1. The Role of Technology in
Addressing the Book Famine
Stephen King
President, DAISY Consortium
Director, International Affairs
Royal National Institute of Blind People, UK
November 2012

2. Technology Ends the Book Famine
• About the book (& news) famine
• Technology has improved the reading
experience
• The next revolution in reading
• How technology we control is helping end the
book famine

3. WBU Right to Read
"We want the right to read
the same book,
at the same time, price and
place,
as everyone else"

4. The Reality of
Accessible Publication Availability
A Book Famine
Less than 5% of books are
available in accessible formats
4

5. Who are the DAISY Consortium?
• Consortium of "for" and "of" print disability organisations
+ business & governments
• Committed to end the book famine for print disabled
• 93 Not for Profit organisations serving people with print
disabilities + Friends
• Blind, dyslexic & other print disability
• Worldwide Membership
• 50+ Countries US, Latin Am, EU, Africa, India, Asia
• All continents (Bar Antarctica) (We do have Iceland!)

6. What do we do?
Vision
• People have equal access to information and knowledge regardless of
disability; a right confirmed by the UN Convention on the Rights of
Persons with Disabilities
Mission
• Work to create the best way to read and publish, for everybody, in
the 21st Century
• Foster a global partnership between civil society, publishing and
technology industries, standards bodies and governments that builds
a more effective solution, for everyone

7. People with disabilities say they want:
• To easily find publications I can read
• Far better availability of Braille & talking books
• More publications with accessibility built in
• A great reading experience with eyes, ears or
fingers
• Affordable & easy to use reading technologies

8. DAISY Consortium
What we've achieved
• A better way to read 1996-2006
– Audio & E-text reading with navigation
• Talking book services in 50+ countries
• Realised never going to end book famine 5%
• A better way to publish 2006-12
– Engagement with early E-book industry
• On the brink of worldwide inclusive publishing
• Now development of EPUB 3 via IDPF
• EPUB 3 brings DAISY for all!
• Inclusive publishing for the world

9. What is an e-book?
• An e-book is an electronic book which you
read digitally on your computer, laptop screen
or on devices called e-book readers.

10. International Digital Publishers Forum
Trade and standards organisation for the digital publishing
industry
The global trade and standards association
for electronic publishing.
The IDPF develops and maintains the
EPUB® standard format for reflowable digital
books and other digital publications that are
interoperable between disparate reading
devices and applications. The IDPF also
provides a forum that fosters enhanced
Hundreds of communication between all stakeholders in the
members emerging global digital publishing industry.
worldwide
President: George Kerscher
Tech Director: Markus Gylling

11. The Good News!
EPUB developed from ground up for access
EPUB 3 is being adopted by publishers worldwide
The Official Guides to publishing with EPUB 3

12. Play EPUB 3 Books with the iBooks App
Publishers in countries worldwide supporting EPUB 3
EPUB 3 supported in Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew etc.

13. The opportunity: The e-book
revolution
"People with print disabilities in UK
are increasingly able to enjoy the
same book, at the same price and
place, as everyone else...”
Stephen King
RNIB UK May 2011, Helsinki
13

14. Good News!
E-book revolution: Ending the book
famine
Today
– 7% of all books available in UK accessible by eyes, ears &
fingers, 2011. (Up from 5% in 2004)
– 76% of top 1000 books sold in 2011 are e-books, readable
by eyes, ears & fingers. (Up from 54% 2010)
Still many barriers
– user skills & knowledge;
– cost of technology & DRM
– not a great reading experience
– cost of Braille displays 14

15. E-books already improving access
• For some people
– Partially sighted
– People with knowledge & skills
• Current e-books limited
– Flat print representation
• EPUB 3 transforms possibilities
– Navigation, audio & text synchronised, video etc
• EPUB 3 is designed for accessibility

16. Built-in accessibility: Standard
e-Book read by eyes ears or fingers

17. Different version
Customised for accessibility
• Picture descriptions, complex layout
• Simplified for learning disability
• Economically derived from standard e-book

18. Transforming Braille
Using technology
• Braille readers at risk of missing out
– High cost of Braille displays
– Inefficient path from print to Braille
• DAISY Consortium Transforming Braille project
– Low cost Braille display for e-reading
– Efficient production from publisher E-pub files
– Lead by Braille users, supported by DC members
• Developing countries vital to project success

19. Our goal: confident readers
Reading what they want, when they want with eyes,
ears or fingers

20. In Summary…
Digital technology developed by blind people has:
• Improved talking books and screen readers
• Improved speech synthesis and access to general
computer based systems
• Enabled the creation of E-books - the next revolution
• Will transform Braille
• Enable us to share resources worldwide
• Technology will end the book and news famine
endured by people with print disabilities, worldwide

21. The Role of Technology in
Addressing the Book Famine
Thank you!
Stephen King
President, DAISY Consortium: President@daisy.org
www.daisy.org
Director, International Affairs
Royal National Institute of Blind People: www.rnib.org.uk