.
The Kentucky Department of Education has announced that the state will grant preferential procurement status to math textbook titles submitted by publishers who use Mathematical Markup Language (MathML). Publishers who create digital math content using MathML will be given preference over publishers making textbooks produced with graphic images representing the mathematical content. The reason, of course, is accessibility. Details are available on Design Science's Accessibility News page.
The Save As DAISY XML - Microsoft area of the DAISY Website has project information and updates including FAQs, an interactive user forum, plus download and documentation links.
The 'Save as DAISY XML' add-in from Microsoft Word is scheduled for release on May 7th.
George Kerscher, Secretary General of the DAISY Consortium states emphatically, "What is needed is a "Save As DAISY" output option in every publishing tool out there, and this is what we are working toward and promoting."
On Tuesday June 10, 2008, the Norwegian DAISY Consortium (NDK) is also hosting the conference, "DAISY - the Best Way to Read: Conference on Accessible Literature" in Oslo Norway. Conference registration also includes a reception which will be held at the Norwegian Library for the Blind on Monday evening. Please note that the deadline for registration for the Conference is May 10. Details about the Conference including the program, an online registration form and contact information are available on the DAISY Conference on Accessible Literature Web page. Exhibit tables in the area outside the conference room can be arranged.
The Conference is preceded on June 8 and 9 by the DAISY Board Meeting, and immediately followed by the DAISY General Meeting. The Conference will be held at the Radisson SAS Plaza Hotel (Sonja Henies Plass 3, Box 9206, N-0134 Oslo, Norway). A link to the Radisson SAS in Oslo providing online and phone registration options is also provided on the DAISY Conference Web page. The General and Board Meetings will be held at the Norwegian Library for the Blind (Norsk Lyd- og blindeskriftsbibliotek, Observatoriegaten 1B, 0206 Oslo.
For those planning to attend and perhaps stay an extra day or two, information about Oslo and Norway is available at the Official Travel and Visitor's Guide to Oslo and on the same Web site, Oslo on a Budget. See also Norway In a Nutshell.
At the Joint ITU and G3ict Forum 2008 on "The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Challenges and Opportunities for ICT Standards", held in Geneva on April 21, Hiroshi Kawamura, President of the DAISY Consortium, gave a thought-provoking presentation. "DAISY for Everyone: Development of Accessible Multimedia Standards" was delivered in Session 2 of the Forum, which was entitled "Accessible contents and services: addressing information deprivation". The abstract of Mr. Kawamura's presentation is available on the ITU (International Telecommunication Union) Web site.
Please forward this link to your list of contacts: April DAISY Planet.
Those attending the DAISY Workshop/Forum hosted by China Braille Press are asked to complete and submit the Accommodation Booking Form and send it to Ms. Tang Xuefeng and Ms. Wu Rina. Their email addresses are provided in the set of files described in the previous news item about this workshop: Details for the DAISY Forum in Beijing.
The first DAISY workshop in China will be held April 25 and 26 following the W4A International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility and WWW2008: Seventeenth International World Wide Web Conference. This forum is co-hosted by the China Braille Press and the DAISY Consortium. Details for the DAISY Forum in Beijing, including the registration form, letter of invitation, a draft program (updates will be provided as they are available) and information regarding hotel and ground transportation, are now available.
Benetech which operates Bookshare.org, a Member of the DAISY Consortium, has been awarded the AT&T Technology Innovation Award. This award recognizes an outstanding assistive technology company that has created lasting impact through the development of assistive technologies.
Bookshare.org offers more than 36,000 digital books, newspapers and magazines in the BRF (braille) file format and DAISY (Digital Accessible Information SYstem ). For the full story, read the press release on the Benetech Web site.
The official requirements gathering activity has concluded. Since the Z3986 Advisory Committee always welcomes the community's input with regard to the evolution of the Standard, we will continue to offer this space for the submission of new requirements, as well as comments on existing ones. Be aware that the Committee will take submissions after March 31, 2008 into account, as much as possible, but the primary focus for future standards development will be on the ideas submitted on or before March 31, 2008. We appreciate the community's active participation to date and look forward to working with all of you in support of future innovation. Submitted requirements remain available for viewing and open for posting comments in the Standards area area of the DAISY Web site.
Your input has helped the DAISY Consortium to ensure that the Standard meets the needs of users who range from those who read accessible material, to producers, publishers, educators, information providers, distributors, and many other groups involved in the use, creation and/or distribution of accessible and/or multimedia content.
The Advisory Committee meets next month to plan the next phase. The Contact Us form, category 'Z3986 Standards' may be used for questions or comments. The DAISY/NISO Standard is available online on the DAISY site.
Errata to the current DAISY Standard, officially, the ANSI/NISO Z39.86, Specifications for the Digital Talking Book, are posted and will be maintained with highlighting and screen reader compatible track changes in the Errata document at http://www.daisy.org/z3986/2005/errataDaisy_2005.html.
Check out our calendar items which include 3 events in Beijing in April: 1) WWW2008 2) W4A and 3) followed by a full-featured DAISY Workshop/Forum.
EASI, Equal Access to Software and Information, will present this free hour-long Webinar on Thursday March 20, 2:00 p.m. Eastern time. Presenters will include Lloyd Rasmussen, Acting Head, Engineering Section National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. Three consumers who have been participated in the pilot digital book test group will discuss their experiences with NLS's new audio DAISY format.
"The Library of Congress National Library Service has been providing books in special formats such as Braille and talking books for well over half a century. NLS is currently starting to produce new books in a digital audio format with DAISY type navigation. During 2007 it has been conducting a pilot trial with a number of users who were provided a special player and who have been downloading books from the Web. NLS will be issuing new players to its regular customers this year and opening the new digital books for general use."
Register using the direct link to the online registration form for the National Library Service free March 20 Webinar.
The CBP has consistently followed the principle of "reader first" since its establishment in 1953. Please read the China Braille Press record in the list of DAISY Members and Friends for additional information.
The Save As DAISY XML - Microsoft area of the DAISY Website has project information and updates including FAQs, an interactive user forum, plus download and documentation links.
The 'Save as DAISY XML' add-in from Microsoft Word is scheduled for release at the end of April.
George Kerscher, Secretary General of the DAISY Consortium states emphatically, "What is needed is a "Save As DAISY" output option in every publishing tool out there, and this is what we are working toward and promoting."
The ASCLA Francis Joseph Campbell Award is presented to a library or individual who has made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of library service for individuals who are blind or have a physical handicapped. ACSLA is a division of ALA (American Library Association).
Michael Moodie was the chair and one of the original members of the committee which was responsible for the development of the DAISY 3 (ANSI/NISO Z39.86) Standard. He was also one of the co-authors of the first release of the DAISY Structure Guidelines and was instrumental in the development of the NLS/BPH Web Braille program.
Michael is retired and is the past deputy director of the US National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped.
Additional information is available in the ALA Press Release.
At the Seminar on Networking, Collaboration and Co-operation in February 2008 in Zagreb, Croatia, DAISY Consortium President, Hiroshi Kawamura, and Francois Hendrikz, Director of the South Africa Library for the Blind, discuss future plans for DAISY development in South Africa.
"Alf Morris: People's Parliamentarian", published by the National Information Forum in multiple accessible formats, has recently been published in the UK and can be ordered online from Amazon.co.uk for £14.99. It can also be purchased from any bookshop in the UK.
Derek Kinrade, the author of "Alf Morris: People's Parliamentarian" is famous for promoting the rights of people with disabilities. The book is a biography of a famous UK parliamentarian, and Kinrade has made sure that people with print disabilities could also enjoy it. Each print copy includes a CD of the book in multiple accessible formats: DAISY full text and audio, and files which allow the reader to print a large print copy, or a braille copy. It can also be used with a screen reader. The print copy itself is printed with very clear print that is easy to read.
The description ("Product details") on the Amazon site does not make note of the CD which comes with the print and the accessible formats available on the CD. It is however included in every copy. People who purchase this book are encouraged to submit a customer review, emphasizing the need for more publications with accessible formats included with the print.
George Kerscher, Secretary General of the DAISY Consortium and well known advocate of DAISY as the "best way to read and publish" is featured in a joint interview with Reed Shaffner, Product Manager for Microsoft Word in a "You Tube" interview about DAISY and the Office Open XML to DAISY translator.
The Bibliotheca Alexandrina (Library of Alexandria) is an Egyptian institution of international character devoted to the promotion of enlightened values, good governance, and sustainable development in Egypt and the Arab world, as well as elsewhere in the world. Please read the Library of Alexandria record in the list of DAISY Members and Friends for additional information.
The W4A Proceedings are to be distributed in DAISY format at the Web Accessibility Conference, co-located with the World Wide Web Conference in Beijing, April 21-25.
W4A Sponsors.
Presentations on DAISY at the 2008 CSUN Conference in Los Angeles are listed below. Please see the CSUN conference schedule for more details.
Google Inc. strives to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. Additional information about Google is provided in the Google Inc. record in the list of DAISY Members and Friends.
The four Feature Articles in this issue cover a wide range of topics and are packed with information, including the upcoming Microsoft "Save as DAISY XML" plug-in for Word. Part 2 of Tom Dinning's "Your Stories" should simply not be missed (Tom is with the Northern Territory Education Resource Centre for the Vision Impaired in Australia). Please forward this link to your list of contacts: February DAISY Planet.
Monthian Buntan, President of the Thailand DAISY Network, and DFA Project Assistant Manager, has been elected as a Senator in the government of Thailand's Upper House.
Monthian spoke at UN Internet Governance Forum in Rio de Janeiro, November 12-15, 2007. He
presented at the workshop on
accessibility standards development and the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities,
November 12, 2007.
Full scripts of the session on Diversity given November 13, 2007 are available online.
Monthian Buntan was born blind in the small village of Phrai, about 500 kilometers from Bangkok. He attended the Chiangmay University in Thailand, and was chosen for a scholarship program as a Thailand representative to attend the Minnesota University in the United States, successfully completing his masters degree in three years. Upon his return to Thailand he worked at Ratchasuda Mahidol University and established a support academy for individuals who are blind. In 2002 he became the vice president of the Thailand Blind Association (TAB). Since that time he has held the positions of Vice Executive Director, Executive Director, and President of TAB.
Mayer Max, Sharkatech Research, wrote:
"Congratulations for your unflagging efforts to help all Persons with Disabilities in Thailand, and
throughout the world.
You are providing a role model for your generation, and many to follow. You now have the opportunity to help shape national policy and the making of laws for the people of Thailand. This is a tremendous vote of confidence from your fellow Thai citizens.
I will enjoy sharing your latest, great achievement with many disabilities communities. Yours is a voice which truly reaches to all and which shares great hope for the future - for those of all
abilities.
Warmest Congratulations."
An update of the DTD used in the text content creation of DAISY books, dtbook-2005-3.dtd, has been released. It rectifies several minor omissions in the previous version of the DTD. For example, page numbers were not permitted within tables in dtbook-2005-2.dtd.
February 17, on ABC in the United States, HumanWare products will appear on the popular TV show "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition". In this episode the Extreme Makeover Home Edition team comes to the rescue of the Hughes family and their son Patrick who is a musician and is blind. The EMHE team called on HumanWare to add to Patrick's new accessible environment with their products such as the Trekker, a BrailleNote personal assistant and the Victor Reader Stream which plays books in many formats, including DAISY.
Different versions of "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" appear in the United Kingdom, Portugal, Spain and Latin America. International versions have also aired in Greece and Scandinavia.
Full details including information about Extreme Makeover Home Edition and HumanWare are available in the HumanWare Press Release.
The 1.0 beta release of the DAISY SDK (code name Urakawa SDK) includes the Java-written Data Model and API specifications, as well as the C# reference implementation. This release is not production ready, but the feature set has reached a mature state, and is hoped will raise awareness within the DAISY Community about the tangible outcome of the Open-Source strategy lead by the DAISY Consortium.
The DAISY Consortium is committed to delivering reliable and efficient software, resulting from rigorous testing and quality assurance procedures, and wants to open a dialog between interested parties (developers, decision makers) and the Consortium's developers.
The DAISY SDK 1.0 beta release should provide developers with an opportunity to visualize the potential of the SDK. The primary design goal of the SDK is to facilitate application writing.
Those who are interested will find a full description of the DAISY SDK beta release on the SourceForge Web site.
The first beta of the Open XML to DAISY XML translator for Microsoft Office Word is live on SourceForge and we are incredibly happy with the quality of this first iteration. This work was made possible by the superhuman efforts of both the DAISY Consortium and Sonata. Alas, even with these world class teams driving the project, it's still not enough for our goals. We need the input, feedback, and mindshare of the community to ensure that the final product is as good as possible. To that end, please go up to the project site (link included a little further down) and download the bits today. Post your comments on the site so that everyone can see what people are discovering and hopefully we can start to generate some really great ideas. Feel free to forward this email to anyone that you would like and encourage them to get involved. Involvement is encouraged by as many audiences as possible whether it be publishers who want to address more markets and provide the best possible experience for users, the general technology community, day-to-day users of DAISY technologies; we want ANYONE who has any semblance of interest to help drive this project.
You can find the project site here: http://sourceforge.net/projects/openxml-daisy/. If you have any questions use the forums at this location to post them. We will be monitoring these closely so turnaround time shouldn't be that long (unless you ask something really hard). Keep in mind that the bits you will get today are only a beta. Because of this there are some known bugs, cosmetic glitches, etc. but this will all be fixed in the final version. What we really want to focus on now is the quality of the output.
I also plan on posting regular updates about the project on my blog now that we are well underway. Feel free to use this as a resource to contact me with any questions you have about the project or anything else related to Office accessibility. The blog can be found at http://blogs.technet.com/reedblog.
Again, I want to call to your attention the incredible work being done by both Sonata and the DAISY Consortium while also thanking you all for your support. Here is to hoping that you find this first release to be a success!"
Sincerely,
Reed Shaffner
Product Manager, Microsoft Word
1 Microsoft Way
Redmond, WA 98052
The theme of this seminar is utilizing networking, collaboration and co-operation to transition to a world where accessible information is the norm. This seminar is arranged by IFLA Libraries for the Blind Section and the DAISY Consortium in cooperation with the Croatian Library for the Blind. Target group: Libraries and organizations in Eastern Europe providing services for individuals who are blind and print handicapped.
The Revised Seminar Programme is available on the DAISY Web site. Additional information is available on the IFLA Web site, the , and the Croatian Library for the Blind Web site.
Venue: Hotel Sheraton, Zagreb
Accommodation: Hotel Sheraton, Zagreb
Alternative Hotel Option: Hotel Central, Zagreb
On-line registration for the Hotel Sheraton in Zagreb for the IFLA/DAISY Seminar is now available. Deadline Feb. 1 A personalized Web site for PUTTING LIBRARIES FOR THE BLIND AND PRINT DISABLED ON THE AGENDA, February 27, 2008 - February 28, 2008, has been created. Guests can access the site to learn more about the event and to book, modify, or cancel a reservation from December 04, 2007 to March 02, 2008.
Participants can register at the Sheraton hotel at: PUTTI NG LIBRARIES FOR THE BLIND AND PRINT DISABLED ON THE AGENDA on the Sheraton Web site.
The National Braille Production Centre provides access to educational materials for children with a visual impairment. Read more about NBPC in the list of DAISY Members and Friends.
Feature Articles, Letters, Tech Tips, the first of a two part "Your Stories", a Quiz that is sure to challenge you, and much more are in the January DAISY Planet.
ViewPlus Technologies, Inc. (a Friend of the DAISY Consortium) and the American Physical Society today announced a collaborative, experimental project that will develop cost effective, timely, streamlined procedures for converting APS XML documents to DAISY format. All content in APS Journals, including mathematics and figures, will be accessible. For additional information read the Feature Article in the January issue of the DAISY Planet Newsletter and the ViewPlus Press Release
The 2008 DAISY Structure Guidelines are now available online on the DAISY Web site for review and comment. The review period begins January 9, 2008 and ends February 15, 2008. Following the review period and approval, the Guidelines will be available for download.
Numerous updates and improvements have been made in this revision. Samples which include page images, corresponding DAISY markup, and alternative NIMAS markup have been included. A "Show"/"Hide" feature has been added, allowing users to display or not display these images and new examples. Screen reader users should use the space bar to activate the show/hide button (do not use Enter).
Two new sections have been added: "Poetry and Prose", and, "Mathematics". There is also a "Miscellaneous" section which includes several parts specific to NIMAS.
Please use the Issues Tracking form on the DAISY Web site to submit comments or suggestions. Both the Issues Tracking form and information about submission are provided.
The DAISY Consortium is seeking valid DAISY content to provide test samples for DAISY OK certification. Organizations, companies or individuals may submit more than one item if they demonstrate different features and/or if they are produced to each of the DAISY Standards.
Please use the Contact Us form and select the "Project: DAISY OK" category to reach us about submitting samples. Also, please provide content title, your name and/or the name of your organization or company, and the standard to which the content has been produced: DAISY 2.02 or DAISY/NISO-2005, also known as DAISY 3. We are seeking DAISY/NISO-2005 content in particular. Details for submission via FTP will be provided when the Contact Us form is received.
Valid full or partial books, travel guides, television schedules, transit information, annual reports etc. would be welcome as either originally mastered or converted content, audio and structure, text and audio, or text only. Content may be Public Domain, internally produced publications, as well as copyrighted material (permission from the copyright holder to use the content for this purpose is required).
A list of the DAISY OK features, is provided in the current draft specification on the DAISY Web site.
Requirements gathering for the DAISY/NISO (Z39.86) Standard (DAISY 3) is underway and extends to March 31, 2008. An online submission form is available in the Standards area of the DAISY Web site.
Your input will help the DAISY Consortium to ensure that this Standard meets the needs of users who range from those who read accessible material, to producers, publishers, educators, information providers, distributors, and many other groups involved in the use, creation and/or distribution of accessible and/or multimedia content. Input from publishers interested multimedia content creation is also welcome.
Additional information about the process and its purpose is also available in the Standards area of the DAISY Web site. The DAISY/NISO Standard is available online on the DAISY site.
In November "Save as DAISY XML" plug-in for Microsoft Word was announced. To move this collaborative effort forward as quickly as possible, the DAISY Consortium is seeking documents for test purposes. Files may be submitted by publishers, libraries and university departments providing services to individuals unable to read print due to visual or physical handicap, educators, or anyone interested in the proliferation of accessible content.
The rights of document owners are respected by the DAISY Consortium, Microsoft, and the sub-contractors developing the "Save as DAISY XML" Microsoft Word plug-in. The copyright and any intellectual property contained in the submitted documents will be honored. All documents submitted will be used only for test purposes only. They will not be shared outside the small group involved in this project. Each person working on the project has agreed to keep the documents secure. Files may be produced in Word 2007, 2003, or Word XP. All languages will be accepted. An online submission form is provided in the Projects area of the DAISY Web site. Please note that those submitting documents are asked to password protect the zipped files and to place them in a secure area.
Information about this collaborative project between the DAISY Consortium and Microsoft is available in the Projects area. Additional details are provided in the Press Release.
An update and modification for the December Release of the DAISY Pipeline are available.
On January 4 a patch for the Mac OS X TTS adapter was released to fix an identified bug. The update can be downloaded from the Sourceforge Web site. Follow the user guide instructions to update the Pipeline installation. The patch and more information are also available in the Sourceforge Download Area.
On January 4 modifications to the December Pipeline Maintenance Release were made available. Issues addressed in the modified release are:
- The Windows beta installer was in French only. It is now localized in English
- The new Update feature was not working if the path to the Pipeline installation directory contained spaces.
It is strongly recommended that if you downloaded the Pipeline before January 4, 2008, that you re-download and re-install the Pipeline. The required downloads are in the Sourceforge Download Area.
Exegenix Canada Inc. is an innovator in content conversion solutions, including converting content into DAISY/NIMAS format quickly, accurately, and cost-effectively. Read more about Exegenix on the DAISY Members and Friends page.
The International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), the international trade and standards association for the eBook and digital publishing industry has named Michael Smith its new Executive Director. As executive director Michael Smith is responsible for leading the operational and strategic efforts of the IDPF and reports to its Board of Directors. The IDPF (www.IDPF.org) is comprised of approximately 100 leading publishing, technology, and non-profit companies and organizations. Full details are available on the press release on the IDPF Web site.
The International Digital Publishing Forum is a trade and standards organization for the digital publishing industry, representing over 90 companies and organizations. The DAISY Consortium is a member of IDPF, and George Kerscher, Secretary General of the Consortium is a member of the IDPF Board of Directors.
The Call for Papers for Techshare India, the first accessibility conference and exhibition in India that will highlight the needs of people with disabilities is now open. Paper submissions are due by Friday, November 30, 2007. Full details, including the Call for Papers, details about paper submission and registration are available on the Techshare India Web site.
Charles Gillies, Chairman of the HumanWare Board, stated in their November 13 Press Release: "As part of the ongoing development and growth of HumanWare in global markets and in order to execute long term strategic plans, the Board has determined that a number of key decision making roles, including that of chief executive officer, will be based in North America. In part this will ensure that HumanWare remains close to market trends, distributors, key customers and partners."
Additional Information is available on the HumanWare Web site.
Congratulations Gilles, you have been a very long time Friend of the DAISY Consortium, committed to accessibility and making information accessible.
The Japanese Society for Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities (JSRPD) has today released Version 2.04.00.00 of MyStudio PC, the DAISY 2.02 structure and audio production tool which is available to DAISY Member organizations at no cost.
Information about MyStudio PC, license information and links to the downloads are available in the Tools area of the DAISY Web site. In addition to the setup file, Release Note for V2.04 are provided. The Release Notes include a full list of improvements and fixes. As with previous versions of MyStudio PC, please read the release notes and uninstall any previous version you may have.
Hiroshi Kawamura, who has been instrumental in driving the implementation of DAISY forward around the world, has been elected President of the DAISY Consortium for a four year term from November 2007 through to and including December 2011. At the Extraordinary General Meeting held Monday October 8, the decision of the DAISY Board of Directors was unanimous. Mr. Kawamura's praiseworthy achievements and involvement in international accessibility initiatives are outlined in his CV.
The Master's thesis, "Appraising and Evaluating the Use of DAISY - For Print Disabled Students in Norwegian Primary- and Secondary Education" has been produced at the Department of Informatics at the University of Oslo. Miriam Nes, the author of the thesis, investigates how, and by whom, DAISY is used as a tool for learning. The methods used are questionnaire surveys, observations and interviews. Miriam also evaluates some of the software players typically used by this group of students, testing functionality, stability, performance, etc. for these playback systems.
Ms Nes's thesis is extremely informative. It provides very useful feedback for producers of DTB's, service providers, as well as for manufacturers of playback systems. One interesting aspect of her work is that it focuses on print disabled users, a user group which can benefit from incorporating DAISY technology into their learning strategy.
Miriam has formatted her thesis in HTML so that it will be accessible to those who use screen readers. It can be downloaded from the at: DAISY Web site Home page and is in the DAISY "Hit" Parade column at the right of the screen. Our "Hit" Parade features popular DAISY and DAISY related papers and publications. It is also available for download from Miriam's personal home page in PDF format.
A list of the DAISY and DAISY-related presentations at the Conference is included in the detail of this news item, for ease of reference. Information and links to the program and registration are on the Techshare Web site
See you there!
Shoqata e te Verberve te Shqiperise (Albania Blind Association) provides accessible library services within Albania. For more information please see the Albania Blind Association entry in the DAISY Members area.
The CSUN Conference in 2008 will be held March 10-15 in Los Angeles, California. IMPORTANT NOTE: The deadline for paper submission has been extended to October 15 due to problems they have been having with the online submission form.
Information about this conference is provided on the CSUN Conference Home Page.
Full details for paper submission are provided in the Submission Guidelines. To submit a paper, use the "Begin" button at the very bottom of the Submission Guidelines page.
WWW2008 Call for Papers:
- Workshops Proposals Due: October 1, 2007
- Tutorial Proposals Due: November 1, 2007
- Refereed Papers Due: November 1, 2007 (11:59 pm Eastern Standard Time; no extensions will be granted)
Additional information and a link to the WWW2008 site are in the DAISY Calendar of Events.
The CSUN Conference in 2008 will be held March 10-15 in Los Angeles, California. IMPORTANT NOTE: The deadline for paper submission is Friday September 21, 2007.
Information about this conference is provided on the CSUN Conference Home Page.
Full details for paper submission are provided in the Submission Guidelines. To submit a paper, use the "Begin" button at the very bottom of the Submission Guidelines page.
The Round Table on Information Access for People with Print Disabilities facilitates and influences the production and use of quality alternative formats for people with print disabilities by optimising the evolving Round Table body of knowledge. The 2008 National Conference will be held April 11 to 15 in Melbourne Australia. The closing date for submission of abstracts is Friday October 5, 2007.
Full details including the Call for Papers are available on the Round Table Web site.
This specification, the Open Publication Structure 2.0, incorporates the DAISY/NISO XML element vocabulary and the DAISY navigation model using the NCX. Incorporating DAISY into this IDPF standard is a significant step in bringing "DAISY awareness" to those involved in the electronic publishing industry.
The IDPF membership elected to elevate the status of the Open Publication Structure (OPS 2.0) to a Recommended Specification, an official IDPF industry standard. The specification is available on the IDPF Web site.
Supporting documentation, implementation and tools on the entire .epub standard (comprised of OCF 1.0 and OPS 2.0) are located on the IDPF Forum page.
Amongst those personally congratulated for their contribution in the announcement from IDPF was George Kerscher, Secretary General of the DAISY Consortium.
A number of companies and organizations have already implemented .epub.
The online Conference program is updated, the keynote speakers have been announced. Information and links to the program and registration are on the Techshare Web site
The keynote speakers for Techshare 2007 for Thursday October 4 are:
Axel Leblois, Director, Global Initiative for Inclusive Information and Communication
Technologies
Rob Sinclair, Director of Accessibility, Microsoft
Keynote speakers for Friday October 5 are:
Jim Fruchterman, CEO of Benetech and Founder of Bookshare.org
George Kerscher, Secretary General, DAISY Consortium
This is your opportunity to learn more about DAISY and accessibility. If you haven't yet registered, use the link provided here to book your place for the 2007 Techshare and DAISY Conference. See you there!
The Endangered Archives Programme at the British Library is now accepting applications for the next round of funding. Detailed information on the timetable, criteria, eligibility and procedures for applying for a grant is available on the Programme’s website. The deadline for receipt of preliminary applications is November 2, 2007. The Programme has funded nearly 70 projects in 37 countries, totalling £1.7 million, since its establishment three years ago.
Hiroshi Kawamura, Chairman of the DAISY Consortium and Urakawa Project Manager, and, Margaret McGrory, Vice President of CNIB and DAISY Board Member attended the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, Libraries for the Blind Section meeting held prior to the Library World Library and Information Congress: 73rd IFLA General Conference and Council "Libraries for the future: Progress, Development and Partnerships". The Preconference was held in Grahamstown South Africa, August 14 and 15, 2007. The 73rd IFLA Conference was held August 19-23 in Durban, South Africa.
Margaret has provided a short summary of each of the sessions held at the IFLA Libraries for the Blind Section Preconference. The session titles and presenters are listed here. Details are provided in the IFLA PreConference Summary Report.
Dear DAISY Members, Friends, and Supporters,
The daisy.org Web site has been migrated to a new server.
After the migration, all of the current pages on the DAISY Web site which are "asp" pages (url ending in .asp in Internet browsers) have been changed.
Currently files through the download links are not available. An update will be posted as soon as this is resolved.
FTP sites are now available and you will notice some slight differences. Documentation is at daisy.org FTP Procedures (under FTP on the Support menu).
Please use the Contact Us form (category Website Suggestions/Feedback) to report any problems following the migration so that we may follow up as soon as possible.
The ACP Conference will be held September 19 and 20 in Brussels. Full details and registration form are available in the DAISY Calendar of Events.
Copyright © 2007 George Kerscher
On July 3, 2007, Google quietly made what may seem to be a subtle change to Google Books. However, individuals who are blind or have a print disability are going to be both very excited and disappointed. For them it is not a "subtle" change. A very special hidden link was added to the Google Books in the "full view", which is exposed to Assistive Technology (AT) such as screen readers used by people who are blind or have a visual impairment.
Google Books has been of huge interest to those in the print-disabled community ever since it was announced. It is estimated that less than 5% of books published in print are ever produced in an accessible format. This scanning project has the potential of being an unparalleled source of books, and will be a huge improvement over what is available in the mainstream for persons who are blind or print disabled. The DAISY (www.daisy.org) standard, which provides structured and multimedia access to a book, still provides the ultimate in accessibility. Other disability groups as well as the educational community are just now learning the benefits of DAISY and the multiple projects funded by The DAISY Consortium. Google technology so far does not compete well with the accessible features of DAISY books, but the scanning of millions upon millions of books from libraries around the world marks the serious start of the digitization of the world's print heritage. Now, with Google Books, not only is the Web indexed by the Internet giant, but the wealth of knowledge stored in our libraries can be found and accessed. The search function in Google Books returns titles that have a match in the text of the book. Words which are found are highlighted on the image of the printed page from the original book. If the title is in copyright a "snippet" is visible, but if it is out of copyright, the "full view" of the page is displayed.
The very special hidden link that is available from the full view now allows people who use access technology with their computers to read the text. Prior to this change, it was not possible, the views were images, not text. At the National Federation of the Blind's Annual Conference held on July 5, Dr. T.V. Raman, who is himself blind and who works for Google, said, "Consider this to be step zero of many steps that will benefit blind and print-disabled persons throughout the world." Indeed this is a significant step; having hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of books available to a population that thirsts for information, but which is blocked from using traditional mechanisms for reading, is without precedent and of extreme importance.
How does the accessible version work? Google inserts a "hidden" link to the OCR view of the text. With Assistive Technology in place it is prominently presented as the first item in the full view. This link takes the reader to a completely accessible interface to the book. Normal keyboard commands that screen readers typically use are all present in this interface. A person with a disability using Assistive Technology can read the OCR text, move to the next or previous page, go to pages, and use the table of contents.
If sighted users have the loading of images turned off, the link is exposed, but it is very difficult to find. Sighted users have the better option to "view plain text" which substitutes the image view with the scanned text . The presentation from the new hidden link provides the same functionality, but in a much more screen reader friendly approach.
However, there is an inequality that must be addressed immediately. Reading off-line is supported by Google Books. There is an option to download a PDF version of full view books, but because these are only images of the pages Assistive Technology can not present the information to the blind reader. This functionality is therefore only available to the sighted community. At present there is no option for readers who are blind or have some other print disability to download an entire book as a zip file for off-line reading. Most people who use alternatives to print books use some kind of portable reading device. Very few people do their reading online and without a download feature there is this glaring inequality between the reading options for sighted and users who are blind or print disabled. I trust this is one of the many improvements which Raman references.
In addition, those unable to see the screen cannot access the "limited" (snippet) view, and there are no links to sites where someone who is blind or has a print disability can go to get an accessible commercial version or a high quality version with figure descriptions and other important features from a library serving persons with disabilities, for example, Recording For the Blind and Dyslexic (RFB&D) in the USA or one of the many other libraries which make up the DAISY Consortium and serve the blind and print-disabled population around the world.
Raman believes that the Google Book search is tremendous for research purposes, but that it is not intended to replace traditional libraries or bookstores. Nonetheless, sighted persons can download the whole book for free. Raman said, "As a blind person, I want the same access as anybody else. I eventually hope we can link to a place where the blind person can get the accessible version in the format they want with figure descriptions and all, like from Recording For the Blind & Dyslexic." Indeed once commercial digital publications become accessible through Assistive Technology, the Google Book search should lead the reader using Assistive Technology to a site where the book can be purchased or to a library site that provides the book in the high quality DAISY format, braille, or large print, just as it does for sighted readers. Never the less it is a fact that the Google collection contains more titles than are in all the libraries serving the blind throughout the world. One must recognize that the Google content may be the only source for accessing many of these titles. It is not perfect. The OCR errors are quite obvious. These are not normally apparent to sighted readers because they are looking at the image of the page rather than the plain text view. The Google Book search, optimized for scanned materials, still yields outstanding results with the searches. Raman said, "The OCR errors are there, but this will get better over time." By this Raman may mean that the OCR recognition approaches will be improved by Google and the errors will be corrected through an automated process. I agree that there will be the ongoing need for the alternative versions that have figure descriptions, tactile graphics and the other important enhancements that the libraries serving the blind provides.
Google is seeking input from blind and disabled users. Raman suggests that persons with disabilities sign up for an account on Google (persons who are blind will be able to use the accessible audible Captcha they have developed). They should then sign up for the "accessibility" forum. In this forum you can post messages to accessible@google.com and share your thoughts about the many accessibility features that Google is introducing, including Google Books.
I applaud the first step that Google has taken. I trust that it is indeed Google's first step toward full access to the information in Google Books. I understand that Google believes in the iterative software development process. As such, this is the first iteration of their accessibility developments in Google Books. I personally believe that in our Information Age, access to information is a fundamental human right. Any newly developed information technology must take into consideration the needs of blind and print disabled readers from the beginning; doing anything less is simply wrong and a violation of our human rights. Nobody benefits more from Google's first step than readers who are blind or have a print disability. Now let's take more steps towards equality starting with the download of the full book just as a sighted reader can do.
Useful links
A training workshop for potential trainers of DAISY production and Playback tools, including the "DAISY Pipeline" (a DAISY conversion tool) will be held in Bangkok from June 29 to July 8, 2007. For the announcement from DFA and the Participant Background Information document, please go to: DFA 2007 Training. Details on location and lodging are provided in a link in the announcement. Note that the files are zipped. Please save and unzip.
A DAISY Cataloguing workshop was coordinated and hosted by IFLA LBS at the Celia Library for the Visually Impaired in Helsinki, Finland, on June 14 and 15. Amongst the participants were DAISY Member organizations from Australia, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, and the USA.
A steering committee was established to carry future plans forward. Members of the steering committee are Robert Axtell from NLS, Richard Wilson from CNIB, Christian Wallin from DBB and Marcus Westlind from TPB.
More information about the workshop is available on the Celia Web site.
The RNIB recording of 'Narrow Dog To Carcassonne' has won the APA 'Audies' award for 2007 in the category of best unabridged non-fiction. The awards ceremony was held Friday June 1st in New York.
'Narrow Dog To Carcassonne' was produced by RNIB both as a DAISY DTB for RNIB users and also as a commercial audio book on CD.
- Published by ISIS Publishing
- by Terry Darlington
- Narrator: Steve Hodson
A list of the 2007 APA Awards is available at the APA 2007 Audies Winners page.
Development of our Strategic Plan for 2008 - 2011 has begun. We would like your comments and suggestions. Please help us to formulate the future of DAISY.
Elsebeth Tank, President of the DAISY Consortium, has prepared a strategic directions presentation which was given at the DAISY Annual General Meeting on May 3rd, 2007. Please read the presentation and use the Contact Us form on this Web site, in the "Board" category to submit your input into this crucial process. The presentation is available as an accessible html slide presentation, and as a Power Point presentation.
CBMI Australia produces Christian literature in DAISY format. Read more about Christian Blind Mission International (Australia) on the DAISY Members and Friends page.
On May 12, 2007 at the graduation ceremony at the University of Montana, George Kerscher was awarded a Doctorate of Humane Letters, the highest honorary degree the University can bestow. The awarding of the degree was initiated from within the Computer Science Department. The recommendation received the unanimous endorsement of the CS Department, the University faculty, and the Board of Regents. A recording of the acceptance speech and photographs of the ceremony are available on George's Web site.
See Malgorzata's membership record in the Individual Supporter area of the DAISY Web site.
First digital talking chemistry textbook on the market designed to help students who are blind or visual impaired study chemistry along with their sighted peers.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
International Specialists See the Future for Making Print Accessible for All: 2007 DAISY Annual General Meeting
JSRPD is pleased to announce that it is making available a new release of MyStudio PC to members of the DAISY Consortium.
The Open University, which joined the DAISY Consortium as the first in the membership category of Publishers, Educators and Advocates, has an opening for the position of Project Manager (Digital Audio Project), Disabled Student Services. Full details about the position can be found on The Open University job opportunity site.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
RECORDING FOR THE BLIND & DYSLEXIC LAUNCHES INNOVATIVE LEARNING THROUGH LISTENING - SUPPORT WEBSITE FOR EDUCATORS
The State Educational Grant and Loan Scheme Agency - Office for Special Educational Assistance ensures that students suffering from a physical or mental handicap can receive education on an equal footing with other students in Denmark. Read more about The State Educational Grant and Loan Scheme Agency on the DAISY Members and Friends page.
Acessibilidade Brasil disseminates standards for accessibility, develops content, and provides materials in alternative media formats. Read more about Acessibilidade Brasil on the DAISY Members and Friends page.
The Croatian Library for the Blind produces Braille and talking books and will begin DAISY implementation. Read more about The Croatian Library for the Blind on the DAISY Members and Friends page.
DAISY Forum of Pakistan was established on September 6, 2006 with 5 founding members, with a goal to implement DAISY in Pakistan. Read more about xxx on the DAISY Members and Friends page.
Ian Kelly is a sound engineer, who is starting a business creating DAISY audio books and information. Read more about Ian on the DAISY Members and Friends page.
Bones develops, manufactures and sells portable DAISY players. Read more about Bones on the DAISY Members and Friends page.
Open University is dedicated to educational distance learning. Read more about the Open University on the DAISY Members and Friends page.
The "IFLA World Digital Library Working Group on Guidelines for Digital Libraries" was initiated and is chaired by Claudia Lux, President Elect of IFLA. Elsebeth Tank's appointment to this group recognizes the efforts of the DAISY Consortium, the global impact of the DAISY Standard, and Elsebeth's contribution to the continued success of DAISY.
The "Declaration on Tsunami Preparedness for Persons with Disabilities" was developed by Hiroshi Kawamura and Monthian Buntan, following the International Conference on Tsunami Preparedness for Persons with Disabilities held in Phuket, Thailand.
IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced that it will work with academia to build a worldwide repository of materials that will enable students to learn how to make software and information technology more accessible to people who have disabilities and the aging users. Unfortunately, most university students majoring in computer science and similar fields graduate today without learning about designing information technology for people with disabilities or aging users. This initiative builds on IBM's ongoing efforts to promote universal access of software applications, web sites, documentation and information technology.
George Kerscher, Secretary General of the DAISY Consortium, and his guide dog, Nesbit, have reached an amazing milestone with Delta Air Lines. On Thursday, March 28th, the pair were cheered by fellow passengers on their cross-country flight as they they officially reached the Million Mile mark traveling on Delta.
For Immediate Release
DBB Elected Innovation Champion of the Danish Public Sector
The Danish National Library for the Blind has been elected the most innovative public organisation in 2007 by the Innovation Cup initiative.
The TPB DAISY 2.02 reader was first released in 2002 with support for English and Swedish. It has been downloaded and used around the world.
TSM, Time Scale Modification, allows speed up or slow down of the audio component of a DAISY DTB without affecting the pitch.
AMIS (Adaptive Multimedia Information System) is the open source DAISY playback software under development by DAISY for All. Information about AMIS is available on the DAISY Web site.
Silicon Valley entrepreneur Jim Fruchterman talks with Byron Pitts in a YouTube interview. Jim is the CEO of Benetech, an Associate Member of the DAISY Consortium.
In the interview Jim says that his mission is "to use technology to help humanity." And, in the spirit of those who participate in DAISY developments, he announced "It is a badge of honor to be a geek."
This "must" for everyone concerned with access to information is on: YouTube - Eye To Eye.
This conference will be held Wednesday, May 9th, 2007, at the McGRaw-Hill Auditorium in New York City. Conference sessions to include:
- Demonstrations of the Latest Digital Reading Devices and Software
- Publisher Initiatives with Digital Repositories - the New Print Warehouses
- Digital Textbook, Interactive Curriculum and Educational Market Update
- Search Engine Update: Digital Libraries and Commercial Publisher Services
- One File Format Workflows for Digital Reflowable Text & IDPF's New Digital Book Standards OPS/OCF
For full details including the conference agenda and exhibitor opportunities, please go to: Digital Book 2007.
Published February 5th, 2007, the Specification for a Digital Talking Book Modular Extension for Mathematics for DAISY/NISO 2005 is available for review on the DAISY Web site.
Voting closed to fill two open IDPF Board of Director positions on 24:00 EST, Wednesday, January 10th. There were seven candidates for two positions. George Kerscher, Secretary of the DAISY Consortium, received the greatest number of votes and has therefore been elected to the IDPF Board of Directors.
Press Release January 18, 2007: Sir Steve Redgrave continues the campaign for the right to have books in alternative formats
Mary, who has been involved with the DAISY Consortium since its inception has accepted this honourable appointment on behalf of her team. She has received the honour in recognition of her services to people with a visual impairment.
AltFormat is an independent portal focusing on how developments in the production of alternative format materials are transforming the education of students of all ages who have a visual impairment or who have dyslexia. Plans are underway to create a North American specific site this year, and expansion into Europe and other parts of the world is planned for the future.
Policy Director Steve Noble and Senior Scientist Neil Soiffer at Design Science, Inc. work in tandem to prepare markets and create products that conceive of persons with disabilities as a seamless part of the mainstream consumer base.
They are, then, passionate in their evangelizing about rational open-source standards, focusing now on NIMAS. Steve indicates, It provides the level of accessibility that we needed. Neil adds, NIMAS is a subset of DAISY [Digital Accessible Information System], they have a set of required and evolving optional tags. Once math gets into DAISY standards, then it will not be limited to graphical images. This can make a huge difference in the amount of content that will be accessible for math.
View their NCTI Innovator Profile at http://www.nationaltechcenter.org/partnership/profiles14.asp
"Access to information technology creates opportunity for all, especially persons with disabilities, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan says in a message for the International Day of Disabled PersonsI". Please see Mr. Annan's message at: UNESCO.ORG.
For years Benetech has been striving to enable access to Bookshare.org around the world. Jim Fruchterman, President and CEO, The Benetech Initiative, wrote in his recent newsletter: "We have already received a commitment from Microsoft and an unofficial commitment from a major Silicon Valley leader which will enable us to get this effort launched next year (but we still have more to do!). We've also received in-kind support from the Lex Mundi Pro Bono Foundation, which is organizing attorneys from around the world to help get us the permissions we need to bring books to disabled people around the planet."
Find out more about Benetech and Bookshare.org at the Benetech Web site.
The DAISY Consortium is an International Member of the WBU, and is pleased to share this news from WBU.
WBU Headquarters are now located in the CNIB Centre, Toronto, Canada. Penny Hartin, past Executive Director of Blindness International has been elected as the new CEO.
For additional information, please see the WBU Press Release.
As of the week ending November 3, the AMIS project is the 139th most active project in SourceForge, which means it is in the 99.9x percentile out of 133,000+ projects.
The latest stable release of the AMIS is online for download at SourceForge. Improvements have been made to the self-voicing interface, Jaws scripts, keyboard interface, overall stability, and viewing options such as highlighting and font enlargement.
"Blindness and the Visionary" is a print publication which includes a multi-format CD-ROM with the book in various formats, including DAISY, large print, talking book, e-text and braille, for those unable use standard print.
RNIB welcomes this publication of the first "DAISY book for all" by a commercial publisher: ?Blindness and the Visionary: the Life and Work of John Wilson", by John Coles
All copies of the book contain the CD-ROM. It is available from Amazon.com, can be ordered from any good book store using the ISBN (1-900357-25-9), or it can be ordered from the publisher.
For additional information, please see the Press Release.
Many organizations are interested in including graphics in DAISY publications. The DAISY Board has approved the formation of a new working group surrounding Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG).
HumanWare has introduced two new exciting DAISY digital talking book CD players which are replacing the Victor Reader Classic desktop player series.
Jim Fruchterman, President, CEO, Chairman and Founder of Benetech has won the 2006 MacArthur "Genius" fellowship. Benetech is a Member of the DAISY Consortium.
Dolphin Audio Publishing is a division of Dolphin Computer Access Ltd. The Dolphin Computer Access new site retains its wealth of information about Dolphin and its products. There is an exciting new addition: UK customers are now able to purchase software online in a new easier to navigate interface. The new site also includes access to downloadable brochures, manuals, the latest news headlines from Dolphin, details of events and copies of all of Dolphins past newsletters.
I R T I releases eClipseWriter Personal Edition Version 2.2 Upgrade and eClipseWriter Professional; introduces eClipseWater, a web deployment tool; and launches a new revolutionary tutorial and product manual library.
The DAISY Working Group on Mathematics has developed a draft specification for a modular extension to the DAISY/NISO Standard. This draft specification is based on the W3C's MathML recommendation. The working group is seeking feedback on the draft.
We invite review and comments. A zip file of examples are provided from the draft modular extension.
The working group would like comments to be submitted no later than October 10, 2006. Please use the "Contact Us" form from the DAISY Web site and select the category MathML-in-daisy.
The draft specification is available from the MathML project area from the DAISY Web site. The direct link to the specification is:
Mathematics Modular Extension Draft Specification
The DAISY/NISO 2005 Standard Advisory Committee is issuing a maintenance update. The XML DTD, called DTBook, has been updated to resolve a number of issues that have been submitted. This update does not impact content produced under the previous version. Everybody is encouraged to start using this new version in their production.
The 73rd IFLA Annual Conference and Council will be held August 19-23 2007 in Durban, South Africa. An abstract of a proposed paper is required by 31 October 2006. Subject: Best practice in library services for print disabled children
The DAISY OK Working Group invites comments and suggestions on the DAISY OK Requirements for Reading Systems and Books.
Xml-text specializes in the production of educational materials in DAISY format and in other requested formats.
The UN AdHoc Committee, at the end of it 8th session, adopted the draft International Convention on the Rights of Persons With Disabilities (PWDs) at 8:00 PM Eastern Standard time, at the UN Headquarters building in New York. For the first time, human rights and fundamental freedoms of PWDs are recognized and guaranteed at the international level. The adopted text will go to the drafting committee before being adopted formally by the UN General Assembly by the end of this year.
For the first time in the history of international law in a UN document that the final clause contains the mandatory statement on accessibility "The text of this convention shall be made available in accessible format."
Monthian Buntan is the head of the Thai delegation, and has participated actively from the beginning through this four year process. This is the beginning of huge step towards full and effective participation of PWDs in society.
Objective Systems Pty Ltd has developed software that automatically generates a range of typeset files (including large type and new dyslexic files), DAISY 2.02 and DAISY/NISO files, other audio files, Braille (currently US Braille) and e-books from a marked up XML file. Read more about Objective Systems Pty Ltd on the DAISY Members and Friends page.
Dedicon is a non-profit organization in the Netherlands which provides access to information for persons with a visual or other print impairment. Dedicon co-ordinates and is responsible for numerous functions for the Dutch Libraries for the Blind. For additional information about Dedicon, its responsibilities and services, go to the full description on the DAISY Members page.
This Workshop will be held in the morning and the afternoon on August 17th, and a reception will be prepared for the participants. On the following day, August 18th, a tour of the Korean Braille Library and the National Museum of Korea is scheduled. These workshops will be held in advance of the WLIC 2006.
The original recording of the international DAISY Technical Conference, hosted in Stockholm by TPB in March, is available in DAISY 2.02 format from: DAISY - Reading the Future. Those who were not able to attend these interesting and informative presentations now have an opportunity to access the conference content.
Many thanks to TPB for producing the DAISY version of the conference, and for making it available for everyone to download. When you select the link, you will be immediately prompted to save.
The 10th Annual International Conference on Computers Helping People with Special Needs (ICCHP) announced today that it has entered into a webcast partnership with LetsGoExpo for the July 12-14, 2006 conference held in Linz, Austria. The webcast will be free to thanks to LetsGoExpo?s support of the event. Information and registration at: LetsGoExpo
The "Round Table on Information Access for People with Print Disabilities Inc" is an Australian national organization with members including producers and users of alternative format materials. The theme of this year's Conference was: Realizing the Vision for Accessible Information; The Way Forward
The MathML-in-DAISY Working Group is inviting comments on the approach described at: Call for Review. This is the first call for public comment.
The Secretary-General recently approved the launch of the Global Alliance for Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Development. The Alliance has been formed on the basis of extensive consultations within and outside the UN system over the past year.
Hiroshi Kawamura has played a critical role in advancing the objectives of the World Summit on Information Society and in helping to promote a transforming vision for a universal and inclusive Information Society. His contribution to advancing the Millennium Development Goals with the application of information and communication technologies has been widely recognized. In view of his leadership and vast experience, he has been invited to be a member of the Strategy Council of the Global Alliance for a period of one year. The Strategy Council will help define the strategy and priorities of the Alliance.
Hiroshi Kawamura is the DAISY Consortium Representative to the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) and has been serving as the WSIS Civil Society Disability Focal Point since 2002. He is one of the founders of the DAISY Consortium, and is the Director of the Department of Social Rehabilitation/NRCD Research Institute, Japan. For more information on on the Global Alliance for ICT and Development, go to http://www.un-gaid.org/.
You can also read the letter he received in its entirety.
We have updated the look and feel of our Web site. If you have comments or suggestions, please use the Contact Us form to relay your input. Of particular interest are comments from persons using assistive technology.
Please copy and include the URL of the page(s) and specific browser versions, including the version number and screen resolution.
The DAISY Consortium Annual Report for 2005 and the DAISY Consortium General Meeting Minutes of April 2006, in Princeton, USA have been posted on the DAISY web site at About US/Annual Reports
Ketabkhaneh Melli Iran (The National Library of Iran) is an educational, research and service providing institution. Read more about the library in the DAISY Members area.
The DAISY Consortium welcomes the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped (NLS) as a Full Member. NLS joined the DC as an Associate Member in 2005. Read more about NLS in the DAISY Members area.
Funda??o Dorina Nowill para Cegos (Dorina Nowill Foundation for the Blind) is Latin America's largest producer of Braille books and is the largest Brazilian producer of audio-books. Read more about Funda??o Dorina Nowill para Cegos in the DAISY Members area.
RSB is a not-for-profit organization providing a full range of specialist rehabilitation services to over 10,000 South Australians who have a severe vision impairment. Read more about RSB in the DAISY Members area.
This year is the 10th anniversary of the DAISY Consortium, and this special occasion was celebrated at the DAISY Board Meeting and General Meeting, in Princeton, New Jersey, U.S.A., April 27th to 29th.
The Association for the Promotion of Employment of Persons with Disabilities, www.basma.org.tn, is organizing an international conference on May 23rd, 2006.