DAISY 101

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DAISY 101

• Gaeir Dietrich
• Director High Tech Center Training Unitof the
  California Community Colleges
• Co-chair DAISY in Higher Ed Working Group

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DAISY

• Digital
• Accessible
• Information
• System

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What are the benefits of DAISY?

• Special type of Digital Talking Book (DTB)
• Has structure and navigation VS a flat
  unstructured reading experience
• Ever-expanding standard
• Now includes MathML!

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DAISY Features

• Have the ability to go to specific pages and
  sections
• Can add, search for, and remove bookmarks
• Have the ability to skim the text
• Portable
• Worldwide standard for Digital Talking Books
  (DTBs)

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Expanding Vision

• DAISY is designed to incorporate new features and
  functionality
• Expandable
• Cheese pizza analogy
• First expansion
• MathML
• I can hardly wait for music notation!

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Going Mainstream

• DAISY Standard becoming part of the ePub standard
• Next version of ePub standard will include
• Once DAISY is part of ePub, we will see DAISY
  functionality coming on mainstream reading
  devices!

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Lets get technical, technical

• E-text
• Text a computer can read, also called electronic
  text, digital text (e.g., e-mail, Word docs,
  etc.)
• MP3 and WAV
• Two formats for sound on the computer MP3 is
  more compressed (i.e., smaller) than WAV
• WMA (Windows Media Audio)
• Another sound typebelongs to Microsoft
• TTS (Text-to-Speech )
• Text that is made audible by a computer-generated
  voice

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DAISY vs.

• E-text
• DAISY has structure headings, pages
• MP3
• DAISY is navigable, bookmarkable, players
  remember where you left off
• NIMAS
• The NIMAS standard is a subset of the DAISY
  standard, NIMAS files have to be transformed into
  DAISY

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Whats inside a DAISY?
NCC Document(navigation control center)
XHTML
MP3
Text Side
Audio Side
SMIL
Both Sides Synchronized
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DAISY 2.02 Folder
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Please Note

• When loading multiple DAISY books onto a player
• Each book must be in its own folder
• Follow manufacturers instructions
• When burning a DAISY book onto CD
• One book per CD
• No folder
• Put book files in root directory, i.e., loose

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Stream Folder Structure
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DAISY / NISO

• AKA DAISY 3
• Adds a bundled file of information on how the
  book should read
• Package file (.OPF)
• Beginning to be implemented
• Older hardware players will need firmware upgrade

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Wheres the text?

• Not all DAISY books are the same
• DAISY will vary a bit depending on
• How it was produced
• How much mark up was done by the producer

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DAISY Flavors

• Text Only (can include graphics)
• Format used by Bookshare
• Structured Audio
• Audio only
• Format used by RFBD
• Audio and Full Text
• Can be created with commercially available
  publishing tools
• RFBD beginning to implement

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Text Onlybut Its Audio

• Text Only DAISY books
• Are played with a DAISY player that has built in
  text to speech (TTS)
• Computer software, solid-state players
• Are smaller files because they do not already
  contain audio
• Audio is BIG!!
• Can be used with whatever voices you have

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Why cant I see it?

• Audio Only DAISY books
• Are usually human narration
• Recording of a person reading aloud
• Adding the text to these books requires the text
  and audio to be synchronized
• Kind of like captioning
• Usually have a navigation structure that can be
  seen

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Its All There!

• Full-Text Full-Audio DAISY
• Has both text that can be seen and sound that can
  be heard
• Audio comes as part of the book
• Do not need TTS or voices
• Audio may be human narration or machine generated

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Playing DAISY in General

• Requires a DAISY player
• Software and hardware players available
• Softwarefree to 300
• Hardware195 to 995
• DAISY players also play MP3 files
• DAISY players allow you to control speed and pitch

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Playing the Flavors

• Text only
• Requires a DAISY player with built-in text to
  speech (TTS)
• Audio only
• Human narrationno text to see
• Works on any player
• Audio and full text
• Speech can be human or TTS (usually TTS)
• Text and graphics can be seen if there is a screen

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Players
Text Only DAISY Audio Only DAISY Audio Full Text DAISY
Software players TTS on the fly can see and hear text Hear audio no text to see Can see and hear text
Hardware players Requires TTS built into player (PTP, BookPort, Stream, Classmate) Plays on all hardware players Plays on all players, but can only see text if a monitor is present
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Bookshare.org

• www.bookshare.org
• Text-only DAISY
• Requires player with TTS built in
• Membership free for all students and educational
  institutions
• Software included in membership

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Playing Bookshare Books

• Choose from Bookshare editions
• Victor Reader Soft
• Generally preferred by blind users
• Don Johnston Read OutLoud
• Generally preferred by LD users
• Works on Mac
• Software tied to Bookshare format
• Only plays Bookshare books

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More on Bookshare

• Can also play Bookshare books on some other
  systems
• OpenBook, Kurzweil 1000/3000, WYNN, ReadWrite
  Gold
• AMIS DAISY player (PC only)
• AnyDAISY (FireFox 3 plug-in)
• Free high-quality Acapela voices to members (work
  with Bookshare apps)

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Bookshare Mobile

• Now offering Bookshare apps on mobile devices
• Symbian phones (not smart phone)
• Read2Go (almost ready)
• iOS
• iPad, iPhone, iTouch
• Developing app for Android Reader
• Will be open source ePub reader

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RFBD

• Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic
• www.rfbd.org
• Audio-only DAISY
• Soon will have full-text, full-audio
• Individual memberships now free
• Institutions still pay a fee
• Books on CD or downloadable

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Various RFBD Formats

• AudioPlus on CD
• Sent through mail DAISY books
• AudioPlus
• Downloadable DAISY books
• AudioAccess
• Downloadable not DAISY
• WMA with DRM

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RFBD AudioPlus CDs

• Requires RFBD authorized player
• Can purchase players through RFBD
• PTR1 (PlexTalk), Victor Reader Classic
• CD players
• RFBD players can play other DAISY books
• Players have firmware upgrade from DAISY 2.02 to
  DAISY 3

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AudioPlus Downloadable

• Requires RFBD authorized hardware or software
  player
• Stream, PTP Pocket, Booksense, Intel Reader
• Solid-state players
• EasyReader, Victor
• Software players
• Work with iOS
• Authorize players through RFBD Web site

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Downloadable AudioAccess

• Are not DAISY (no navigation)
• Are WMA with DRM (Digital Rights Management)
• Can play with Windows Media Player
• Can play with mobile players that handle WMA with
  DRM
• Zen by Creative not iPod
• Can be converted to MP3 (burn to CD)

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Playing RFBD Books

• Two downloadable formats
• AudioPlus
• DAISY
• Requires RFBD-authorized DAISY software or
  hardware
• Works with iOS
• RFBD Audio App from the iTunes store
• AudioAccess
• WMA files with DRM
• Not DAISY

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Comparison

• RFBD
• Free for students
• Schools pay fee
• Audio only
• Human narration
• Requires RFBD authorized hardware/software
• www.rfbd.org

• Bookshare
• Free for students
• Free for schools
• Text only
• Synthetic speech (TTS)
• Software player comes with membership
• Playable on hardware players with TTS built in
• www.bookshare.org

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National Library Services

• NLS DAISY books will have very limited mark-up
• No page numbers
• Heading level navigation
• Players will be free

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Sources of DAISY Books

• RFBD
• www.rfbd.net
• Bookshare
• www.bookshare.org
• Read How You Want (for purchase)
• www.readhowyouwant.com
• National Library Services (NLS)
• www.nlstalkingbooks.org/dtb/
• Produced on some college campuses

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Grow Your Own DAISYs

• Commercial software available
• Can begin with text and convert into Audio Full
  Text DAISY
• Check these vendors
• Dolphin
• IRTI
• SADX (Save As DAISY XML)

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DAISY in Higher Ed

• Special working group of the DAISY Consortium
• Presence on the DAISY.org Web site
• Designated consortium liaison
• George Kerscher, Secretary General of the DAISY
  Consortium
• Direct access to information about DAISY
• Conference line and discussion list
• Free membership for higher ed

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Purpose of the Working Group

• Feedback to DAISY Consortium on use of DAISY in
  higher ed
• Raise awareness of higher ed issues
• Attend DAISY meetings
• Work with disability service offices
• Provide information/understanding
• Provide training materials
• Simplify process

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Web Site

• http//www.daisy.org/projects/higher-ed/
• Resources available
• General information
• FAQs
• Partial list of DAISY books available worldwide

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Joining the List

• Send a blank e-mail to
• Join-daisy-in-higher-ed_at_mail.daisy.org
• No need for text in the subject or body of the
  email.
• Should then receive a conformation email within
  two days that you have been added to the email
  list.

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Demo

• Victor Reader Classic Plus
• Victor Reader Stream
• Dolphin Easy-Reader

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Thank You!

• Gaeir Dietrichgdietrich_at_htctu.net
• 408-996-6047
• www.htctu.net
• DAISY in Higher Ed Web site
• www.daisy.org/projects/higher-ed/