Multimedia Browser for Online Daisy Books

At the 10th International Conference on Computers Helping People with Special Needs held July 12-14, 2006 at the University of Linz, Austria, a paper on DaisyReader, an assistive technology product for the visually impaired, was presented by Piotr Brzoza of the Silesian University of Technology.

According to statistics, only about one to five percent of printed books and magazines are published in an accessible form for people with visual impairment. However, with evolving IT resources, such information is accessible to people with disability in digital form. Daisy books are available over the Internet in the form of interactive online multimedia resources. The system cooperates with an Internet multimedia library management system, and aims at easy and effective access to information for the visually impaired.

The visually impaired previously had only Braille books to refer to, but with the advent of computers equipped with screen magnifiers, screen readers, e-books, talking multimedia browsers and Internet library portals, blind users now have unlimited access to all genres of information. E-books are a very convenient resource to access books in the digital form; however a visually impaired user is denied access to synthetic speech feature.

The DaisyReader structures and converts books and other printed data into digital form. Varied usability tests were conducted to check accessibility issues in library portals and in other areas like difficulty in navigation, graphical links without alternative text description, untitled frames and inconsistent labeling of form elements.

The Daisy Consortium, founded in 1996, has developed a new multimedia book standard, specifically for the visually impaired. Currently there are around 130,000 book titles available worldwide. The system allows cataloguing and collecting of varied multimedia publications. The books are designed in multimode form including text, audio and graphics to facilitate easy navigation. The system also takes care of the management of readers’ orders and distribution of the ordered publications.

The library system, built according to the W3C-WAI Web content accessibility guidelines, runs on Linux and is managed with the Web user interface and standard Internet Web browsers. The library provides easier access to the visually challenged, the interface being specifically designed with features like easier navigation, adjustment of font size, color and contrast. The DaisyReader allows full Daisy functionality for online reading including text-to-speech (TTS) and bookmarking.

The interface can be customized to serve different user groups like the blind or those with low vision, dyslexia or mobile impairment. The user also has access to audio presentation of math formulas and tables, which can facilitate the preparation of scientific and technical books and educational material for students, mathematicians and scientists. The interactive multimedia Daisy book browser works in-sync with the multimedia Helix Universal server, which is integrated with the digital library management system. It works in a multiprocessor environment and facilitates simultaneous data transmission and multi-user service.

Several research and development initiatives have been taken to improvise Daisy books, like the new book browser that facilitates browsing and downloading of multiple books at the same time, saving the users’ time and resources. The content can be accessed directly from the multimedia server, instead of downloading several megabytes of files on the system. The library system has been installed at the library for the blind in Poland and it has given excellent results. Currently, efforts are being made to install it in the computer center for blind and low-vision students in Warsaw University, Poland.

More information on Key.org.pl