Accessibility at NSW CLIC

(review date June 2007)

Summary of DAISY

The DAISY (Digital Audio Information System) standard allows for synchronisation of any combination of text, graphics and audio. That is, the corresponding visual and audio components of the book will be presented to the reader simultaneously. Once produced, a DAISY book can be accessed via dedicated software on a computer or on purpose-built DAISY players. While software such as Easy Reader, discussed below, can present the audio and visual material simultaneously, to date, none of the hardware players can display visual components of the book. Unlike regular audio recordings, DAISY books can be navigated by sentence, paragraph, page or section. Bookmarks can also be added by the reader. Depending on equipment being used, the book can also be searched for specific words or phrases.

Easy Producer

This is software which converts Microsoft Word files into DAISY books. When installed onto a computer equipped with Microsoft Word, an extra top menu item and another toolbar are added to Word. Producer is controlled entirely from either of these options.

Subject to issues related to synthesizer selection on some computers that are currently being pursued with Dolphin, setup is very straight forward. Having selected a synthesizer, speech speed and audio quality can be set. Producer is supplied with the very natural-sounding Nuance voices, but can utilise other software synthesizers on the host computer. Text and background colours for the HTML file which contains the text of the DAISY book are also selectable and several style sheets for that file are provided.

When the Create DTB (DAISY talking book) option is selected, the currently loaded Word file is processed. An MP3 audio file is created for each heading and its following contents. Together with the HTML file containing the text, various xml, html and smil files contain index data which allow the reader to locate the desired position in the book.

Producer allows a book to be burned to a CD for use on a hardware DAISY player. This process is very straight forward, simply involving selection of the book after putting a blank CD in the drive.

The MP3 files alone could be copied to any MP3 player. A required section could be located by skipping through the files. Navigation by such increments as sentence and page would, however, not be available. Nevertheless, this option represents an effective way of making the audio material available on inexpensive and very portable devices.

Easy Reader

Easy Reader is software running on Windows-based computers for reading DAISY books. It provides both audio and visual output and offers an extensive range of tools for navigating the book. A book can be navigated by such increments as sentence, paragraph, page and section. It is also possible to jump to any page number. A search facility allows location of specific words and bookmarks can be used to allow rapid location of important points. One copy is supplied with Easy Producer and additional copies can be purchased separately.

Summary

While the DAISY standard has existed for some years, cost and complexity of production equipment have limited its broad availability. Easy Producer combines ease of use and high-quality synthetic speech and should do much to make DAISY books much more widely available. There are still circumstances in which the automated production of DAISY material which is made possible by such products as Easy Producer will not be effective. Examples include documents which include complex layouts and/or heavy use of graphics.

While speech synthesis can now sound very natural, some material will challenge its capacity to produce accurate pronunciation. While this can be resolved to some extent by careful editing, the time required for that process may negate the benefits of automation.

Despite the above limitations, Easy Producer has helped to put the preparation of DAISY books into the reach of many more people. In turn, people who have visual reading difficulties for any of a number of reasons can have increased access to books prepared in this way.

Specifications