This is good news indeed. Rs.10 per audio CD makes it universally affordable.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Viraj Kafle" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <accessindia@accessindia.org.in> Sent: Saturday, February 10, 2007 11:47 AM Subject: [AI] DAISY to help city's visually challenged turn the page soon DAISY to help city's visually challenged turn the page soon Once installed, the technology can be used to convert an e-text into an audio CD or Braille Vivek Vijayapalan Ahmedabad, February 9: VISUALLY challenged persons could soon be able to turn to their favourite parts of electronic texts, with the Blind People's Association (BPA) currently in the process of introducing the Digital Accessible Information SYstem Consortium (DAISY). DAISY comprises a set of digital files that include digital audio files containing human narration, that once installed, can be used to convert an e-text into either an audio CD or Braille. Coordinator of technology room for the visually impaired at the BPA, Ranchod Soni says, "The new technology provides access to all formats - Braille, audio or text, the biggest advantage being that a visually impaired person can skip pages or read a particular paragraph." DAISY stores data in the form of a book, so one can move to selected paragraphs, even if the e-text is converted into the format of an audio CD. Soni points out that although the BPA's initial investment is close to Rs 50,000, visually impaired persons can access the System at the BPA centre, free of cost. The BPA has already installed two such systems and is planning to create a DAISY forum connected with other centres in the country. Soni says, "The forum we are planning will be spread across various cities in the country. The centres will be open to anyone wanting to use this technology. At present, National Association for Blind in Delhi and Rehabilitation Society of Visually Impaired, Lucknow are production centres that use this technology to produce audio CDs." He adds that while e-text can be converted into the English and Hindi, the system does not support conversion to Gujarati. However the BPA is working on this problem. Soni explains, "Unicode, an industry standard designed for to support multilingual activity is absent in this information system. However, this forms a part of our research and development programme." He also says that the BPA is forming an e-library comprising 1000 titles. He says, "A trained DAISY expert will edit the content, either as paragraphs in the e-text itself or as sections in the audio CD, before it can be used by the visually impaired." BPA Executive Director, Bhushan Punani says, "While the visually impaired can access the computer, they can also buy the audio CDs priced at Rs 10, if they choose to do so." http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=221558 To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
