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Presenter(s)
Sam Ogami
Assistive Computer Technology Trainer
High Tech Center Training Unit
21050 McClellan Road, Cupertino, CA 95014
Phone: 408-996-6045
Email: sogami@htctu.net
Organizations such as Recording for the Blind and Dyslexic (RFB&D) and Bookshare provide access to talking books for students with print disabilities. Despite their tremendous libraries, semester after semester, students find that some of the books or other reading materials required for their courses are not available through RFB&D or Bookshare, especially new editions of textbooks or new titles. While some schools do have resources on-site to produce audio books for their students when they are unavailable elsewhere, the audio files they create are typically in MP3 format, which does not lend itself to easy navigation. An alternative to MP3 is the DAISY format, which does allow students to navigate books by chapters, sections, or page numbers.
Until now, there has not been a system for colleges, including the California Community Colleges, to conveniently, effectively, and inexpensively create DAISY talking books for their students on-site. Most of the production tools used to create DAISY talking books are aimed toward the needs of publishing houses or loaning libraries, such as RFB&D and Bookshare. These DAISY production tools require expertise in the DAISY format as well as a large upfront cost to purchase the necessary software and hardware, both of which are barriers to community colleges.
To address the needs of students with print disabilities among the California Community Colleges, the High Tech Center Training Unit (HTCTU) set out to design and implement a solution to create DAISY talking books. Its goal was to develop a production tool that would allow the colleges to produce DAISY talking books on-site and on-demand. Before doing so, the HTCTU developed a set of basic standards that it considered critical to a DAISY book production tool. First, the tool should, at minimum, create books that contain navigable page numbers and, ideally also have navigable heading, section, and sub-section levels in the book. Second, the production of electronic text filesshould not take a long time to prepare and process. Third, the production tool should be compatible with the software programs and skill sets of alternate media specialists in the California Community Colleges. Finally, the production tool should be of minimal cost to the individual colleges.
After evaluating several of the commercial tools available to produce DAISY books, the HTCTU decided to work with Phoneticom, a company based in Uppsala, Sweden, which had already developed a basic DAISY generator that met some of the HTCTU's requirements. The Phoneticom DAISY Generator is a web-based tool that produces DAISY books from XHTML files. The system works as a centralized server where colleges can upload small HTML files to the server. The DAISY generator will then process the files and create a DAISY book. The user has the option to select the synthetic voice and the type of DAISY book (audio-only, text-only, and audio plus text). With the distributed scanning network, colleges' access to high speed scanners, and the improvement of optical character recognition software, many colleges already have the infrastructure and capacity to quickly produce e-text. However, the Phoneticom DAISY Generator lacked the ability to add page numbers and upload large files.
Building upon Phoneticom's already-existing DAISY generator, the HTCTU worked with Phoneticom to build a plug-in which would extend its abilities so that colleges could: (1) Upload large compressed files to the DAISY generator, (2) Add page numbers and other mark-up, and (3) Generate an automated e-mail notification to inform colleges when the DAISY book is completed
This session will discuss the process of setting up the DAISY generator as well as how to use the generator tool to create a DAISY book. Participants will learn what modifications were made to the Phoneticom DAISY Generator, how to create DAISY books with the DAISY generator, and hear about the HTCTU's first-hand experiences in developing this tool. This session will benefit college and university faculty and staff who are interested in starting to produce DAISY books.
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