Boston University Office of Disability Services
DAISY Production Training Module

Table of Contents [sitemap]


What is a DAISY Talking Book (DTB): DAISY is a format based on the W3C defined SGML applications XHTML 1.0 and SMIL 1.0. Using this framework, a talking book format is presented that enables navigation within a sequential and hierarchical structure consisting of (marked-up) text synchronized with audio.

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A traditional talking book is an analog representation of a print publication. A Digital Talking Book (DTB) is a multimedia representation of a print publication. In both instances the rendering of the audio involves either a human voice or a computer generated voice such as the ones used in our production technique.

From the FAQ Page of Dolphin Computer Access:

Q. What is the DAISY format?

A. The Digital Accessible Information SYstem (DAISY) Consortium was formed in 1996 by talking-book libraries to lead the worldwide transition from analogue to digital talking-books.

The vision of the DAISY Consortium is "That all published information is available to people with print disabilities, at the same time and at no greater cost, in an accessible, feature-rich, navigable format".

The DAISY format is an international standard for the production, exchange and use of Digital Talking-Books. The format has been designed to integrate within mainstream technology to ensure access to information for people with print disabilities.

The objectives of the DAISY Consortium are:

  • To create and promote the worldwide standard for navigation and structuring of digital talking-books.
  • To encourage and foster the establishment and development of digital talking-book library services in both developed and developing countries.
  • To maximise the accessibility and utility of electronic books and multimedia documents for people with print disabilities.
  • To secure the recognition and adoption of the DAISY standard for navigable multimedia documents among mainstream product developers and book publishers.
  • To encourage and foster the establishment and development of a global talking-book library, which transcends geographic boundaries and linguistic differences, and which embraces cultural diversity.

Q. What is a DAISY Digital Talking Book?

A. A DAISY Digital Talking Book (DTB) is a multimedia alternative to a traditional audiocassette based talking book.

  • A DTB provides better audio quality it also increases accessibility by allowing easy navigation from point to point within the content.
  • DTB's are played back on either hardware or software players. Dolphin Audio Publishing produce software players as well as the authoring solutions for either converting analog talking books into the DAISY format or creating new DAISY books by recording digitally.
  • DTB's produced to the DAISY standard are independent of distribution media types. This means that a book that is distributed on CD may also be distributed on any other form of storage device - available now or in the future.
  • A DAISY DTB can also include text and images which are synchronized with the audio.

In total, there are six (6) types of DAISY books defined by the DAISY Consortium:

  1. Full audio with title element only - This is a DTB without navigation structure. Only the title of the book is displayed as text. The actual content is presented as linear audio only. Direct access to points within the DTB is not possible.
  2. Full audio with Navigational Control Center (NCC) only - This is a DTB with structure. That provides both sequential and hierarchical navigation. In many cases, the structure in this type of DTB resembles the table of contents of its print source.
  3. Full audio with NCC and partial text - This is a DTB with structure as described above, as well as some additional text which is synchronized with the audio. The additional text components may be present where keyword searching or direct access to the text is required.
  4. Full text and audio - This is a DTB with structure and synchronized text and audio. [in general, this is what we build at Boston University]
  5. Full text and some audio - This is a DTB with structure, complete text and partial audio. This type of DTB could be used as a dictionary where only pronunciations were provided in audio form. The audio and text are synchronized.
  6. Text and no audio - This is a DTB containing an NCC and marked up/structured electronic text only. No audio is present. This file may be used for Braille output.
At a very early point in the development of the DAISY standard, talking book readers from many countries were consulted regarding their reading requirements and their vision of a fully accessible audio book. Those who provided input made it very clear that analog recordings did not meet their reading and information needs. Access to points within the books, awkwardness of the medium itself, sound quality plus numerous other issues indicated that producers of talking books had to begin the move to a digital platform. However, a digitally produced human voice talking book in itself would not resolve all of the issues, particularly the issues of accessibility and navigation from point to point within the book. DAISY DTBs do meet talking book reader requirements by providing access to the talking book that has never before been possible with a human voice production of a print book. - [from the DAISY Consortium]

For more information, visit the following sites: