HOMENews Archive
2012-01-02
The ATIA 2012 Orlando Conference will take place January 25-28, 2012 in Orlando, Florida. The conference exhibit space is expanding - introducing a new Apps Pavilion and Apps Showcase for the many assistive technology apps. A new addition to the conference program is the AT Research Symposium, co-hosted by ATIA and RESNA, covering critical research issues facing the Assistive Technology research and manufacturing/vendor communities. Another addition of interest to higher education accessibility professionals is Accessing Higher Ground Seminar, “Accessible Media, Web & Curriculum on Campus & in the Cloud”.
The following DAISY Consortium Members and Friends will have exhibits at the ATIA 2012 Conference:
- American Printing House for the Blind
- Benetech / Bookshare
- Dolphin Computer Access
- Duxbury Systems
- gh
- HIMS
- HumanWare
- Learning Ally
- NFB
- Plextor / PlexTalk
- ViewPlus.
Conference schedule is available on the ATIA website.
2011-12-22
e-Accessibility is gaining momentum, as demonstrated by the increase in governmental initiatives and commercial interest in the field. The domain of a few dedicated specialists until a few years ago, it is today a regular preoccupation in the ICT sector.
This achievement must not, however, be overstated. e-Accessibility is still often considered costly add-on to the development of information systems although integrating e-Accessibility at the core of information systems is a technological, economical and sociopolitical necessity.
It is in this context that the Institute of e-Accessibility (IAN) is organizing the 6th European Forum on e-Accessibility on March 26th, 2012 on the theme: “Putting e-Accessibility at the Core of Information Systems”. The first confirmed speakers have been announced. Markus Gylling, CTO of the DAISY Consortium and the IDPF will discuss the potential of the recently approved EPUB 3 standard and its role in accessible publishing. More information is provided on the 6th European Forum on e-Accessibility website.
2011-12-18
Event Date: 11-Jan-2012
Time: 10:30-16:30
Venue: Dolphin Computer Access, Blackpole Estate West, Worcester, United Kingdom, WR3 8TJ
For readers with visual impairments and dyslexia, reading and learning materials in standard printed formats are often completely inaccessible. Make it Accessible is all about making these reading and learning materials accessible to readers with visual impairments and dyslexia.
Make it Accessible introduces some key universal rules for making reading and learning materials accessible. The course will continue to introduce computer software to assist in making these reading and learning materials accessible as specific alternative formats. These formats include large print, MP3 audio, DAISY talking book and Braille.
Who would benefit?
Make it Accessible is ideal for anyone looking to provide accessible versions of reading and learning materials. This might include:
- Education area coordinators
- Teachers and teaching assistants
- Charity workers
- Employees in commercial organisations
- Employees in local councils and government organisations
More information is provided on the Dolphin Computer Access website.
2011-12-13
Times for the December 14th webcast: 10 PT San Francisco, 6pm - London, 1pm - New York, Thursday Dec. 15th at 5am - Sydney, Thursday Dec. 15th at 3am - Tokyo, Thursday, Dec. 15th at 2am - Beijing.
Speakers: Kat Meyers and Sanders Kleinfeld
HTML5 is coming to your e-book reader! With the release of the EPUB 3 specification, HTML5 support is now officially part of EPUB standard, and publishers will be able to take full advantage of HTML5's feature set to add rich media and interactivity to their e-book content.
HTML5 for Publishers gives an overview of some of the most exciting features HTML5 provides to e-book content creators: audio / video, geolocation, and the Canvas. Learn how to put them in action.
Also discover how to:
- Intersperse audio / video with textual content
- Create a graphing calculator to display algebraic equations on the Canvas
- Use geolocation to customize a work of fiction with details from the reader's location
- Use Canvas to add an interactive "finger painting" app to your e-book
- Make interactive EPUB files for the iPad.
Please follow the link to register online.
2011-12-05
The CSUN 2012 Conference in San Diego will host Knowbility's AccessU as a "conference within a conference" on Monday, February 27th and Tuesday, February 28th, 2012. Knowbility's renowned program will now be presented on-site at the conference so participants can attend both AccessU and the CSUN Conference! Learn more on the Knowbility's AccessU at CSUN website.
Conference registration for attendees opened on Monday, December 5th, 2011. Register early to receive your early bird discounted rate! Visit the Registration Information page for details about registration, fees and deadlines.
2011-11-27
The PLEXTALK Pocket lists for $349 in the U.S., but it is available at the introductory price of $275 through May 31, 2012. This includes not only the PLEXTALK Pocket, but also the PRS DAISY recording and editing software for your PC. This combination is only available for U. S. customers who purchase the PLEXTALK Pocket through Freedom Scientific.
2011-11-24
The following World Congress Braille21 Proceedings packages can be ordered:
- Package 1: Common print edition (English, approximately 400 pages, digital version included on a CD): 45 €
- Package 2: Braille edition (uncontracted English braille, approximately 24 booklets – 48 pages each, digital version included on a CD): 45 €
- Package 3: Common print edition and braille edition combined (digital version included on a CD): 85 €
Please note: Purchasers from Germany and the European Union have to pay the additional VAT of 7% for books. For the common print edition, there will be also postal charges (not too high as book post).
Delivery of the proceedings is scheduled for January 2012.
If you would like to purchase one or more copies of the Braille21 proceedings, please download and fill out the order form, fill it out and send it back to info(at)braille21.net. The deadline for orders is December 21st, 2011.
2011-11-12
Since introducing the Victor Reader Stream, a DAISY / MP3 player, HumanWare staff has received many emails and phone calls with user suggestions to improve the product. Customer feedback has guided them in multiple upgrades to the Stream. Knowing that the best information always comes from their customers, HumanWare team has prepared a questionnaire to continue improving the Stream. The Victor Reader Stream users are requested to answer a 20 minute survey.
Ten respondents will be chosen at random to receive a free Stream SoftPak upgrade to their Stream. Participation ends November 20, 2011 and the winners will be announced on November 21, 2011. Information provided in user survey responses will be treated as confidential.
To participate in the survey, please go to: http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/646175/Stream-User-Online-Market-Survey.
2011-11-02
The M-Enabling Summit, first mobile industry conference and showcase solely dedicated to accessible and assistive applications and services for seniors and persons with disabilities, will be held in Washington, D.C. on December 5-6, 2011 (sessions held at FCC headquarters and the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center).
With more than 75 invited speakers and high-caliber participants such as Apple, RIM, Motorola, HTC, Qualcomm, Doro, AT&T, Sprint, AOL, Vodafone, Orange, Code Factory, Apps4 Android, IBM, AAPD, COAT, Time Warner Cable, FCC, W3C-WAI, ITU, SSB Bart Group, LucyTech, TDI Telecommunications for the Deaf, Soreson Communications, Vcom3D, Abilities!, Keen Guides, HumanWare, Purple Communications, Deque Systems, DAISY Consortium, AFB-Tech, NENA, Gallaudet University, U.S. DOE, GPII, IARP, the M-Enabling Summit will cover topics relevant to all aspects of mobile accessibility.
Key speakers include White House Office of Public Engagement and Special Assistant to the President for Disability Policy, Kareem Dale; FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski; ITU Secretary-General, Dr. Hamadoun Touré; United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Inaugural Chairperson, Mohammed Al-Tarawneh, and DAISY Consortium President Hiroshi Kawamura.
Multi-track conference sessions and an exclusive showcase will highlight the many innovations addressing the specific needs of users living with different types of disability, as well as major emerging market opportunities, such as applications for travel and tourism, cloud-based assistive technologies, solutions for learning and cognitive disabilities, special education and emergency response.
For a complete agenda, please visit: http://www.m-enabling.com.
Register now at http://www.m-enabling.com/conreg.html.
DAISY Consortium Members and Friends who register online, will receive a 25% discount, please use the promo code Partner25
2011-09-15
Tuesday, September 20th at 11 AM Pacific, noon Mountain, 1 PM Central and 2 PM Eastern.
Presenters: Daniel Weck, Principal Architect and Avneesh Singh, Project Lead.
Topic: Tobi, a free production tool for DAISY Digital Talking Books and the upcoming EPUB 3 eBooks standard. Learn how to create accessible read-aloud books using your own voice narration and edit the audio stream interactively. In addition, Tobi users can also add audio narration to a text-only document and synchronize a podcast with a structured script, or review and improve an existing Digital Talking Book publication.
Tobi is available for download at the Tobi project area on the DAISY Consortium website: http://www.daisy.org/tobi/download.
You can register for this event online, more information is available on the EASI (Equal Access to Software and Information) website. On the day of the webinar just before the beginning, participants can join the webinar room at http://easi.cc/entrance.htm. Use your name as the webinar username.
2011-09-14
Mobile technologies increasingly provide benefits to persons with disabilities and aging population by improving safety, offering accessible interfaces such as voice recognition or text-to-speech as well as various messaging functions. As a result, more individuals can fully participate in society. M-Enabling Summit (December 5th - 6th, 2011) in Washington DC will provide an excellent opportunity to meet stakeholders, decision makers, technologists, and industry experts in order to continue improving lives around the globe. More information is provided on the M-Enabling Summit website.
2011-09-08
Attend a free webinar and learn how to leverage the latest device technologies and standards (including EPUB 3) to efficiently create enhanced and accessible e-books for all readers. Are your e-books available to people with reading disabilities? Making your content accessible isn't just the right thing to do, it makes good business sense. With smart planning, every enhanced eBook can be made accessible, with little or no extra cost or effort required. Featuring: George Kerscher, Secretary General of the DAISY Consortium and President of the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF); Thomas Starbranch, Manager, Accessibility and Compliance, Pearson School; Eric Freese, Director/Solutions Architect, Aptara.
Consider this:
- 10 percent to 15 percent of the U.S. population has dyslexia.
- More than 3.4 million Americans are blind or visually impaired.
- Approximately 44 million adults cannot read well enough to fill out a job application, read a food label or read a story to a child.
Date: Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Time: 2:00 pm ET / 11:00 am PT
Device manufacturers are taking steps in the right direction, but publishers have a long way to go. Come armed with your questions. You'll be able to submit questions directly to our panelists for a live Q&A session during the webinar hour.
Click here to register online.
2011-09-07
Before the advent of digital publishing, most books and other media were extremely difficult for people with low vision, blindness or dyslexia to access. People with print disabilities mostly relied on third parties and charitable organizations for Braille, audio books, and other accessible formats. But advances in consumer technology, coupled with new publishing standards like HTML5 and EPUB 3, could soon usher in a new era of accessibility.
Guests:
- Jim Fruchterman - President & CEO, Benetech; Founder and CEO, Bookshare
- George Kerscher - Secretary General, DAISY Consortium
This show will air on Sept 7, 2011 at 1:06 pm EST. Find out more at the Kojo Nnamdi Radio Show website .
2011-09-06
DAISY Member Dolphin Computer Access envisions an inclusive world where all obstacles to successful learning, working and playing will be removed. People associated with Dolphin will enjoy a challenging dynamic environment that will be enriched by learning, inspiring challenges and a sense of achievement. Their goal is to be the de facto brand for vision and print impairment and to be in every school, college and workplace in the world. Dolphin Computer Access is looking for brilliant and hardworking people who find their vision inspiring, and are ready to take on the challenge. Current vacancies at their Worcester Headquarters include:
- Senior Software Development Engineer
- Graduate Trainee Software Development Engineer
- Technical Support Assistant
- Technical Support Apprentice
If you would like to apply, please send your CV and cover letter via email to Harriet Grant. More information, including job descriptions can be found on the Dolphin website.
2011-09-06
The 27th Annual International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference, to be held February 27 - March 3, 2012 at the San Diego Manchester Grand Hyatt hotel, invites submissions of papers. The “CSUN” conference is the world’s longest-running conference of its kind on the topics of assistive technology and the positive impact on persons with disabilities. The conference draws more than 4,500 persons annually who attend sessions, visit the exhibit halls, and participate in affiliate meetings and informal gatherings.
A wide variety of submissions are encouraged in the topic of new concepts concerning hardware and software, adaptive devices, access to technology, training programs, results of research, and overall best-practices in any area of assistive technology.
The conference strives to present a best-practices approach for the education of students, professionals and consumers involved with the many aspects of technology and disability. General Session presentations are 30 or 60 minutes in length and are scheduled for Wednesday, February 29, Thursday, March 1, and Friday, March 2, 2012. By submitting a paper for consideration, speakers agree that their paper may be scheduled at any time, on any of these days, at the discretion of the conference management. Call for papers closes September 30th, 2011. More information is provided on the CSUN Conference website.
2011-09-01
Nominations are being sought for the prestigious Jodi Awards from museums, galleries, libraries, archives, heritage sites and disability organizations internationally and in the UK. The Jodi Awards are for best use of digital technology to widen access to information, collections, learning and creativity for disabled people. The deadline for Award nominations is Wednesday, September 21st.
The UK Jodi Awards will be presented on December 1st, 2011 at the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea, Wales. The International Jodi Awards will be presented on December 8th at the international DISH 2011 (Digital Strategies for Heritage) Conference in Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
More information is provided on the Jodi Mattes Trust website.
2011-08-24
The Center on Disabilities at California State University, Northridge is pleased to announce that the Call for Papers for the 27th Annual International Technology and Persons with Disabilities Conference begins next month.
The Call for Papers will open on Tuesday, September 6, 2011 and will close on Friday, September 30, 2011. Please Note: The Call for Papers will be open for 4 weeks only this year! Please plan early and submit your proposals as soon as possible. We are moving up our timelines and schedules to prepare for this year’s early event dates. Visit http://www.csun.edu/cod/conference for more information about the Call for Papers and the 2012 CSUN Conference.
The 2012 CSUN Conference will be held February 27 to March 3 at the Manchester Grand Hyatt Hotel in San Diego, California.
2011-08-08
O'Reilly's Tools of Change Conference is the place where leading practitioners from the publishing and tech industries converge to explore ideas, share what they've learned from their successes (and their failures), and navigate the changes affecting the publishing industry. Each year, TOC provides a mix of the practical and the visionary to give attendees the tools and guidance they need to succeed and the inspiration to lead change. Call for Papers is open until August 29th, 2011 - accessibility is one of the topics of interest. More information can be found on the TOC in Publishing 2012 Conference website.
2011-08-03
E-books have been around for over a decade, but only in the last few years their use has become the game-changer that all have anticipated for so long. Availability, distribution, licensing, current and future access all require content providers and libraries to change many of their existing processes and find new ways to do business. There is a wealth of opportunities for new collaborative efforts and initiatives.
The upcoming NISO Forum The E-Book Renaissance: Exploring the Possibilities Exposed by Digital Books will take place October 24-25, 2011 in Baltimore, Maryland. This event will probe platform interoperability, archiving, and preservation issues from a variety of industry, scholarly, and consumer viewpoints. Participate in the community discussion for advancing e-book development and support! Early bird registration ends October 12, 2011. More information can be found on the NISO website.
2010-06-12
This webinar is the second webinar in the series of five webinars dedicated to introducing the Dolphin Publisher. It will take place at 3 pm BST (British Summer Time), 7:30 pm IST (Indian Standard Time), 10 am EST (US Eastern Standard Time), 7 am PST (US Pacific Standard Time).
Contents:
- Inserting the text and setting the navigation punctuation points
- Picking a text-to-speech system
- Completing the book and picking the compression rate
Webinar will be presented by Christer Lundberg, online registration is available.
2010-03-12
Title: Bookshare - VR Stream Download Training
Date: Tuesday, March 16, 2010
Time: 4:30 PM - 5:00 PM EDT
- Review of the Victor Reader Stream main features and benefits.
- How to download content from Bookshare and use Companion Software to transfer content to the VR Stream.
- Questions and Answers.
2009-12-31
Over 800 books have been requested by DAISY Member Bookshare's many members and volunteers that are not part of their student population. Your donation will help ensure that Bookshare's non-student community is served with the books they desire and wish for. Give the gift of accessibility! Details are available on the Bookshare website.
NISO's Monthly Teleconference Call on November 9, 2009 Focused on the Revision of the DAISY Standard
2009-11-09
NISO's monthly teleconference call was held on Monday, November 9, 2009 from 3-4 pm (EST). George Kerscher, Chair of the DAISY Working Group undertaking a revision of the ANSI/NISO Z39.86 standard (Specifications for the Digital Talking Book), provided an update on the status of the revision. More information about the 2010 revision is available on the DAISY Consortium website.
2009-11-04
As the eBook market unfolds, it seems to be getting more complex by the day. Publishers are trying to adapt as competitive and consumer pressures demand that their titles be compatible with the multitude of new eBook applications and eReaders coming to market.
To develop a successful eBook production strategy it is important to understand where the market is today and will be tomorrow. In this 60-minute webinar, Sarah Rotman Epps, Forrester's eBook Market Analyst, and Michael Smith, Director of the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF), present their views on the future for eBook readers, formats and standards. Please fill out and submit the online registration form to attend.
2009-11-02
Webinar discussion will include information on services for new or returning postsecondary students as well as individual membership information. Details on how to register are available in the HumanWare newsletter.
2009-10-12
Last chance to save $40 with discounted registration! One-Day only passes also available! Register, if you have not already done so, for ATIA (Assistive Technology Industry Association) 2009 Chicago (October 29-31, 2009) by Friday, October 16 and pay only $485 for full conference admission, a $40 discount from onsite admission. One-day only passes are available at $300. Details are available on the ATIA website.
2009-10-07
Accessibility conference and exhibition "Techshare India 2010 - Bridging the Barriers" invites submissions of papers for this conference to be held on February 15th and 16th, 2010 in New Delhi, India. The Organizing Committee will be reviewing the papers and will try to ensure that all disabilities are covered. Call for papers will close on October 30th, 2009. More information is available on the Barrier Break Technologies website.
2009-10-06
ITU TELECOM WORLD is an unrivaled event for the global telecommunication and information communication technology (ICT) sector. Hiroshi Kawamura, President of the DAISY Consortium will be a panel speaker of a special session “Assistive technologies: Accessibility and e-health", Thursday, Oct 8, 2009, 16:30 - 18:00. More information is available on the ITU Telecom website.
2009-09-22
Tobi, the open-source software developed by the DAISY Consortium, was demonstrated to the public for the first time at the DAISY 2009 conference in Leipzig, Germany. Tobi is an extensible authoring tool for production of full-text full-audio DAISY 3, and for creation of next-generation accessible multimedia. This early preview is not a production-ready release, but it already features existing functionality that will be of interest to early adopters and testers, as well as to developers wanting to explore customization and plug-in capabilities. The Tobi team would like to engage the community for feedback and contributions, and a dedicated forum will be available for users and developers to interact. The stable release of Tobi (v1.0) is planned for January 2010. More information about Tobi can be found on the Tobi development site.
2009-09-17
Members of the DAISY Consortium, RNIB and Dolphin Computer Access, will offer an exclusive sneak preview of the world's first instant DAISY talking book player to all Techshare 2009 conference attendees. Dolphin Computer Access will present every delegate with a free USB thumb drive, complete with all conference and exhibition materials in the DAISY format. These recipients will also be the first to experience Dolphin's EasyReader Express, a software DAISY book player that runs instantly from the USB drive and without the need for installation. More information is available on the Dolphin Computer Access website.
2009-06-17
As announced previously, Lyris was down due to temporary network problems, that have now been fixed.
2009-06-16
DAISY email lists are down due to a problem with the firewall. Please do not send messages to the lists until further notice.
2009-03-11
The new iPod shuffle is tiny, with newly added feature called VoiceOver. With the press of a button, VoiceOver announces the titles of the songs as well as the artists. It also tells the names of your playlists and lets users know when battery needs charging.
2009-01-14
WORLDCOMP'09 is the largest annual gathering of researchers in the fields of computer science, computer engineering and applied computing. Particpants can attend a variety of affiliated research conferences, workshops, and symposiums.
2008-10-08
The Call for Papers for the 2009 CSUN (California State University, Northridge) Conference will close November 3, 2008. Please visit the CSUN website to submit a proposal or request additional information.
2008-09-29
The September issue of the DAISY Planet is now available on the DAISY Web site: September DAISY Planet. Please share the Planet with your associates and friends.
2008-09-10
Two new releases of the Microsoft Word translator add-in are planned for the next four months. The first software release will be fixing reported problems, supply improved documentation, and add new features, including support for MathML generation. The second release will add audio (mp3) generation using TTS engines and will deliver a fully conforming DAISY file set (DAISY DTB). The add-in works with Word XP, Word 2003, and Word 2007.
The DAISY Consortium is recruiting people interested in beta testing the candidate releases before they are made generally available to the public through SourceForge. We are looking for 50 to 100 people from all language groups to ensure that the add-in is working for everybody throughout the world.
To sign up for beta testing, please use the Contact Us form on the DAISY Web site and select the category "Project Microsoft Save as DAISY Beta Testing".
Additional information about the Save as DAISY project with Microsoft is available in the Projects area of the DAISY Web site.
2008-08-13
The American Foundation for the Blind Migel Medal was established in 1937 by the late M.C. Migel, the first chairperson of AFB, to honor professionals and volunteers whose dedication and achievements have significantly improved the lives of people who are blind or visually impaired.
The 2009 award ceremony will take place during AFB's Josephine L. Taylor Leadership Institute (JLTLI) meeting in Washington, D.C. March 5-7, 2009.
Nominations for AFB's Migel Medals must be submitted by Friday, September 26, 2008. Information about nomination submissions (to be submitted by email) and complete details about the Migel Medal are provided on the AFB Web site.
2008-08-12
This is an advance notice that the Call for Papers for the 2009 CSUN (California State University, Northridge) Conference will be announced shortly. The Call for Papers will open August 25 and will close October 17. Please check the CSUN Web site for the announcement and further details.
