[dfaresource] article on the recently concluded Philippine DAISY Seminar
- From: "Julius Charles R. Serrano" <jcrs_19@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: dfaresource@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2007 17:22:31 -0700 (PDT)
The First-Ever Philippine DAISY Seminar
By Julius Charles R. Serrano
Yesterday, September 5, 2007, from 9 AM to 5 PM, the
first ever seminar about DAISY, or Digital Accessible
Information System, was held at the Manila Hotel in
Metro Manila. Numerous representatives of government
and non-government organizations, major business
organizations, and academic institutions such as
colleges, universities, and libraries attended this
momentous event. The Keynote speakers were Mr. Hiroshi
Kawamura and Mr. Monthian Buntan, Project Manager and
Assistant Project Manager of the DAISY For All Project
respectively. This seminar was organized by the
Philippine DAISY Network, a collaboration of
government and non-government organizations whose main
goal is to promote the DAISY technology to enhance and
improve the quality of education as well as other
significant fields of expertise of persons with
disabilities and the Philippine public in general. Ms.
Lanie Arminio, Information Systems Analyst of the
National Computer Center, and I were given the
opportunity to become the MC?s of the program.
The first part of the seminar consisted of discussions
regarding the main objective of the DAISY technology,
the standards of the said form of assistive system,
and the major institutions that have continuously
advocated DAISY both locally and internationally.
Furthermore, presentations were given to exemplify how
DAISY has been successfully implemented in countries
such as Thailand. While the keynote speakers discussed
the aforesaid major topics, illustrative slides and
sample DAISY books were displayed on the screen to
further add to the information provided by the
speakers.
The second part of the seminar consisted of actual
demonstrations which gave the audience a first-hand
look at how DAISY books are produced. Ms. Lea Vilvar,
a visually impaired librarian of the Blind Division of
the Philippine National Library demonstrated how DAISY
books are created using a live narrator?s voice. I was
given the privilege to demonstrate to the audience how
DAISY books can be produced using a text-to-speech
option. Discussions about the various software and
hardware that are used to play DAISY books were given
by Mr. Kawamura and Mr. Buntan. In addition, the
localization of the AMIS playback software in the
Filipino language was discussed and demonstrated by
Ms. Arminio.
The last part of the program consisted of
recommendations, suggestions, feedback, and questions
from the audience. The keynote speakers, as well as
Mr. Lauro Purcil, Chairperson of the Philippine DAISY
Network, gave their own clear answers and reactions to
each recommendation. In my own humble estimation, the
audience received the idea of the DAISY technology
openly and all are looking forward to future
implementations of the said standard. Finally, after
this historical seminar, the Philippine DAISY Network
is more determined and focused on promoting and
implementing the DAISY technology all over the country
for its development and progress. The next meeting has
been set to carry out the upcoming activities such as
trainings and forums. I personally would like to thank
the persons behind the DAISY For All Project, as well
as my colleagues in the Philippine DAISY Network for
making the said event a complete success.
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