Latest News

Hosted by AltFormat.org and supported by Dolphin Computer Access, international alternative format creation expert Mattias Karlsson will be offering four mini-training workshops during the AHEAD 2009 conference. Each session will offer the attendees an insight into the alternative format creation process, from the beginning as a raw source file, through to conclusion as quality DAISY, Braille, large print & MP3. Details are available on the Dolphin Computer Access Ltd. website.

The National Federation of the Blind (NFB) and the American Council of the Blind (ACB) filed suit against Arizona State University (ASU) to prevent the university from deploying Amazon’s Kindle DX electronic reading device as a means of distributing electronic textbooks to its students because the device cannot be used by blind students. Darrell Shandrow, a blind ASU student, is a named plaintiff in the action. The Kindle DX features text-to-speech technology that can read textbooks aloud to blind students. The menus of the device are not accessible to the blind, however, making it impossible for a blind user to purchase books from Amazon’s Kindle store, select a book to read, activate the text-to-speech feature, and use the advanced reading functions available on the Kindle DX. In addition to ASU, five other institutions of higher education are deploying the Kindle DX as part of a pilot project to assess the role of electronic textbooks and reading devices in the classroom. The NFB and ACB have also filed complaints with the Office for Civil Rights of the U.S. Department of Education and the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, asking for investigations of these five institutions, which are: Case Western Reserve University, the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia, Pace University, Princeton University, and Reed College. The lawsuit and complaints allege violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The full press release is available on the Reading Rights Coalition website.

The EU-Japan Cooperation Event held in Tokyo on June 18, 2009, was part of a COJAK-supported cooperation event series that includes the 2nd “EU-Japan Cooperation Forum on ICT research” that will take place in Brussels on July 2, 2009. Around 60 representatives from academia, research institutes and companies based in Japan have participated. The DAISY Consortium was represented by Hiroshi Kawamura. His presentation "Digital Accessible Information System, a case study on Japan-EU collaboration" is available on the EU-Japan ICT Cooperation website.

Helen Keller Day is a community event exploring how and why to employ, educate, entertain, and engage everyone through virtual worlds. It is a day dedicated to raising awareness about the Second Life residents who cope with disabilities. The 24-hour Second Life event will be held all day Saturday, June 27.

The DAISY Pipeline is a cross-platform, open source transformation utility, supporting conversion to and from a wide variety of file formats. Learn more by listening to the recorded webinar that has now been posted to the DAISY Pipeline Project area of the DAISY website.

AKEP (Working Group for Electronic Publishing) is run by the German Publishers Association. They recognize innovative young people annually with their Junior Award. Wolfgang Eberius, the recepient of the 2009 Junior Award, created a web-based DAISY Player. Details as well as Screencasts are available on the DAISY Web Player website.

Acapela Group is dedicated to accessibility and works tirelessly to help make information accessible to everyone, whatever their disability.

Dolphin Computer Access has produced a set of helpful, easy to follow and free How to Guides. These guides will guide you step-by-step through each stage of the EasyConverter altformat conversion process. They are available for download from the Dolphin website in either PDF or Microsoft Word formats.

The VoiceOver screen reader made popular on the Mac is now a standard feature on iPhone 3G S. It is the first gesture-based screen reader. Details are available on the Apple website.

José is very interested in the development of DAISY standards. He produces audiobooks for the blind and understands the benefits of creating materials in accessible formats. More information is available in the list of DAISY Members and Friends.

Amazon has made more books soundproof. The term soundproof books was used by George Kerscher and Jim Fruchterman in a 2002 article in First Monday. For more information on the dispute over text to speech in Kindle 2, see http://www.readingrights.org. The list of soundproof books can be found on the KEI Staff blog.

In addition to Braille and electronic text, Using The Accessible iPod is also available in DAISY format, both on CD and for download. For readers who choose to download the DAISY version, broadband connection is recommended, as the file is over 60 MB in length. More information is available on the National Braille Press website.

The DAISY (ANSI/NISO Z39.86 Specifications for the Digital Talking Book) Authoring and Interchange Framework - ZedAI, is a specification that defines an XML-based framework which can be used by content producers to represent various types of information in an extensible, standards-compliant way.

The ZedAI Framework is part of the major revision of the DAISY Standard under the auspices of NISO. This framework builds on established standards from the W3C and ISO. By using a standardized format, organizations ensure interoperability and coexistence. In addition, by using existing standards where available, we save time by building on the recognized efforts of others.

Enjoy reading the latest issue of the DAISY Planet and forward this link to your contacts - DAISY Planet: May 2009.

On May 25th, 2009, the governments of Brazil, Ecuador and Paraguay submitted a proposal to the 18th Session of the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) entitled "Proposal by Brazil, Ecuador and Paraguay, relating to Limitations and Exceptions: Treaty proposed by the World Blind Union (WBU)". The English version of this country proposal was distributed to SCCR The English text of this country proposal was distributed to SCCR Member States and Observers on Tuesday, 26 May 2009. Read more on the Knowldege Ecology Notes blog.

The 3d European eAccessibility Forum featured several industry experts and focused on the application of new technologies for a better inclusion of people with disabilities at the workplace. The DAISY Consortium was represented by CFO Bernhard Heinser. All presentations have now been published on the eAccessibility Forum website.

The preparation of the DAISY International Technical Conference from September 23-25, 2009 in Leipzig, Germany is progressing! Abstracts for presentations will be accepted until May 31st, 2009. Please use the application form which is available online on the DAISY2009 Conference website.

Translated versions of AMIS can be downloaded as standalone language packs or as a complete AMIS installer from the AMIS project page.

gh, LLC holds webinars and training sessions in an effort to bridge the gap between what their customers know and can potentially do with the gh Player. This personal touch allows current and prospective consumers get answers to their questions and provides for a hands-on experience at little to no cost. gh, LLC recorded webinar Save as DAISY and MathML as well as slides and training tutorials are available on the gh website.

The main purpose of the May 18, 2009 hearing called by the U.S. Copyright Office and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) was to inform the U.S. delegation on copyright and access issues to be discussed at next week’s meeting of the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). Present at the hearing were members of the blind and visually impaired communities, advocates from public interest organizations, companies that develop adaptive technologies, and representatives from the publishing and content industries.

HumanWare and ReadHowYouWant have posted the first 20 titles of their Free Chapter Download Program, which includes Leadership and Self-Deception, 100 Ways to Motivate Yourself, and Bullies Are a Pain in the Brain. Each month, the first chapters of 20 adult and young adult books will be available to download in Braille, DAISY, NISO and MP3 formats. After enjoying the complimentary first chapter, readers may purchase the entire file. To view this month's selection, please visit www.readhowyouwant.com/humanware/.

The first IEEE conference, dedicated to identifying the next generation of accessibility challenges, will take place in Boston, Massachussetts, July 20-21, 2009. These new challenges arise from the increasingly pervasive use of technologies such as 3-D Web, online collaboration, shared medical records, and advanced systems for transportation and communication. Deadline for early registration is May 29, 2009. Details are available on the 2009 IEEE Accessing the Future Conference website.

TELECOM WORLD 2009, organised by ITU, held every few years, will take place in Geneva on October 5-9, 2009. ITU Telecom World 2009 provides a vital networking platform, where heads of industry can meet with heads of governments, share views, debate the future of the industry, seal key deals and get business done. Early registration at 40% discount ends on May 31st, 2009. Details are available on the ITU Telecom World 2009 website.

Susan Hall from the IT Business Edge spoke with George Kerscher, Secretary General, DAISY Consortium, about accessibility issues with Kindle and e-books. This interview is available on the IT Business Edge website.

Mobile DAISY Player V2.2, the only DAISY Player for Symbian phones compatible with DAISY 3, is now available. This new release includes support for Save as DAISY add-in for Microsoft Word, the new Bookshare book format, support for NFB-NEWSLINE's free publications offered through the NFB-NEWSLINE In Your Pocket feature (http://www.nfbnewslineonline.org) and other downloadable content. Version 2.2 also includes a new feature to convert MP3 audio files to basic DAISY books as well as a new Go to Page feature.

Acapela Group has a long history of focusing on accessibility issues. The company remains deeply involved in improving the daily life of thousands of people around the globe. While speech solutions have become a standard component in applications and services to voice enable content and user interfaces, voice customization is becoming a new trend. Acapela's multilingual speech solutions are available in 25 languages, they offer more than 50 voices. Additional information is provided in the Acapela Group entry in the list of DAISY Members and Friends.

The DAISY Consortium announces the new release of AMIS software. AMIS is a free, open source software application for reading DAISY books. It is self-voicing, therefore specialized screen-reading software is not needed. Details are available in the DAISY Press Release. AMIS 3.0 can be downloaded from the AMIS project page.

AccessTech News Blog has published a list of Internet sources for accessible books, newspapers, podcasts, music, and electronic texts that can be downloaded and transferred to the Stream. This blog post also includes links to DAISY books and related information. Read more

Chris Auld is thinking of releasing the ButterCup Reader source code via a CodePlex project. The Intergen team will probably take the role of project administrators at first and will then look to vet initial patches into the source tree. Leave your comment - ButterCup Blog.

Techshare 2009 provides an opportunity to share your organisation's work, research and experiences with an international community whose reason for attending is to learn about new technologies. Techshare 2009 will take place in London, September 16-18, 2009. It is the UK's premier conference and networking event for the digital assistive technology community. The call for papers guidance and submission form are available on the RNIB website.

In an effort to improve the availability of accessible books, Bookshare, the world's largest online accessible library, announced partnerships with leading U.S. trade and K-12 publishers. Using proprietary conversion tools, Bookshare can convert EPUB (e-book standard) files and other formats received from publishers into accessible formats such as DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) and BRF (Braille Ready File), saving publishers the time and expense of producing accessible formats. "Digital media is the future for learners and individuals with print disabilities," said Jim Fruchterman, CEO of Benetech, the Silicon Valley nonprofit organization that operates Bookshare. "Fewer than five percent of books are available in accessible formats today. Working directly with book publishers, we have an extraordinary opportunity to knock down the barriers and raise the floor of access to ensure all individuals have access to print publications at the same time." More information is available in their Press Pelease.

ReadHowYouWant (www.readhowyouwant.com) has begun partnering with The Perseus Books Group (www.perseusbooksgroup.com) and Constellation -Perseus’ digital service offering (www.perseusdigital.com/constellation), to create accessible formats of the group’s best-selling titles. ReadHowYouWant will repurpose the books into high-quality alternative formats, including 16 to 24 point EasyRead™ large print, braille, e-books, synthesized audio MP3, and DAISY. The new editions will be available at www.readhowyouwant.com on or near the time of publication and should meet the growing demand from the disability community for accessible format books. More information is available in the ReadHowYouWant Press Release.

Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic® members can now download DAISY/AudioPlus audiobooks in minutes. Downloadable books offer the same variable speed, bookmarking and navigational features as books on CDs.

The preparation of the DAISY International Technical Conference from September 23-25, 2009 in Leipzig, Germany is progressing! Abstracts for presentations will be accepted until May 31st, 2009. Please use the application form which is available online on the DAISY2009 Conference website.

An eBook Stimulus Plan for Publishing is the theme for the Digital Book 2009 Conference. This year's conference is focused on the eBook Business, Successful Business Models and Connecting with the Consumer. The one-day conference in addition to half day Workshop is part of the IDPF’s acclaimed spring educational series. Many opportunities to network with global publishing and online technology leaders in the digital book world. Details are available on the Digital Book 2009 Conference website.

HumanWare will hold an online presentation with Bookshare on April 29, 2009. Participants will discover what individuals will need in order to access services from Bookshare while pursuing postsecondary studies. This webinar will be presented by Brenda McBride, Product Manager for the ClassMate Reader in conjunction with Cherie Miller from Bookshare.

Topics discussed will include:

• How do I become a member of Bookshare after grade 12 graduation?
• If I'm already a postsecondary student, what do I need to have in place to access Bookshare services?
• As a person with a disability, why would I want to have a Bookshare membership?
• What documentation do I need to have in place to become a member?
• What is the best way to search for available textbooks in my area of study?
• What questions do I need to ask the disability resource office to receive alternative format textbooks?
• Is there software available to read Bookshare files?
• Questions and Answers

HumanWare will host an online presentation with ReadHowYouWant on April 28, 2009. ReadHowYouWant works with publishers to provide their content in accessible formats at the time of publication at a fair price. Learn about their services, online accessibility, as well as how to transfer books onto your ClassMate Reader or Stream. This presentation will be guided by Brenda McBride, Product Manager for the ClassMate Reader in conjunction with Sofia Malinowski and Tricia Roth from ReadHowYouWant.

Vision Australia is Australia's leading provider of services for the nation's 300,000 people with blindness and low vision. A software grant of over $6.6 million AUD from Microsoft will be used to enhance Vision Australia's services and to upgrade its IT systems.

BrailleNet has made 679 downloadable public domain books in several formats available from their online library. Two of these formats are particularly interesting - XML DTBook and DAISY 3 (NISO Z39.86). The books in XML DTBook format are produced from other formats thanks to software such as Save as DAISY add-in for Microsoft Word and odt2dtbook. The books in DAISY 3 are produced from the XML DTBook files with the help of the DAISY Pipeline.

Korean firm HIMS has been developing assistive technology devices for visually impaired people since 1999. Additional information is provided in the HIMS entry in the list of DAISY Members and Friends.

Net Systems Informatics and its subsidiary BarrierBreak Technologies are an accessibility consulting firm based in India. More information about Net Systems Informatics is available in the list of DAISY Members and Friends.

The first draft of the DAISY Online Specification is now available for public review from the "Projects" area of the DAISY website. At its core, the DAISY Online Delivery Specification is a Web Service API and a collection of associated industry standards. In accordance with the movement of the software industry towards a service oriented architecture, the DAISY Online Delivery Specification has a web service at its core. This Web Service API is responsible for facilitating all interactions between a Reading System and a Service Provider, including the Downloading and Streaming of content. This specification also allows for the downloading and streaming of content directly over http and https.

Design Science announced the release of MathDaisy™ 1.0 today. MathDaisy enhances Save as DAISY add-in for Microsoft Word to convert Word documents containing math notation to DAISY Digital Talking Books. "DAISY Books are the format of choice for accessible content. Now that Save as DAISY makes it possible for educators to make their own accessible content, DAISY will really take off. We were happy to work with the DAISY Consortium and Microsoft to make this happen," said Paul R. Topping, President and CEO of Design Science. Save as DAISY add-in enhanced with MathDaisy works well for teachers and professors that must accommodate their students' needs. Details of the MathDaisy 1.0 release are available in the Design Science press release.

The DAISY Consortium announces the latest release of the DAISY Pipeline, a cross-platform, open source transformation utility that transforms documents from a variety of file formats into accessible multimedia formats for people unable to read print. The new release of the DAISY Pipeline features several improvements and new features, including support for MathML-in-DAISY, Beta of Save-as-DAISY Audacity and support for the Portable Embosser Format (PEF). Details are available in the DAISY Press Release and in the DAISY Pipeline Project area of the DAISY Web site.

Here at DAISY Consortium, we have lost a lifelong friend, Mr. Hachiro Kaneko. At the DAISY Board meeting held in Ueda, Japan, in November 2005, Mr. Hachiro Kaneko, then Chairman of Shinano Kenshi Co., Ltd., was awarded a certificate of Honorary Lifelong Friend of the DAISY Consortium. Mr. Kaneko was the first recipient of this honor. Shinano Kenshi Co., Ltd., parent company of Plextor Co., Ltd., has contributed significantly to the implementation of DAISY around the world, beginning with development of the first DAISY hardware player in 1996. Official memorial ceremony will take place on April 24th, 2009 in Nagano, Japan. Our condolences go out to the family and friends of Mr. Kaneko.

Adobe is one of the world's largest and most diversified software companies, setting new standards for producing and delivering content that engages people through a variety of media. Additional information is provided in the Adobe Systems entry in the list of DAISY Members and Friends.

The University of Colorado at Boulder invites speaker proposals for its 12th annual Accessing Higher Ground Conference. The conference focuses on the implementation and benefits of Assistive Technology and Accessible Media in the university and college setting. The creation of accessible media and information resources, including Web pages and library resources are a particular focus of the event. For the main conference, accepted out-of-town speakers will receive a $90 discount off conference registration fees. Local speakers will receive a $35 discount. Additional incentives are provided for accepted pre-conference proposals. Presenter application form is available on the Accessing Higher Ground Conference website.

The Reading Rights Coalition is engaged in a campaign to obtain access for the blind and other people with print disabilities to e-books available for Amazon’s new Kindle 2 e-book reader. The new reader, which Amazon is working to make fully accessible, has the ability to use text-to-speech to read these e-books aloud, but under pressure from the Authors Guild, Amazon has announced that authors and publishers will be allowed to disable the text-to-speech function. Over 25 organizations have joined to form the Reading Rights Coalition, which has set up an online petition to urge the Authors Guild and Amazon to reverse course. Please read and sign the petition on the Petition website.

AMIS is a free, open source software application for reading DAISY books. It is self-voicing, therefore specialized screen-reading software is not needed. AMIS plays DAISY 2.02 and ANSI/Z39.86-2005 (DAISY 3) books. Improvements include:

• Improved stability
• Improved self-voicing
• Support for z39.86-2005 books
• Support for Windows Vista
• Support for text-only books
• Comes with JAWS scripts
• DAISY formatted keyboard shortcuts list
• Customizable CSS page styles
• Customizable toolbars
• Log file for troubleshooting

AMIS 3 RC2 Download as well as AMIS User Guide are available on the AMIS Project page of the DAISY Consortium website.

The Reading Rights Coalition, which represents people who cannot read print, will protest the threatened removal of the text-to-speech function from e-books for the Amazon Kindle 2 outside the Authors Guild headquarters in New York City at 31 East 32nd Street on April 7, 2009, from noon to 2:00 p.m. Please join them in an informational picket.

DAISY Consortium and Assistive Technology Development Organization (ATDO) look forward to welcoming you to the 2nd International Conference on Disaster Preparedness for Persons with Disabilities. Details are available on the Disability Information Resources website.

The Reading Rights Coalition, representing people who cannot read print, will protest the threatened removal of the text-to-speech functionality from e-books for the Amazon Kindle 2. The protest will take place outside the Authors Guild headquarters in New York City at 31 East 32nd Street on April 7, 2009, from noon to 2:00 p.m. The coalition includes the blind, people with dyslexia, people with learning or processing issues, seniors losing vision, people with spinal cord injuries, people recovering from strokes, and many others for whom the addition of text-to-speech on the Kindle 2 promised for the first time easy, mainstream access to over 245,000 books. Details are available on the National Federation of the Blind website.

Obi open source audio recording tool enables a broader audience to produce accessible, navigable information for people with print disabilities. DAISY audio books created with Obi can be produced with chapters, sections, sub-sections and pages, providing navigation to the content. Obi is fully accessible using assistive technologies such as screen readers. In addition, Obi reduces the time required to work with sophisticated production tools and significantly reduces tool costs that may create barriers for some. For example, teachers can use Obi to produce accessible materials for their students quickly and easily, and organizations in developing countries and smaller organizations everywhere can create synchronized multimedia without a large investment in new technology. Obi is released under the LGPL license and is available for download at the Obi development site. Details are available in the DAISY Press Release.

AEL Data produces DAISY talking books from any source - printed text, microfilms or digital images. Additional information is provided in the AEL Data entry in the list of DAISY Members and Friends.

In their presentation at MIX 09, Chris Auld and Reed Shaffner discussed how to maintain compliance with a number of accessibility standards (including 508 in the U.S., WCAG 2.0, and others) by using Silverlight to produce fully accessible RIAs that are policy compliant. They briefly explain how to use the new User Interface Automation (UIA) technology included in Silverlight by walking through the design and development decisions made when building Buttercup, a Silverlight based DAISY talking book reader. Video of their presentation as well as PowerPoint slides are available on the MIX conference website.

Upset that Random House has deactivated the text-to-speech function on the Kindle 2, nine disability groups are urging major publishers to activate the computerized voice that reads digital books out-loud on the Kindle 2. The nine groups sent letters to the publishers, and co-signers included The National Federation of the Blind, the DAISY Consortium, the American Foundation for the Blind, the American Council of the Blind, the International Dyslexia Association, the American Association of People with Disabilities, the National Center for Learning Disabilities and the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. Letters were sent to Random House, Harper Collins, Simon & Schuster, Macmillan, Penguin and Hachette.

The public forums at http://forums.daisy.org/ have been been converted to a Drupal platform. Navigation is easier with less clutter on the page and RSS feeds are available for individual forums. Please engage in the public discussion of issues on the forums for DAISY Training and Tech Support, the DAISY Pipeline, AMIS, Obi, MathML in DAISY, DAISY in HIgher Ed, and Save as DAISY. The forums are public for viewing; registration is needed for posting new topics and comments.

The DAISY Consortium and Microsoft Corporation announce the latest release of Save as DAISY, a free, open source add-in for Microsoft Office Word. With the integration of DAISY Pipeline Lite, Save as DAISY add-in Version 2 produces a full DAISY multimedia publication with synchronized text and MP3 audio, enabling users to transform Word documents into accessible multimedia formats for people unable to read print due to a visual, physical, perceptual, developmental, cognitive, or learning disability. Details are provided in the DAISY Press Release.

At the annual CSUN conference in Los Angeles, HumanWare announced the latest version of its Victor Reader Stream DAISY book player, MP3 player, and voice recorder. The latest release of software for the Stream is Version 3.0. It is a free upgrade software for these users who currently own the Stream worldwide. The new Stream Companion 3.0 Windows software has a new menu driven interface and support for the new Bookshare zip format.

Proposals are now being accepted for the 2009 Accessing Higher Ground Conference, to be held Nov. 10 - 14 in Westminster, Colorado. This year's Keynote speaker is Mr. T.V. Raman, Research Scientist from Google, Inc. The conference focuses on the implementation and benefits of Assistive Technology as well as Accessible Media in the university and college setting. Other topic areas include legal and policy issues, including ADA and 508 compliance. The creation of accessible media and information resources, including Web pages and library resources are a particular focus of the event. The speaker proposal form is available at the Accessing Higher Ground Conference website.

Friends of the DAISY Consortium, HumanWare and ReadHowYouWant are partnering to help visually impaired readers discover the book reading device along with the format that's right for their reading needs.

The AFB March issue of AccessWorld features an interesting article "A New Way to Find Old Friends: A Review of the Accessibility of Facebook" by Janet Ingber on the AFB website. Instructions in her article may help screen reader users who find using Facebook too difficult.

BoJo AS is a distributor of aids to people who are visually impaired. Additional information is provided in the BoJo AS entry in the list of DAISY Members and Friends.

NISO had a teleconference in February 2009 to discuss standards, initiatives and community action that is either underway or needed. NISO will continue this series on Monday, March 9th from 3:00 - 4:00 pm EST. The NISO Standards Teleconference is free and open for all interested participants. These teleconferences offer an opportunity to provide feedback as well as receive updates of NISO activities. Membership in NISO is not required, nor is registration for this free event.

DAISY Friend HumanWare will have a discussion with Stephanie Turner about the services that are offered by DAISY Member Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic. Participants will get information about membership, player authorization and services offered by Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic.

The National Autonomous University of Mexico (Universidad National Autónoma de México - UNAM) is the largest and most prestigious public university in Mexico. It recently embraced a commitment to draw freshmen with different kinds of disabilities into academic pursuits. As soon as it realized that structured textbooks are a must, it began producing them. More information about UNAM is available in the list of DAISY Members and Friends.

Early bird registration for the 2009 DAISY Technical Conference in Leipzig has started. Online registration form is available on the 2009 DAISY International Technical Conference website. Read more about the DAISY event week and this conference in the January issue of the DAISY Planet newsletter.

DAISY Consortium Member Vision Australia has been working hard at the Australian Federal Government level to gain recognition and support for the DAISY Standard. They have been very active in demonstrating its potential to key parliamentary influencers. The Parliamentary Secretary for Disabilities has become a strong supporter of Vision Australia since his election 18 months ago. He strongly believes in the potential of DAISY. All his press releases are now produced in the DAISY format allowing people with a print disability to access key policy statements, announcements of initiatives etc. There is also a link to the DAISY Consortium site on his website.

Instructional Media Department within the Palestinian Ministry of Education is responsible for producing learning materials for mainstream and visually impaired students as well as for the production of Braille Textbooks.

Version 2.0 of "Save As DAISY" add-in for Microsoft Word incorporates a "Lite" version of the DAISY Pipeline. You can select to generate the DAISY XML for further processing, or you can generate a fully conforming DAISY file set with full navigation and full text synchronized with audio. The audio is generated by the default text-to-speech (TTS) engine on your Windows computer.

Speaker for this online event will be George Kerscher. George has dedicated his career to making information more accessible to people with print disabilities. He is a renowned international advocate for the DAISY Standard and other accessible publishing standards. George is the Secretary General at the DAISY Consortium.

AMIS is a free, open source software application for reading DAISY books. It is self-voicing, therefore specialized screen-reading software is not needed. AMIS plays DAISY 2.02 and ANSI/Z39.86-2005 (DAISY 3) books. AMIS 3 RC1 Download as well as AMIS User Guide are available on the AMIS Project page of the DAISY Consortium website.

ATIA is accepting presentations for the ATIA 2009 Chicago Conference on October 28 - 31, 2009. ATIA 2009 Chicago provides attendees with additional opportunity to access the latest assistive technologies and participate in educational sessions. Submit your presentation(s) by March 31, 2009. Details are available on the ATIA website.

The National Federation for the Blind responded to a statement by the Authors Guild advising its members to consider negotiating contracts prohibiting e-books to be read aloud by the new Amazon Kindle 2. This new device incorporates text-to-speech technology. The Authors Guild states that the reading of a book out loud by a machine is a copyright infringement unless the copyright holder has specifically granted permission for the book to be read aloud.

The DAISY Consortium has launched a new YouTube channel with videos that explain the uses and benefits of DAISY. We invite you to watch the DAISY Consortium Channel’s latest video “Introducing Save As DAISY, Microsoft Word Add-In” as well as our Favorites and subscribe to our channel.

Speakers Norman Walsh (Mark Logic Corporation ), Bill Kasdorf (Apex Content Solutions), Bob Kelly (The American Physical Society),John Gardner (ViewPlus Technologies, Inc.) and Marisa DeMeglio (DAISY Consortium) demonstrated how advances in digital publishing tie into XML accessibility.

Friend of the DAISY Consortium, Code Factory, has gained worldwide recognition thanks to its Mobile Speak line of screen readers. They use synthesized speech output to render information displayed on the screens of mobile phones. Visit the Code Factory website to learn more about their products.

DAISY International Technical Conference "DAISY 2009. Connecting the Future", organized by the German Central Library for the Blind, will be held September 24-25, 2009 in Leipzig, Germany. Call for Papers is Now Open.

"International Symposium on Community-based Inclusive Information Support for Persons with Disabilities" will be held on February 6-7, 2009 at Kyoto International Community House in Japan. Details are available in the ATDO International Symposium program.

The International Dyslexia Association (IDA) is a nonprofit organization concerned with dyslexia and related language and learning difficulties. The IDA Annual Conference focuses on the latest advances in these and related fields. IDA is interested in a broad spectrum of research and practical presentations. The objective of the conference is to bring up to date information to a diverse audience that includes educators, researchers, physicians, psychologists, social workers, speech language pathologists, administrators, parents, persons with dyslexia, and others.

International Seminar on Textbooks in DAISY format - "Future of the Textbooks for All" will be held at Kyoto International Community House on February 5th, 2009. Hosts: Japanese Society for Rehabilitation of Persons with Disabilities (JSRPD) and Assistive Technology Development Organization (ATDO).

The 2009 CNIB Braille Conference will take place in Toronto, Canada, October 29-30. It will offer its registrants a variety of workshops/roundtables and presentations that are interactive, practical, skill-based, research-based and/or theoretical.

The ATIA 2009 Orlando Conference features the latest assistive technology products and services, showcasing more than 125 exhibitors, in one of the most comprehensive exhibitions in the industry. Participants can meet one-on-one with leading AT suppliers and get hands-on experience with the most up-to-date AT technologies.

WORLDCOMP'09 is the largest annual gathering of researchers in the fields of computer science, computer engineering and applied computing. Particpants can attend a variety of affiliated research conferences, workshops, and symposiums.

The International Conference on Assistive Technology and Persons with Disabilities provides a setting for researchers, practitioners, exhibitors, end users and other participants to share knowledge and best practices in the field of assistive technology. Please visit the CSUN 2009 website to register.

The National Council for the Blind of Ireland (NCBI) is asking government to include the funding of library services for people who are blind and vision impaired in the funding stream for public libraries. Request came on the 200th birthday of Louis Braille who founded the reading system used by people who are blind.

Creating accessible interactive content has become easier with the release of the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Tiny 1.2 Recommendation.

Vodafone Spain launched Vodafone Speak, an application allowing people with restricted sight to hear what is displayed on the screen of their mobile phones with the help of a voice synthesizer.

Vodafone Speak enables visually impaired people to make and receive phone calls, send and receive text messages, access call logs, manage contacts, set alarms, create calendar entries, browse the Internet, listen to audio files as well as connect to other devices via Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or infrared systems.

Hiroaki Mizukami and Amber Wang introduced the new Plextalk Pocket PTP1, a pocket-sized, DAISY-compliant player/recorder at the University of Montana Disability Services for Students.

Milestone 312 represents a new generation of tools for visually impaired, print disabled and blind people. Milestone 312 offers reliability and portability.

Michael Zacherle, Dipl.-Phys., University of Karlsruhe, and member of the MathML in DAISY Working Group, has recently written "Introduction to MathML in DAISY in 10 Small Chapters". This document explains MathML and its use in DAISY books. Zacherle describes his work as a "short starter with further references". The primary target audiences are educators and students, as well as publishers and developers of DAISY books, materials and services. "Introduction to MathML in DAISY in 10 Small Chapters" is available for download from the DAISY website.

"Microsoft is taking a comprehensive approach toward interoperability and believes that for true interoperability all vendors must be good stewards by participating in the maintenance of standards, must be transparent in their implementation of standards, and must collaborate with others across the industry," reads the spokesperson's statement to BetaNews this afternoon. "This is important to help customers achieve the interoperability they need to be successful." Details are available on the Document Interoperability Initiative website.

The American Physical Society is an International Membership Society of physicists that publishes ten online journals. They are seeking to make their journals accessible for all. Additional information is provided in the American Physical Society entry in the list of DAISY Members and Friends.

The WCAG 2.0 Standard explains how to make content perceivable by addressing text alternatives for images, captions for audio, adaptability of presentation, and color contrast. It contributes to making content operable by addressing keyboard access, color contrast, timing of input, and navigability. The new standard also focuses on making contents understandable by addressing readability, predictability, and input assistance. It takes into consideration compatibility with assistive technologies.

The DAISY Consortium is represented at the United Nations Internet Governance Forum in Hyberabad, India by Dipendra Manocha, Misako Nomura, Mayu Hamada and Hiroshi Kawamura. DCAD Workshop on December 4th included Dipendra Manocha’s presentation “Information Accessibility for Disaster Preparedness”.

"Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: Dignity and justice for all of us" is the theme of this year’s International Day for Persons with Disabilities. Secretary General of the DAISY Consortium, George Kerscher, was one of the panellists in the panel discussion "Perspectives from Policy Makers, Civil Society Organizations representing persons with disabilities, Industry and Standard Organizations", held at the United Nations Headquarters in New York today. More information about the International Day of Persons with Disabilities is available on the United Nations website.

The winners of the 2008 European e-Inclusion Awards were announced at the e-Inclusion Ministerial Conference in Vienna. Seven European initiatives were selected for their innovative uses of Information and Communication. The DAISY Consortium’s Associate Member, Synscenter Refsnæs/RoboBraille from Denmark, won in the eAccessibility category. Details are available on the e-Inclusion Ministerial Conference website.

The DAISY South Africa launch is scheduled to take place in Johannesburg, South Africa, on Monday, December 8th, 2008 from 12:00 to 14:30 local time. The luncheon is sponsored by Microsoft. Hiroshi Kawamura, President of the DAISY Consortium, will give a keynote speech. In alignment with the international DAISY Consortium, DAISY South Africa key objectives include developing and promoting international standards and technologies which enable equal access to information and knowledge by people with print disabilities while also benefiting the wider community.

The SMIL3.0 W3C Recommendation was reviewed by W3C Members, software developers as well as other W3C groups and interested parties. It is now endorsed as a W3C Recommendation. Details are available on the W3C website.

W3C announced the advancement of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Tiny 1.2 to Proposed Recommendation. The W3C SVG Working Group has published the Proposed Recommendation of Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) Tiny 1.2 Specification .This specification defines the features and syntax for SVG Tiny, Version 1.2, a language for describing two-dimensional vector and mixed vector/raster graphics in XML. The specification enables the creation of graphical content, from static images to animations to interactive Web applications. SVG 1.2 Tiny is a profile of SVG intended for implementation on a range of devices, from cell phones and PDAs to desktop and laptop computers, and thus includes a subset of the features included in SVG 1.1 Full, along with new features to extend the capabilities of SVG. Comments are welcome through December 15, 2008.

The Described and Captioned Media Program has partnered with the American Foundation for the Blind to develop guidelines to enable equal access for students with vision loss. The "Description Key: Guidelines for the Description of Educational Media" is presented by DCMP, AFB and the National Association of the Deaf (NAD).

Dolphin Computer Access Limited, a long time Friend of the DAISY Consortium and UK software company announced its acquisition of Software Express Distribution Limited . This acquisition enables Dolphin to bring on board an innovative UK software development company, most recently recognized for developing Guide and Handsfree Guide, access tools for computer users who are blind.

The 25 Tech Awards Laureates were honored at The Tech Museum of Innovation in San Jose, California on November 12, 2008 where Hiroshi Kawamura, President of the DAISY Consortium accepted the award trophy on behalf of the Consortium.

What's new in beta 4? Improvements were made to internationalization, accessibility, and overall reading experience. There are two new notable features. First, AMIS supports text-only books now in addition to full-text, full-audio and audio-TOC books. Secondly, there is a new piece of documentation in DAISY format: the Keyboard Shortcuts book that can be found in the help menu.

As a nationwide institution, Synscenter Refsnaes caters to various needs of visually impaired children. The centre also offers boarding school facilities for blind and partially sighted children. More information about Synscenter Refsnaes/Robobraille is available in the list of DAISY Members and Friends.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0 was published as a W3C Proposed Recommendation on Nov. 3, 2008. The technical material of WCAG 2.0 is now complete and has been implemented in real sites. WCAG 2.0 has been submitted to the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) membership for final review and endorsement. Final publication is expected in December 2008.

The Novosibirsk Special Library for the Blind and Visually Impaired (NRSL) is now a recognized leader and coordinator of accessible library services in Siberia, Russia. Additional information about The Novosibirsk Special Library for the Blind and Visually Impaired is available in the list of DAISY Members and Friends.

Speech Synthesis Markup Language (SSML) Version 1.1 is a W3C Candidate Recommendation. Candidate Recommendation period closes on January 5, 2009.

The DAISY Consortium presented its highest honor, the Culture of Sharing Award, for 2008 to Stephen King, Group Director Access and Innovation at the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), UK. King was unanimously selected for the award by the DAISY Consortium Board of Directors in recognition of his long-term, visionary leadership in support of the Consortium's mission to develop and promote international standards and technologies which enable equal access to information and knowledge by all people with print disabilities and which also benefit the wider community.

Co-located with the Eighteenth International World Wide Web Conference in Madrid, Spain, the conference will be held on April 20-21, 2009. 'Web Accessibility for Older Users: Are We There Yet?' will be the main theme. Older Web users can remain productive and continue working if only technologies, especially the Web, were available and accessible to them. Topics of interest range from Accessibility Problems of Older Users and End User Tools to Universally Accessible Graphic Design Approaches. Details for submitting papers are available on the W4A 2009 Conference website.

Olearia 0.90b is a free open source software application for Macintosh computers. It will play DAISY 3 (ANSI/NISO Z39.86-2005) and DAISY 2.02 books with audio content. Text only books are not yet supported. The updated version saves the play position. Due to enhancements in accessibility and code generation with the release of Leopard (OS X 10.5), Olearia requires Mac OS X version 10.5 or better. Olearia 0.90b can be downloaded from the CUCAT Olearia project website.

Students with learning disabilities may benefit from a new digital math textbook that reads problems aloud while highlighting the words on a computer screen, according to the findings of the first year of a small two-year study conducted at the University of Louisville and the University of Kentucky.

The 2009 conference in Honolulu, Hawaii on May 4-5, 2009 will explore new directions through scholarship, best practice, and international networking. One of the main themes of the 25th Annual Pacific Rim International Conference on Disabilities will be "Transforming Environment, Attitude, & Learning Through Universal Design". Attendees will focus on new research, hands-on workshops, and demonstrations that surpass the basic concepts of Universal Design. This thematic area includes Universal Design for Living and Universal Design for Learning with a special call for proposals on new technologies.

VoiceCorp AB provides start-of-the-art products and services to speech enable web-based content and other digital documents. One of the products is called the DAISY Generator. VoiceCorp is a company group founded by Phoneticom (a long time Friend of the DAISY Consortium) and entrepreneurs from the ReadSpeaker organisation. Additional information is provided in the VoiceCorp entry in the list of DAISY Members and Friends.

Odt2dtbook is an OpenOffice.org extension which supports export to DTBook (also known as DAISY XML, the text source of DAISY content). Version 1.0.1 was released October 20, 2008. It works with OpenOffice.org 3.0.

On July 24-25, 2008, the World Blind Union and KEI convened an expert group to consider a possible treaty for blind, visually impaired and other reading disabled persons. The meeting was held in Washington, DC. A report from that meeting is available in html, pdf, Microsoft Word .doc or Open Office odt format on the KEI website.

Effective September 17, 2008, Japan has revised Article 33 of copyright law to allow reproduction of texts and graphics in textbooks in formats that accommodate students with disabilities such as visual disabilities, developmental disabilities and learning disabilities. The producer of alternative format is requested to notify publishers but is not required to obtain permission from copyright owners. This development is a result of the long standing effort by Copyright Committee of the National Association of Disability Organizations for Accessible Broadcasting chaired by Mr. Yoshiro Inoue, representative of National Parents Organization of Children with Learning Disabilities, empowered by the UN CRPD. The revision of the copyright law opens up an opportunity to distribute textbooks to print disabled students within the compulsory education system (children 6-15 years of age) in full text synchronized DAISY format or multimedia with sign language in addition to Braille and large print that have been permitted.

The official translation of the copyright revision has not yet been made available.

IBM facilitated an online conversation by establishing a Standards Wiki during the summer of 2008. Seventy independent experts across the globe - from academia, standards, law, government and public policy - debated the question of whether standard setting bodies have kept pace with today's commercial, social, legal and political realities.

A minor update (Version 1.1) of the MathML in DAISY Specification has been officially released. This revision fixes minor errors and some language inconsistencies. The samples have also been updated.

The working group will hold conference calls on an as-needed basis to address issues and enhanced documentation which is maintained in the MathML in DAISY Project Area.

The AFB September issue of AccessWorld is a product evaluation of digital audio players and new access technology. A number of DAISY players have been tested by a group of AFB TECH testers. The report and links to a quick comparison of each player's features are provided in AFB AccessWorld September 2008, Vol.9 Issue 5.

Sun Microsystems granted $1 Million to the Open Source Community Innovation Awards recipients as a part of its commitment to freely available open source technologies.These winners received recognition for outstanding contributions to the worldwide Open Solaris, OpenJDK, NetBeans, GlassFish, OpenOffice.org and OpenSPARC communities.

Code Factory develops software tools for PDAs and cell phones targeted to individuals who are blind or visually impaired. Please read the Code Factory, S.L. entry in the list of DAISY Members and Friends for additional information.

"The IDA CRPD Forum has been set up by the International Disability Alliance (IDA) to continue the work of the International Disability Caucus. The IDA CRPD Forum upholds the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) as the universal standard for the human rights of all persons with disabilities...The aim of the IDA CRPD Forum is to develop a strong unified voice from civil society led by disabled people's organisations, DPOs, in matters concerning the CRPD." Visit the IDA CRPD Forum Web site.

Hiroshi Kawamura, President of the DAISY Consortium has stated that this is one of the most important submissions from the disability community on the United Nations CRPD. Pages 35 to 38 will be of particular interest. Portions of relevant articles from the CRPD Treaty are quoted, including Article 2:
"'Communication' includes languages, display of text, Braille, tactile communication, large print, accessible multimedia as well as written, audio, plain-language, human-reader and augmentative and alternative modes, means and formats of communication, including accessible information and communication technology;"

and Article 9 (f) and (g):
"(f) Promote other appropriate forms of assistance and support to persons with disabilities to ensure their access to information;"
"(g) Promote access for persons with disabilities to new information and communications technologies and systems, including the Internet;"

The IDA CRPD Forum Submission to the United Nations Office High Commission on Human Rights (OHCHR) is available on the DAISY Web site.

The DAISY Consortium is nominated for the 2008 Katherine M. Swanson Equality Award for developing AMIS software, which implements synthetic speech to make text and multi-media information available to people who have print disabilities such as visual impairments, cognitive or learning disabilities such as dyslexia, and people who are unable to hold a keyboard or printed publication. Details are provided in the DAISY Press Release.

The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) has announced a call for papers for a Special Issue of ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing (TACCESS). This special issue will focus on aging and information technologies and will "explore specific opportunities and challenges and solutions for older adults and the increasing deployment of complex IT systems." Full details including paper topics and submission deadlines are provided on the ACM Web site.

In addition to the contract for digital talking book (DAISY) players which was awarded to Shinano Kenshi/Plextor (see From DAISY Prototype to the Largest DTB Player Contract Ever Awarded in the August DAISY Planet) NLS has awarded a contract for Digital Talking Book cartridge mailing containers, and for training for the staff of 128 libraries serving blind and physically handicapped readers throughout the U.S and its territories (see NLS FLASH for additional details ). A further contract for the manufacture of audio flash cartridges has been announced. The contract with Northstar Systems Inc. is for both 512 MB and 1 GB cartridges, with initial contract funding of more than $6.2 million US.

Activated Content is a recognized leader in digital audio watermarking with its own patented technology. Please read the Activated Content record in the list of DAISY Members and Friends for additional information.

Nominated by the DAISY Consortium, Dipendra Manocha has been elected as an International Members representative on the WBU (World Blind Union) Executive Committee. He will sit on the Committee for the next four years with Larry Campbell of ICEVI (International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment) who has been endorsed for his second term.

In effect since the 6th WBU General Assembly in Cape Town, December 2004, WBU International Members are entitled to nominate two members of the WBU Executive Committee.

Mr. Hiroshi Kawamura, President of the DAISY Consortium, received the Dr. Dayton M. Forman Memorial Award from the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (CNIB). The award recognizes Mr. Kawamura's work to ensure equitable information services for people with print disabilities throughout the world. Details are provided in the DAISY Press Release.

Competition organizers, AltFormat.org, were deluged by creative, inspiring and heartfelt stories written by primary and secondary school students who have a print disability.

The awards event, held at the House of Commons in London UK, was hosted by Mike Foster MP and David Blunkett MP. Sir Steve Redgrave, five time Olympic rowing gold medalist who gave out the award commented, "This AltFormat story competition has clearly allowed the children's writing skills to flourish, safe in the comfort of their spelling and grammar are not being judged...I'd have quite liked to have had that opportunity available to me whilst I was at school." Sir Steve also has dyslexia.

The nine finalists, along with their parents, couldn't contain their delight as their imaginative stories were brought to life and played as multi sensory DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System) digital talking books.

David Blunkett announced a pilot that will take place later in 2008 to transfer electronic books from publishers to schools to help deliver altformats in a speedier manner to young students, adding that the availability of electronic files that can be transformed into digital talking books, large print or braille will create a more level learning environment for everyone with a visual or print disability.

The winning students and their schools received laptops, ipods and alternative format software worth £25 000 (provided by competition sponsors Dolphin Computer Access).

Information about the Altformat Story Competition and the nine winning stories is available at AltFormat.org.

Kerscher accepted the award by teleconference to Linz, Austria during the ICCHP Conference on the evening of July 10. This is the third prestigious award presented to the DAISY Consortium in less than two months. All are in recognition of the Consortium's work in the development and promotion of international standards and technologies which enable equal access to information and knowledge by all people with print disabilities and which also benefit the wider community. Details are provided in the DAISY Press Release.

Kerscher, DAISY Consortium Secretary General, has been named among the first recipients for the Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award which recognizes individuals and organizations working in the field of blindness that have made outstanding contributions toward achieving the full and equitable integration of individuals who are blind into society. Full details are provided in the DAISY Consortium press release.

The DAISY Consortium Annual Report for 2007 is now available and can be read online or downloaded as a zip file.

Duxbury Systems, Inc. and Design Science, Inc. have announced "the availability of Duxbury Braille Translator™ (DBT) version 10.7 with support for direct import of Microsoft Word documents containing mathematical equations created with MathType™. This improvement will allow users to author math with MathType in MS Word and then translate those materials to braille via DBT for Windows." Additional information is available in the Design Science Press Release dated June 23, 2008.

The Universidad Miguel Hernández in Elche (Alicante) has published the first Spanish printed book that includes a CD-ROM with the audio version in DAISY format.

Accessible Digital Books: from Word to DAISY Seminar, June 23, 2008, from 9:30 - 12:30.

This seminar is organised by the Association BrailleNet with the objective to illustrate the potential of the "Save As DAISY" function in MS Word, using examples and demonstrations. It will be held at Cité des sciences et de l'Industrie - 30, avenue Corentin-Cariou - 75019 Paris, France. The seminar will present how documents designed according to accessibility recommendations can be save in DAISY XML format (DAISY/NISO Z39.86) and how these files can be transformed into other accessible formats such as DAISY DTBs, HTML, PDF, making them readable on a variety of platforms. The language of this seminar is French. Information about the Seminar is available in French and in English.

The 2008 revision of the DAISY 3 Structure Guidelines is now available online and for download.

The DAISY Structure Guidelines, first published in 1999, are a resource for the creation of the textual content of DAISY publications and also provide information on the overall structural relationships that apply to any type of DAISY publication.

ICT Results Feature Article: Profits for publishers in making books accessible to all

"...What the EUAIN team has done is to bring all the accessibility organisations in the different countries (Europe) together to pool their knowledge. The team then put them together with the pan-European publishing industry to explore mutually-beneficial ways to work together..."

On the EUAIN portal: Online demonstrator for accessible content processing

"The XML Digital Talking Book (DTBook) format (NISO Z39.86) (also known as the DAISY format) was chosen as a pivotal format on which converters are applied on the fly to produce the output documents in different possible formats (HTML, PDF). Moreover, in order to make the process accessible to a wider audience and to demonstrate that well-structured documents can be produced easily with standard word processors, i.e. by non-specialists, input files can also be provided in an Open Document Format (.odt files). The Open Office word processor can be used for that. The use of Open Document Format is also important as this format is being increasingly recognised as pivotal for public sector information provision."

Mr. Kawamura's acceptance of the ITU World Telecommunication and Information Society Award is available on YouTube. On behalf of, and as President of the DAISY Consortium, Mr. Kawamura was presented with this prestigious award by ITU Secretary-General Dr Hamadoun Touré during the Ceremony of the World Telecommunication and Information Society Day 2008. The award was in the category of Science and Technology.

Announcement on Microsoft Presspass Site (5/21): Microsoft Microsoft Expands List of Formats Supported in Microsoft Office.

"There is essentially no computer in the world, desk-top, hand-held, or back-room, that doesn't process XML sometimes," said Tim Bray of Sun Microsystems.

Many useful informative links are listed and the community is invited to send an "XML greeting" or share a testimonial.

Hiroshi Kawamura took part in the 2007 Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Brazil last November. The Pew Internet and American Life Project has just posted a series of 'Imagining the Internet' interviews. View Hiroshi Kawamura discussing the emergence of the DAISY Standard.

Hiroshi Kawamura, President of the DAISY Consortium, was honoured to accept the World Telecommunication and Information Society Award on behalf of the DAISY Consortium today in Cairo Egypt.

Publishing 'Sneak Peeks' Online

Note: This is an NPR (National Public Radio) Flash-enabled audio, with links to related stories.

Report any accessibility problems

An older related story from another source: Random House Audio abandons audiobook DRM

Accessibility format gets boost from maker of world's biggest text-authoring tool

Excerpt: Good structural metadata lets a blind user nimbly navigate, browse and search a document. Word and PDF weren't built from the ground up to support that. DAISY was.

• Full page
• Article only version

DAISY users talk about the personal benefits of the “Save as DAISY XML” add-in for Microsoft Office Word.

• Watch the video in English (.wmv, 4 min 10 sec)
• Watch the video in Chinese (Mandarin) (.wmv, 4 min 10 sec)
• Watch the video in Dutch (.wmv, 4 min 10 sec)
• Watch the video in French (.wmv, 4 min 10 sec)
• Watch the video in Spanish (.wmv, 4 min 10 sec)

Today at 12:01 PDT the first official release of Microsoft's "Save As DAISY XML" translator for Microsoft Office Word and the simultaneous release of the newest version of the DAISY Pipeline were announced. Both are open source developments which support the creation of accessible content for people worldwide with print disabilities.

Full details and links to downloads, press release and related information, and support documentation for the Microsoft "Save As DAISY XML" add-in are available in the "Save As DAISY" area of the DAISY Web site. "We know that much of the information in documents today is created with Microsoft Word; this new add-in provides an unprecedented leap forward in the worldwide effort to make information available to all." (George Kerscher, Secretary General of the DAISY Consortium).

Information, links to the press release, and downloads for the Pipeline are on the DAISY Pipeline project page. This suite of migration tools supports the transformation of files from one format into other required formats. The release announced today offers compatibility with Microsoft Office Word. "This is a huge step toward achieving the DAISY Consortium's vision of a world where everyone has equal access to information and knowledge." (Markus Gylling, Technical Development Director for the DAISY Consortium).

Press documentation for Microsoft's "Save As DAISY XML" translator is also provided in DAISY 2.02 format. This DAISY DTB with synthetic speech was created using the "Save As DAISY XML" translator and the DAISY Pipeline. It is available for download from the Microsoft "Save As DAISY" project page.

The first official release of Microsoft's "Save As DAISY XML" translator for Microsoft Office Word was announced today. This is an open source collaborative project.

The DAISY Consortium announces a new release of the DAISY Pipeline, a free, downloadable transformation suite that transforms documents into accessible multimedia formats.

Full Press Release

Award-winner Swedish Library of Talking Books and Braille shares the spotlight with the DAISY Consortium supporting the fundamental human right for access to printed materials.

NISO, the National Information Standards Organization, a non-profit association accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), identifies, develops, maintains, and publishes technical standards to manage information in today's changing and ever-more digital environment.

NISO recognizes that standards must reflect global needs and is designated by ANSI to represent U.S. interests as the Technical Advisory Group (TAG) to the International Organization for Standardization's (ISO) Technical Committee 46 on Information and Documentation.

Read the NISO Press Release announcing this DAISY Consortium/Microsoft collaboration: "NISO Standard at the Heart of Microsoft Translator for Open XML to DAISY XML".

In a new collaborative initiative, Microsoft and the DAISY Consortium will work together to develop an Open XML to DAISY XML Converter: "Save As DAISY XML". DTBook, the DAISY XML file which will be generated from the free downloadable plug-in for Microsoft Word, is the foundation of the DAISY/NISO Standard for reading and publishing navigable, multimedia content.

Geneva, 2 July 2007 - For Immediate Release

Visually Impaired Persons and Publishers Join IPA in Geneva for Dialogue on International Access

The International Publishers Association invited VIP (Visually Impaired Persons) experts and publishing industry stakeholders to discuss the issues of access of visually impaired persons across borders to works in accessible formats.

IPA invited experts to informal talks in Geneva. The invitees came from the World Blind Union, the DAISY Consortium, and IFLA/Libraries for the Blind Section to join publishing industry specialists from the Federation of European Publishers (FEP), the International Federation of Reproduction Rights Organisations (IFRRO), the Publishers Licensing Society (PLS) and the Dorina Nowill Foundation (Brazil). All were invited in their personal capacity, not as spokespersons of their respective organisations.

For Immediate Release

Mathematics Now Added to the DAISY Standard

The DAISY Consortium approves MathML - the first modular extension to DAISY

ZURICH, Switzerland - March 22, 2007 - The DAISY Consortium announced today the formal adoption of the specification for the DAISY/NISO Standard Modular Extension for Mathematics. The publication of the Mathematics Modular Extension is crucial to integrating accessible mathematics into DAISY and NIMAS-compliant books. The path to accessible mathematics is now clear.