DAISY

the Digital Audio-based Information SYstem (DAISY) Consortium was founded with the goal of developing the standards for the next generation of information technology for persons who are blind or print disabled.

Digital Talking Books (DTB)

There are three types of DAISY DTBs as outlined in the DAISY Structure Guidelines. All offer improved access to the content.

The three basic types of DAISY publications are:

1. Audio with NCX: DTB with structure. The NCX is the Navigation Control Center, a file containing all points in the book to which the user may navigate. The XML textual content file, if present, contains the structure of the book and may contain links to features such as narrated footnotes, etc. Some DTBs of this type may also contain additional textual components, for example, index or glossary, supporting keyword searching.
2. Audio and full text: DTB with structure and complete text and audio. This form of a DTB is the most complete and provides the richest, multimedia reading experience and the greatest level of access. The XML textual content file contains the structure and the full text of the book. The audio and the text are synchronized.
3. Text and no audio: DTB without audio. The XML textual content file contains the structure and full text of the book. There are no audio files. This type of DAISY DTB may, for example, be rendered with synthetic speech or with a refreshable braille display.

DTB is an evolving standard. DAISY 3 books use DTBook XML for the text content, while DAISY 2.02 uses XHTML.

Accessible Conformance

Daisy also provide Knowledge Base for Accessibility Conformance based on various eBook formats. These are primarily for ePub and HTML which are also often the source for other formats like MOBI and AZW3.

For more information

• http://www.daisy.org/
• DTBook - The standard
• DAISY Pipeline - A transformation tool.
• Tobi - An authoring tool for Talking books.
• Word Open XML to Daisy XML translator
• BookShare.org - A Digital Library - Now Free to All U.S. Students with Qualifying Disabilities
• BRF is the Braille Ready Format
• Free Daisy Reader for Windows - see AMIS
• Ace - an ePub checker for accessibility.