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...formation DAISY Consortium in 1996 led to the concept and fundamental ideas of the digital talking book. The result is an international standard for digital talking books, which is now becoming a multimedia standard. DAISY has developed new partnerships, new working methods, and new ways of thinking. The digital vision has improved library services to print-impaired people and changed the participating libraries themselves. Today some DAISY libraries are close to becoming fully digitized, and DAISY technology is heading into mainstream use. Users may soon be entering a global virtual library, and the DAISY experience may in many aspects serve as a model for future library developments.
INTRODUCTION
Imagine entering a library without a single physical lending item on the shelves, without books in print, actually without shelves, just large cooled servers, whirring digital archives linked through digital networks with machines for copying and distribution. No whispering, no shushing. It is not science fiction or the librarian's nightmare. It is actually a dream come true.
The DAISY Consortium (1) was formed in 1996 to take advantage of new digital opportunities. For more than a decade now, modern society has been defined as an "information society"--a society in which both low-cost information and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) is in general use. Today it is more often defined as a "knowledge society" to stress the fact that the most valuable asset is investment in intangible human and social capital and that the key societal factors are knowledge and creativity. (2)
Knowledge has become the most important capital in the present age, and the success of any society lies in harnessing that capital. Not just economics, but also social, cultural, and all other human activities are dependent on a huge volume of knowledge and information. Modern society is characterized by the ability to identify, interpret, produce, process, transform, disseminate, and use information; to make informed choices; and to share information and knowledge through effective networking mechanisms.
The ability to take part in these processes has become an even more crucial precondition to participate in social life. Being able to use, read, and understand communications is not only a precondition to participate in social life; it is also a key to quality of life for the individual. Not being able to read or write at the same level as everybody else is a serious disadvantage in the knowledge society.
Information and knowledge have always been vital components in the formation of society. Every society is formed around some shared concepts, but one of the contributions of globalization and new ICT is the creation of a global society with a shared knowledge of issues and possibilities. With present day technologies, knowledge societies need not be constrained by geographic location because technology offers many more possibilities for sharing, archiving, and retrieving knowledge.
In general such a society presents great opportunities: it can offer new employment possibilities, more fulfilling jobs, new tools for education and training, easier access to public services, and also increased inclusion of disadvantaged regions or people. It also presents new challenges, however; the transformation of existing social structures and of global economies to knowledge economies does not guarantee economic growth with "equity" either within or between nations as knowledge becomes a much-valued resource to be possessed and harnessed for its economic benefits.
At a very early point in the development of the DAISY concept talking book readers from many countries were consulted regarding their reading requirements and their vision of a fully accessible audio book. Their comments made it clear that analogue recordings did not adequately meet their reading and information needs. Poor access to points within the book, awkwardness of the medium itself, poor sound quality, and other daily annoyances indicated that producers of talking books had to begin the move to a digital platform.
People having trouble with reading and writing face problems in modern daily life, where manuals for household tools, informative labelling, and letters from authorities are commonplace. It is possible, but definitely not easy, to manage a life with very little reading, but there is a risk of social exclusion as access to print or virtual text is an essential key to almost any form of training and education.
Libraries providing services to people with print disabilities have recognized the challenges and opportunities created by the knowledge society and are acting to make a difference in this changing environment. Digitization has spurred the formation of the DAISY Consortium, a global initiative to manage the transition from analogue to digital library services to visually impaired people. Digital formats provide new possibilities to counter the risks of social exclusion of print disabled people and promote equality in access to information and knowledge.
The conversion to digital services may benefit large numbers of people. Globally, in 2002 more than 161 million people were visually impaired, of whom 124 million people had low vision and 37 million were blind. These global estimates produced by the World Health Organisation (WHO) are considered the best scientific estimates of the global burden of visual impairment (WHO, 2004). However, the actual global magnitude of visual impairment is greater. Worldwide, for each blind person an average of 3.4 people have low vision, with country and regional variation ranging from 2.4 to 5.5. Visual impairment is not distributed uniformly throughout the world. More than 90 percent of the world's visually impaired people live in developing countries.
In the knowledge society, the much broader concept of print disability may actually even be more relevant than visual impairment. The definition of print disability can vary from country to country, but generally print disability may be defined as the inability to access information in a print format due to either a visual, perceptual, or physical disability. Examples may include blindness, dyslexia, learning disabilities, or the inability to hold a book, follow a line of print, or focus and concentrate.
Everyone must have open and timely access to information and knowledge to ensure equality, social inclusion, and a society where all forms of knowledge get recognized and valued, and to provide everyone with the opportunity to a higher quality of life. Social inclusion is fundamental in all democratic societies; everyone should have the same rights and opportunities to participate in cultural, economic, and community life. Societies must recognize situations in which certain groups are put at a disadvantage and make a commitment to eliminate inequality and discrimination by facilitating the process of removing barriers. Nobody should be excluded for reasons of aptitudes or disabilities.
This obligation, confirmed in and defined by the right of access to information in the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Part III, Article 19(2), is as important as ever: "Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the...
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