There's something about DAISY ...

 

The DAISY in question stands for the Digital Accessible Information SYstem. It is a type of a Digital Talking Book (DTB; Digital Talking Book is a multimedia book). A DAISY book consists of the text and synchronised speech. The speech synthetised by a computer or a recording of real speech can be used.

DAISY standard was developed by the international DAISY Consortium and it was built using existing standards, such as XML (yes - it is the same XML, which is used by Blogger), Synchronised Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) and standards governing audio files.

DAISY is one of the alternative formats used by the print-impaired people. Print impairment includes a wide range of conditions which make reading ordinary printed books difficult or impossible. Examples of print impairment are: visual impairment, blindness, dyslexia, certain types of physical disability, learning disabilities. Because of its multisensory approach DAISY format is considered a truly accessible format. Other alternative formats, such as large text, Braille or audio alone are not accessible to everyone.

One of the main objectives of DAISY standard was to provide the digital book reader with an experience as close as possible to the experience of reading printed book. A DAISY book, like an ordinary printed book, contains a table of contents. Unlike the printed book, it allows to jump the reader directly from the table of contents to the chosen section of the book. Like with the printed book, DAISY book reader can use bookmarks to mark places within the book. There are other ways to navigate through the DAISY book, too: the reader can skip through the book from one heading to another heading of the same level (chosen by the reader) or move from phrase to phrase.

So, what is the catch?

In order to be able to read a DAISY book one needs a special player. Hardware and software DAISY players are available. Unfortunately, hardware DAISY players are expensive, though they can sometimes be hired (for example in the UK subscribers to RNIB Talking Book Service can hire one). The good news is that many software players are available for reading DAISY books on a computer - and many of them are free.

For more information visit:

• DAISY Consortium


• RNIB Talking Book Service


• The website of AltFormat campaign, led by Sir Steve Redgrave.