Copyright: DAISY News is the intellectual property of the DAISY Consortium. It is hereby placed in the public domain. DAISY News may be freely copied as an eText document or reproduced in accessible formats for people who are blind or print-disabled. Individual articles may be republished for nonprofit purposes; but full attribution should be given to the DAISY Consortium, DAISY News, and the article's author. For-profit organizations interested in reprints should send email to info@mail.daisy.org to discuss permission procedures.
Our vision is that all published information is available to people with print disabilities,
Our mission is to develop the international Standard and implementation strategies for the production, exchange and use of Digital Talking Books in both developed and developing countries, with special attention to integration with mainstream technology to ensure access to information for people with print disabilities.
Welcome to DAISY News, and a particularly warm welcome to our new Members and Friends. You will see from this issue that the DAISY Consortium continues to go from strength to strength. At our General Meeting in May, we heard about lots of exciting new ventures from our Members and Friends, but perhaps the most significant development is that more of our members are implementing digital accessible information services, growing the world library by over 1000 books a month.
Sharing information is the key to our success, and I am pleased that our new Web site continues to develop as the Consortium's central resource in this respect. However, we can only make it truly useful with your help, so please visit the site, and give our staff some feedback. Please also use the online form at www.daisy.org/news/Interactive.html to tell us about any significant achievements and success stories so that we can be sure to feature your organisation.
The Board met most recently in Glasgow, where, amongst other issues, we considered further developments to our marketing plan. We will be looking at new ways to recruit more members and friends, so if you are aware of organisations who you think should join the Consortium, please send email to info@mail.daisy.org to let us know.
The summer has seen some changes in our staff. Bill Jolley has now left the position of Secretary General and, after two years as a Board Member, Peter Osborne has taken on the challenges of this role for us. Peter has recruited Jennifer Sutton as the editor of our Web site, and Louise Hallsworth as a full-time Personal Assistant for the Consortium. I am proud of the world-class staff team we have developed and thank those members who employ the staff on our behalf and make it possible for us to achieve so much.
Thanks to the vital collaboration among staff, Members and Friends, the Consortium is, and will always be, a successful platform for promoting a Better Way to Read!
I am delighted to join the DAISY Consortium as Secretary General and look forward to joining our world-class staff as we move forward with our objectives. As a member of the Board, I recognised the amount of work our staff do on behalf of the Consortium, and I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of them for continuing to drive our efforts.
Making sure that members and friends are continually updated on developments impacting on our work is where I will be focusing much of my energy. I have already had the opportunity to talk to many organisations about their plans for implementation, and I look forward to speaking to all of you over the coming months. I will do what I can to help you develop your services, so please contact me by email: info@mail.daisy.org, or by telephone: +44 (0) 1733 375008.
The strength of the Consortium is the ability to share experiences and information so that we can all benefit from developments throughout the world. We are developing our Web site as a central point of information, and I encourage you to make it one of your most frequently visited sites, using the facilities we are developing to give us information as well as learning about the experiences of others.
During the last several months, the Consortium has had the pleasure of warmly welcoming a number of new Associate Members and Friends as listed below. Take a look at the list of Members and Friends at www.daisy.org/about_us/members.php to read a bit more about what each organization does.
In my position as Editor of DAISY News, I'm pleased to assure you that newsletter production is back in full swing! This issue is packed with information, but we expect to distribute shorter and more frequent issues of DAISY News in the future. I have already collected some content for the next issue. We are making plans for it to focus particularly on information about production, playback, and conversion tools available from our Friends and Members. If your organization has information about tools to share, please start thinking about an article. You will be hearing more about this upcoming issue and writing guidelines for it via our email lists. Stay tuned.
During the last several months, a number of new people have joined the Consortium's staff. Here is a brief introduction to each of them and a description of how each will be actively supporting all Members and Friends.
Peter Osborne is responsible for supporting the Board as they develop the strategic plan. He will be working to recruit new members and friends and will also look at ways of securing finance for the Consortium.
"I will spend as much time as I can talking to members and friends, finding out more about how the Consortium can develop to suit them, and feeding information back to the Board."
Peter has been instrumental in the launch of RNIB's digital talking book service and joins the Consortium as a member of staff after a two year term on the DAISY Consortium's Board.
Jennifer Sutton is responsible for developing Web site content for the Consortium, and she is initiating many of the marketing activities that were outlined during meetings held in May in Toronto. Her background is varied -- ranging from implementing Membership recruitment strategies, developing marketing materials, to studying and teaching English. She joined the staff on a retainer basis in April, and in July, her employment was made more permanent so that she now works for the Consortium for 75% of her time, as a part of the Consortium's agreement with the Royal National Institute of the Blind.
As a blind consumer, Jennifer is deeply committed to the activities of the Consortium. "There isn't much that's more important to me than having timely and equal access to texts," she says. "When I was pursuing advanced degrees in English, I almost scanned myself into a coma. I am pleased to be making contributions to enable people with print disabilities to have more texts accessible to them with the added benefit of having complete control over the reading experience."
At our May meeting, the DAISY Board approved the proposal that Miki Azuma work for the Consortium in a 50% capacity beginning June 1, 2002. Miki comes to us with years of experience with DAISY production tools and in training. She has worked with the Japanese Society for Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities (JSRPD) since 1999 and has been directly involved in training with Sigtuna tools for 4 years. In addition, Miki is a member of the DAISY Core Training Team and has been closely involved in the testing of both LpStudio/Pro and Sigtuna DAR release candidates. One of the goals of the Consortium is to integrate Sigtuna DAR 3 and MyStudio PC into the DAISY training materials and courses, and with Miki joining the staff group, we are certain to reach our goal.
Louise Hallsworth joined the RNIB in August, 2002 as Personal Assistant to the DAISY Consortium, providing both secretarial and administrative support. She will also become involved in developing the Web site and other marketing activities as required. Her previous role was Personal Assistant to the Marketing and Business Director of an international Chilled Food Manufacturer; therefore, this is a totally new environment for her. When asked what she thought so far, her response was "I am very happy to be linked with an organisation such as the RNIB, and am amazed at the work being carried out by the DAISY Consortium. Everyone is very passionate about the work they are doing, and I am very keen to become involved with this project to coordinate and enhance the profile of the DAISY standard!"
If you have visited the DAISY Consortium's Web site recently, you have noticed that it has been undergoing significant changes. The new site was launched in May, and we will continue to update content and implement additional features over the next few months. It is our goal to make the site a one-stop source for all your DAISY-RELATED information needs. We want the site to be a resource to connect the community so that you can learn about what other Members and Friends are doing to promote the DAISY standard, all visitors can learn about Members' and Friends' successes, and the general public can locate information describing why the DAISY specification is the most comprehensive method for producing text and audio-based documents with built-in navigation.
When you go to www.daisy.org, you will see that we have created areas where you can find general information about the Consortium and its activities under "About Us," specific details about events in the "Calendar" area, and short reports that will keep you up-to-date about significant events in the "News" area. Often, News items that you won't want to miss will appear on the front page.
In the "Publications" area, you will find papers and presentations of general interest to everyone, as well as documents which can only be viewed by Members and/or Friends. This area will be significantly expanded in coming months.
For those involved in DAISY production and implementation, the "Support" and "Tools" areas are of particular interest to you. Here, Members can access training materials, download the newest versions of production and validation tools, report problems, and find solutions.
Since the availability of some tools and information is restricted to Members and/or Friends, we have established a log in system. Friends and Members each have a general log in which has been distributed on Consortium listservs. If you find that you are not able to access information that you feel you need, please send email to webmaster@mail.daisy.org to inquire about policies and procedures.
We are making every effort to design the DAISY Web site with access in mind, both for site visitors and site administrators. Our goal is to make the site visually appealing and easy to navigate for everyone. Generally, there are global and local navigation links that appear on each page to enable screen reader users to jump quickly to specific areas. Sighted visitors will find these links where they expect them to be -- global navigation links at the top of each page and local navigation links on the left side. Many of the site's features are implemented using a database system on the back end which is intuitive for site administrators and works wonderfully with screen readers.
As some of you may know, we encourage Consortium Members to establish subdomains associated with the main Daisy Web site that will enable materials in different languages and/or related to topics in specific countries to be posted in a centralized location. Some Members have expressed interest in developing such subdomains, and we will let you know when they are up and running. If you would like to find out more about this opportunity or contribute to a project, please send email to webmaster@mail.daisy.org.
We welcome feedback about the site and look forward to developing content that will meet your information needs.
The current recommendation, DAISY 2.02, continues to have tremendous support. The three production tools, LpStudio/Pro, Sigtuna DAR, and MyStudio PC all support this standard. The current playback systems support content that conforms to this specification.
The message for all DAISY Members and Friends is that you can be confident that your DAISY 2.02 content is secure and upgradable for as long as anybody can predict, and some say forever!
Another milestone has been reached in the DAISY Consortium's ongoing efforts to ensure a single worldwide Standard. Together with the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, (NLS) a division of Library of Congress in the USA, many representatives from the DAISY Consortium worked through the National Information Standards Organization (NISO) on the next generation of specifications that will be used by the DAISY Consortium and NLS. NISO approved the specification in January 2002 and on March 6, 2002 the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) endorsed the standard. People participating in the standards arena recognize this as a first giant step towards implementation and eventual endorsement by the International Standards Organization (ISO).
"It is one standard worldwide," says Peter Osborne "that goes by several names. It is officially the ANSI/NISO Z39.86-2002, but the common name for it is DAISY 3." Don't be confused by the language surrounding DAISY 3; I have heard it called NISO in the VisuAide newsletter, as Z3986, in technical discussion lists and even DAISY Z3986. It is not that we are trying to confuse people, but once these things move into formal standards bodies, they get names and numbers that technically identify the specification and the version. Rest assured, that we are talking about the same standard worldwide that the DAISY Consortium is working to implement.
NISO has elected to have both NLS and the DAISY Consortium oversee the Advisory Committee that will work to promote and move the standard forward. NLS is the official maintenance agency designated by NISO. Nine committee members chosen by NLS and DAISY make up the committee. Michael Moodie (NLS USA) and George Kerscher (DAISY) will rotate as chairs of the committee. A digital coin was tossed and Michael will serve as the chair for the first few years. The other members are: Dave Pawson (RNIB UK), James Pritchett (RFB&D USA), Thomas Kjellberg Christensen (DBB Denmark), Markku Hakkinen (JSRPD USA), Lloyd Rasmussen (NLS USA), Markus Gylling (TPB Sweden), and Tom McLaughlin (NLS USA). Louise Hallsworth (DAISY UK) will be the scribe for minutes.
The Committee has a lot of work to do, and some of the first things for consideration are:
There is a long list of supporting software, hardware, and training materials that need to be put in place before the transition from DAISY 2.02 to DAISY 3 will be promoted. One of these items is a "Regenerator" for upgrading DAISY 2.02 content to DAISY 3, which is something that will not be required, but we may find it to be beneficial.
The Consumer Electronics Association (CEA) is a standards organization for a wide range of consumer products. Included in this hardware focused organization are the music products, such as portable CD players, automobile radios/tape/CD players, and more recently MP3 players. The Audio Publishers Association (APA) in the USA has been struggling over which commercial audio book format they will use in the future. They see a huge decline in their traditional audio cassette market, because automobiles now ship with CD players. Many now sell their audio books on cassette and on Red Book CD, but shudder at the number of CDs they must distribute. Because the bulk of audio books sold in the USA are used in automobiles, the APA approached the CEA to explore formats for the next generation of audio books that could be played by all music products of the future.
On July 10, 2002, the DAISY Consortium had a huge presence at the discovery meeting hosted by the CEA in Detroit, the motor city. The DAISY Consortium and its members were there to promote the use of the DAISY standards that the CEA might endorse. The prevailing thinking was to use the MP3 format that has been widely adopted by both hardware manufacturers and consumers, and define a very simple set of specifications so that commercial audio books could easily be played by all consumer electronics. This resulted in the formation of a CEA sponsored working group to rapidly create a specification that could be approved by the CEA. Their hope is to have the process completed in a three month period, scheduled to finish in December of this year.
At the first standards meeting, representatives from the DAISY Consortium included: George Kerscher (DAISY Consortium), Markku Hakkinen (JSRPD), Dominic Labbé (VisuAide), Sue Arrington (Telex), Paul Lowrey (Plextor), and Janina Sajka (AFB).
The goal is to make the APA and the CEA aware of the DAISY standards and to ensure that whatever develops from this work is compatible with the DAISY standards. It should be possible for a DAISY DTB to play on one of these simple devices. The simple devices will probably not be able to provide the sophisticated features incorporated in the great players we have seen from our DAISY Friends, but a conforming CEA playback device should at least provide the linear playback of a DAISY title. We will see what features are incorporated and keep the DAISY Consortium updated on the developments.
By mid August three DAISY courses had been delivered. One of these was provided for representatives of a number of organizations in India. Dipendra Manocha has written a detailed account of this course for DAISY News.
Summaries of the courses presented in Mexico and New Zealand provide a quick overview and highlights.
This training was held at the National Association for the Blind, New Delhi from March 4 to March 8, 2002. The training was attended by 18 trainees from the eight organizations from different parts of India.
The training was conducted by two DAISY certified trainers plus two additional trainers, and was sponsored by the DAISY Consortium and HPS Social Welfare Foundation. Names of the trainers are:
* National Association for the Blind, New Delhi took initiatives to make India a part of the International community and be a part of this revolutionary development in providing access to information to print disabled persons. NAB Delhi joined DAISY consortium as an associate member for the year 2002. The training in March was organized to include partner organizations in India in this movement.
NAB's joint project with Intel in computer training provided foundation for undertaking DAISY-related activities. The HPS Social Welfare Foundation joined hands with NAB by providing complete financial support for various DAISY related activities which include: Membership of DAISY Consortium, Training for DAISY Digital Talking book production and creation of a resource centre for DAISY related technology.
The training was designed to impart skills and knowledge to the technicians of the talking book libraries of India about how to:
There are various digital talking books production tools available today like LpStudio/Pro from Labyrinten and Sigtuna DAR from JSRPD. Since Sigtuna DAR software is available to the non-commercial organizations of the country free of cost, it was decided to conduct training using this software. JSRPD has also developed a tool called My Studio PC which is much more easier to use and is extremely user friendly for non-technical volunteers for production of TOC only digital talking books.
The training programme was based entirely on practical sessions where the nominated participant from every organization was assigned an independent workstation. It was targeted that every participant would complete the full process of the production of digital talking book and would actually produce a complete digital talking book which he/she would take back to their respective organization.
Mr. Ramesh Batra, Convenor of Talking Book Library of the NAB, Delhi extended the vote of thanks. Office bearers and the members of the Governing Council of NAB, Delhi also graced the occasion.
July 15 - 19 a DAISY Training Course was given at ITESM in Cuernavaca Mexico. Fourteen participants from Latin America and the Caribbean attended. Representatives from Colombia, Panama, Chile, Venezuela, Mexico, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, and the Dominican Republic were present. This course was initially requested by INCI, DAISY Associate Member in Colombia, and preparations for the course were made in conjunction with FORCE, also a DAISY Associate Member.
The three current DAISY Consortium production tools, LpStudio/Pro, Sigtuna Dar 3, and MyStudio PC were covered in depth. Topics such as work flow, file management, and more advanced functions not currently included in the Basic Training Manual were also presented.
Lynn Leith, International Training and Technical Support Coordinator, Olaf Mittelstaedt and Rafael Perez delivered the course, with Angel Sierra Berrocal of ONCE also assisting. The course was given completely in Spanish.
Olaf Mittelstaedt and Rafael Perez completed the final stage in the process of becoming fully qualified DAISY Trainers, and Angel Sierra Berrocal of ONCE attended to assist and learn more about DAISY production.
DAISY production was introduced to nonmember organizations, and there was interest from a number of the participants in joining the DAISY Consortium.
The results of the course were positive, with the evaluation results indicating that the participants viewed the course and the experience favourably.
A personal consultation with the INCI DAISY Consortium members from Columbia was conducted on the Saturday following the course.
From August 7 to 16, 2002, the DAISY consortium conducted a Training Course at the Royal New Zealand Foundation For the Blind (RNZFB) in Auckland, New Zealand.
Five audio and production staff from the RNZFB took part in the course that covered a range of DAISY production tools, DAISY to analog conversion, the creation of single source files and full text DAISY books, and topics such as book preparation, work flow and file management.
In depth theory lessons were followed by hands-on exercises with each participant able to practice in the studio environment they would continue to use on a daily basis. The course was tailored to suit the needs of RNZFB and practical solutions were initiated and demonstrated that would enable RNZFB to start DAISY book production immediately.
As part of the hands-on exercises, five new complete DAISY titles were created in the studio, including one that contained the full text of the book as well as the audio, and a complex 'cookbook' that contained partial text with audio.
A highlight was the demonstration of these books using DAISY playback software on a laptop connected to a braille display. The reader was able to read the book using a screen reader or by listening to the human narrator, read large text on the screen, or as braille on the braille display. The same single source files used to create the DAISY text were then imported into Duxbury to generate braille.
The Training Course was delivered by Andrew Furlong.
To read more about RNZFB's transition to DAISY, see another story in this issue -- DAISY Reaches New Zealand
The DAISY Consortium core trainers will be busy holding two courses during the final quarter of this year.
A four-day DAISY course will be conducted at the NCBM office in Kuala Lumpur city centre, Malaysia, from November 18 - 21, 2002. Five to six participants will attend the course which will focus on the Sigtuna DAR 3 and MyStudio PC production tools. In addition, at Mr. Yoon Loong's request the "single source" concept will be presented.
A three to four-day course will be held in Seoul, South Korea immediately following the DAISY November Board meeting. Ms. Hae Youk has requested that the three Consortium production tools, LpStudio/Pro, Sigtuna DAR 3 and MyStudio PC be covered. XHTML full text file preparation will also be presented. We are expecting that six to seven people will participate in the course.
If you would like to explore the possibility of having a DAISY training session in your organization, please send email to Lynn Leith, International Training and Technical Support Coordinator, at Lynn.Leith@cnib.ca
During this autumn, a new opportunity for DAISY software developers within and outside the Consortium will arise, as an Open Source Model is adopted.
Open source, in short, means that the software computer code and binary versions of that code, is publicly available, without associated cost, for anyone to study, modify, and redistribute. Popular examples of open source initiatives are the operating system Linux and the browser Mozilla.
As we have seen in other similar cases, using the open source model within the DAISY domain is a way to create benefits for both developers and end users. Janina Sajka, one of the many advocates of the open source model, put it this way:
This new approach values sharing because our goal is not competition, but rather better access to published information for persons who are blind or otherwise print disabled. Sharing enables us to avoid duplicative work. It enables us to focus on delivering software tools at the lowest possible cost for the widest possible audience.
By utilizing different kinds of open source licenses, both non-commercial and commercial agencies can benefit from this model. For example, software licensed under the GPL license, may not be used in, or sold as, proprietary software. On the other hand, software licensed under the LGPL license, allows inclusion of Open Source software modules in commercial applications, as long as any enhancements made to the open sourced module remain open source.
The DAISY Software Initiative will establish a project homepage at http://sourceforge.net. This is a Web-based project management service serving over 29,000 open source software development projects worldwide. A dedicated page at the DAISY Web site www.daisy.org will contain additional information for agencies and individuals that want to join the project.
During the coming year, we will se several DAISY software projects going into open source. Announcements will be made on occasion.
Read more on the Open Source Model at www.opensource.org/, The GNU Project www.gnu.org/ and the Free Software Foundation www.fsf.org.
In May 2002, a working group within the consortium developed and presented a Protected Digital Talking Book (PDTB) specification. This specification has been created to support talking book programs in libraries and agencies which operate under legally-mandated requirements to protect intellectual property. This process is often referred to as IPP - Intellectual Property Protection.
The PDTB specification has been designed to be flexible in order to meet different needs of different agencies in different countries. While there is a minimum set of requirements that all PDTBs must meet, libraries and agencies will be able to adopt the optional components that best suit the requirements within their countries. By using a common PDTB specification worldwide, the DAISY Consortium hopes that interlibrary loans between member organisations will be facilitated.
The process is twofold for agencies that are required to distribute Protected Digital Talking Books:
During the last eight months, screen reader scripts for various DAISY production tools have been developed. Currently available in the download section of the DAISY website are:
These scripts greatly improve access to these applications by people with print disabilities.
We wish to thank Monthian Buntan, Chaiya Intasoie and Tam Jatunam of Ratchasuda College in Thailand for providing their time and expertise to develop the Jaws scripts. Anyone who uses these scripts may feel free to submit bug reports and/or ideas on improvement to the newly formed script development group within the Consortium. Email address is jfw-dev@mail.daisy.org.
We also wish to thank Dolphin Computer Access Ltd for creating and providing the MAP files for use with the Supernova product line.
In July, the DAISY 2.02 Validator was released in a Beta 2 version to the Technical Developments and Core Trainer groups for testing. This validator has several intended purposes:
The Validator includes a full conformance testing mode which performs tests on almost every possible technical aspect of a DTB, and a light mode which performs tests on those aspects needed to guarantee problem free playback.
The validator will be licensed as open source using a LGPL license, so that in addition to non-commercial use, commercial production tool manufacturers may utilize parts of, or all of the code as an integral part of their applications. (See DAISY Software Initiative above.)
A beta 3 is expected in late October or early November.
Imagine that you have just been handed a plane ticket that will permit you to fly around the world. Join us as we take you on a whirlwind tour to six countries that have been making great progress in producing DAISY books. A lot has been going on in the last few months!
Fasten your seat belt because we are almost ready to take off. Our first stop will be Canada. We hope you enjoy your flight . . .
The Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB) is converting many of the analog books in its 60,000 book library to DAISY digital talking books, and 95% of the new talking books they are producing use the DAISY standard. CNIB began distributing DAISY books in February to an initial group of 175 clients. Today, there are approximately 1,000 English and French DAISY book titles in the CNIB collection. Many of these titles are DAISY audio books, but CNIB is also producing full text and audio titles and audio with partial text. Most of their non-fiction DAISY books include the text and audio of the index, allowing readers using playback software to search on words in the index and then go directly to the page where the topic occurs. Readers using a hardware player can navigate through the index easily and then use the go to page function.
Participants in the initial stages of CNIB's DAISY service have received a catalog of DAISY titles, in DAISY format, and they can also search for DAISY books using CNIB's online catalog.
Shortly after the initial rollout, CNIB also began producing two of its eight magazines using the DAISY specification. Magazines are particularly well-suited to DAISY production as readers can move easily from article to article and have the flexibility to read only articles of interest.
From the production perspective, there are also major advantages. The first issues of the two magazines took a considerable amount of time to set up, with a template being developed for both, but from that point on, significant advantages were realized. It now takes about one half the time to prepare Reader's Digest for DAISY production that it took to format it for analog recording. It is also easier for the volunteers doing the actual recording; for example, if an article is designated to be narrated by a female narrator, but the narrator in for that recording session is male, it is not a problem to go to another section of the magazine which does not require a female narrator. If there are only 15 minutes remaining in the recording session and the next article is long, the production team can go ahead to a shorter article and make full use of every minute. It also takes less time for the quality assurance check when the magazine is completed. None of this is possible in the "analog world."
Two CNIB patrons explained why they prefer to read one of the two magazines, Reader's Digest, in DAISY, rather than on cassettes.
Aman Singer wrote:
. . . I tried scanning a few magazines, including Reader's Digest, but, due to the great amount of advertising and formatting, I was never able to read a magazine fully, and the process was even slower than reading the thing on tape. . . . Magazines and journals, even more than books, can benefit by the correct application of this technology. It is truly a pleasure to move from article to article with the press of a key, rather than having to spend what seemed like an eternity moving a tape forward, searching for a tone which was often missed, or attempting to move around in a scanned document, avoiding the advertising and clutter, while trying to decipher the mistakes made by even the best OCR technology.
Kelly Sapergia wrote:
I'm pleased that the CNIB is making some of its audio magazines available in DAISY format. I've already unsubscribed from the cassette edition of Reader's Digest, one of the magazines I've been receiving for a few years now, in favor of the DAISY version. I like the ability to jump to an article of interest instead of fast forwarding a cassette.
On September 3, 2002, Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D) made more than 6,000 DAISY titles available to more than 102,000 students of all ages. Based in Princeton, New Jersey, RFB&D is the first organization in the United States to begin distributing DAISY audio titles on such a large scale. These digital titles, known as RFB&D's AudioPlus(TM) collection, have been added to the organization's master library which already contains approximately 91,000 titles.
RFB&D has been pilot testing its DAISY textbooks and playback alternatives in public schools around the country for a couple of years, but now, the service is officially available to all members. And this technology is certainly being enthusiastically embraced. RFB&D received orders for more than 1,000 titles, more than 400 stand-alone playback machines, and 200 playback software packages in the first ten days after the launch date!
Many of these orders have come directly from consumers. "We are especially pleased to note this development," says Peter Smith, Vice President, Marketing at RFB&D, "because both schools and individuals in the United States are willing to purchase the hardware or software to access these books. Doing so demonstrates just how valuable the audio books with navigation are."
RFB&D's AudioPlus digitally recorded textbooks on CD allow instant access to any page, chapter or subheading in a book with the touch of a button. Portability, ease of navigation, and bookmarking capabilities make digitally recorded textbooks from RFB&D more effective study tools for students with print disabilities.
Customers have eagerly been awaiting the flexible reading experience that DAISY audio books offer. "The technology, combined with the human voice, allows for the highest quality of audiobook ever produced previously," says Cary Supalo of Bolingbrook, IL, who is pursuing graduate studies in chemistry at Pennsylvania State University.
Erik Weihenmayer, the first blind person to summit Mount Everest, is an enthusiastic supporter of digitally recorded textbooks from RFB&D. "I embrace the technology. It's a system that will help people be more efficient and more productive, and blind people definitely need every advantage."
RFB&D has been outfitting its 32 studios nationwide with new digital recording facilities and training its 5,400 volunteers in the digital recording process. As the transition continues, RFB&D is converting the most frequently requested recorded textbooks in its library to digital format. RFB&D's Classic Cassettes(tm) will also remain available as long as there is a demand for them.
For more information about RFB&D's digitally recorded textbooks, visit the Web site at www.rfbd.org.
To maintain and develop the Royal National Institute of the Blind's (RNIB) Talking Book Service, the organization is in the process of converting members from the traditional (analog) service to a service based on digital technology. Although the change to players and books - now using the DAISY standard - may be the most obvious aspect, we have taken the opportunity to consult with members and improve the whole service to better meet their requirements. This has lead to an approach where members are being encouraged only to move to a service that suits them, and at a pace that suits them. To this end, further improvements and new service features will complement the changes made in April 2002 until we achieve a successful move of all members to the digital service by 2004.
Currently RNIB reports that 37,355 customers are using analog tapes, and there are more than 5,000 customers who are reading digital titles. At this time, there are 12,378 analog books and over 3,000 digital titles being added at the rate of 200 a month.
Individuals accessing DAISY titles are being added at a rate of 1000 a month, all of whom receive players from RNIB as part of the service package. RNIB has now completed the conversion of all of its studios to digital audio production.
On receiving her new player and books, Mrs Joyce wrote: "I was frightened that the new machine would be too hard for me to use, but it's so easy, and I can hear the books more easily now. It's incredible."
As RNIB has begun to produce and distribute DAISY books, one of the most exciting benefits has been for students. The story of a project in Glasgow illustrates just how valuable this technology is and how it can be used in rather innovative ways.
Editor's Note: Thanks to Jake Jackson, Manager of Transcription, for the report on which this story is based.
When we became familiar with the DAISY standard, we were interested in how useful it would be in an educational environment. It appeared obvious that the navigation possibilities would be really useful for accessing all levels of educational texts.
We were fortunate to have access to funding from a Scottish Parliament fund and then from a commercial sponsor, Scottish Power. We also had the enthusiastic support from Glasgow Education.
We piloted the use of DAISY players to primary and secondary schools in Glasgow. Teachers and pupils were all enthusiastic about the potential. Initially we were recording the texts for the schools but after doing some workshops with groups of teachers during which we demonstrated the recording software, it seemed that it would be technically reasonable for them to record texts themselves.
Computers and relevant software were installed in one primary school, one secondary school and two further education colleges. Of special note is how the primary school took to the system right away. Their texts are very basic stories and exercise books. They only wanted audio versions of their books.
The benefits for the pupils were demonstrated immediately. Three children ranging from six to ten years old with no sight, who were previously using braille and who were excluded to some degree from the main class, were able to sit in the body of the class and access texts at the same time as their sighted peers. Some of the sighted children asked if they could have similar players because they were so intrigued by the technology. This inclusion into the mainstream has been one of the most significant effects we have seen.
The teachers were very active in recording texts and were able to include notes and guidance for individual pupils on disc. Eventually, they would like to have a dedicated series of CDs for each pupil including their work for that term.
The next move was that the teachers encouraged the pupils to write their own stories in braille, then read from the braille into LpStudio/Pro, and finally produce a CD. This has been very popular with the pupils to the extent that they have been adding sound effects to the readings and making a sound production out of it. The exercise involves a neat combination of skills, and they have the extra pleasure of being able to take a CD home to parents.
As we produce more texts, we are seeing more uses in terms of how pupils could interact with an audio recording. For instance, the technology may be useful in situations where students must answer questions.
Because the technology is being received so well, we are trying to establish an agreement with the education authority so that a unit could be established that would provide DAISY recordings for any schools in the region. RNIB would manage or supervise the center or act as consultant. We are certainly excited about the innovative ways that students and teachers are putting DAISY books and technology to use, and we look forward to expanding this pilot project.
Due to the higher cost of the DAISY book player, for some time to come, both digital and analogue versions of talking books will have to be produced and offered to members of the talking book libraries in India. The question was what should be the first master. Whether to do recording on cassette and produce DTB using A-to-D conversion system or do the direct recording in the DAISY format and then produce cassette version from D-to-A conversion. This second option undoubtedly had many advantages.
Much better voice quality could be achieved using less costly recording equipment in the DTB format. This is very important factor in country like India where high quality analogue recording equipment and fully soundproof environment is very rare in talking book production centres.
It takes much less time to produce DTB directly than producing the DTB from A-to-D conversion method. More over, it takes very less time and effort to produce cassette version from master in DAISY than producing DAISY book from master on the cassette.
Considering these facts, it has been decided that from November 1st, at NAB Delhi, all new books will be recorded directly in digital format using Sigtuna DAR software.
DAISY is taking another step forward in Thailand.
On December 24, 2001, HRH Princess Mahachakri Sirindhorn came to grace the grand opening of Ratchasuda College Mahidol University. There, HRH saw the DAISY Exhibition and met many key persons concerning DAISY development including Mr. Hiroshi Kawamura. Shortly after that, the regional electric authority (Thailand) presented 5,000,000 baht to HRH, and this money was designated as the fund to start a DAISY production house at the Ratchasuda Foundation.
Today, the production unit is in full operation and has produced more than thirty new DAISY titles in less than two months.
Meanwhile, the Thailand National Committee on DAISY Production and Services (TNCD) is moving ahead by preparing to launch a production site at the National Library for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLBP). NLBP is likely to receive a contract from the Ministry of Education to produce some DAISY titles for blind and print disabled students. Currently NLBP is in the process of starting an experimental production site in the prison. Mr. Monthian Buntan, first-vice president of Thailand Association of the Blind (TAB) and Secretary of TNCD made a half day visit to the Central Female Prison on August 21, 2002 and found this house of 6,000 female prisoners to have great potential for DAISY production, both in Thai and foreign languages.
The studios of the Royal New Zealand Foundation for the Blind have begun recording talking books and magazines using LpStudio/Pro and Sigtuna.
In October 2000 we started to produce digital recordings using FastEdit, a PC editor. The wave files were transferred to the LC 4-track cassette format with the Edat card from Telex. The digital recording process was initially somewhat less flexible than the analog equipment we had been using, but as our reel tape stocks had run out, we took the plunge into digital.
Earlier this year LpStudio/Pro was released in its most stable version to date. We switched our PCs to the Windows® 2000 operating system. From Telex we bought the N2DAISY and N2TAPE solutions which allowed us to transfer titles from our analog tapes, as well as output our digital recordings not only to LC 4-track cassettes, but also to 2-track cassettes and CD Audio and, of course, to DAISY CDs.
The final success came just a month ago with some ten days of training from Andrew Furlong. Andrew worked with the studio team and our technicians and the results have been extremely worthwhile.
While they were practising, they produced a fully structured DAISY book with complete text. The first DAISY full text title was the latest issue of The School Journal, a New Zealand publication whose history dates back many years. The text of course came up on the PC's screen, but better still for me, also across my braille display.
It is very early days for us. We are still recording with minimal DAISY markup as our outputs will continue to be primarily on to cassette for probably years to come. Nonetheless, we are on our way to the ultimate conversion of all our talking book library service to structured audio.
We could not have achieved this great milestone without the help of Andrew Furlong, our trainer, and the considerable commitment of our studio staff and technicians. We also want to thank Blake Ericson and the team at Telex who rushed to help us during training with urgently needed software, which works just fine.
Andrew's training was fully funded by the DAISY Consortium. Our special thanks to the DAISY Board and the training team who approved this.
. . . and now, please prepare to board the flight that will take you back to your own country. This concludes your tour around the world with DAISY. We hope you found these stories inspiring and interesting as you, too, continue your production efforts. Consortium Members are encouraged to share experiences in future newsletters and on the Web site. Send email to Jennifer Sutton, webmaster@mail.daisy.org if you have a story to tell.
The DAISY Consortium will be represented at the CSUN conference to be held from March 17-22, 2003. We will be holding a "DAISY Day" on Friday, March 21.
The Consortium's General Meeting will be held in amsterdam on May 13, 2003. We are planning a technical conference afterward, and you will be hearing moreabout it in the coming months.
Here is a handy list of DAISY Consortium Web site links and email addresses.
