[bookshare-discuss] Article: Technews: Talking books

"Shelley L. Rhodes" <juddysbuddy@xxxxxxxxxxxx> · Mon, 20 Jun 2005 13:34:53 -0400

A world perspective.

Jamaica Observer
Monday, June 20, 2005

Technews: Talking books

By VIVIENNE GREEN-EVANS editorial@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

JAMAICAN libraries and agencies catering to the visually impaired are 
working together on a project that will, in the next three years, give blind 
and visually impaired persons digital access to print material from 
libraries in Jamaica and possibly the region.

They are developing a 'Caribbean Digital Collection For the Blind and 
Print-Disabled' or 'Talking Books'. These are print material that is 
converted to speech then stored on compact discs, based on an international 
standard called the Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY).

Phase one of the Talking Books project ends on June 30, a pilot to produce 
25 titles being done at the University of the West Indies' (UWI) Radio 
Education Unit and the National Library of Jamaica, and funded through a $3 
million grant from UNESCO and the Canadian Local Initiative Fund.

Additional funding is now being sought for phases two and three of the 
project which, by June 2007, expects to see the establishment of a permanent 
collection and its incorporation into libraries across the island and the 
wider Caribbean.

The Statistical Institute of Jamaica (Statin) reports that there are close 
to 26,000 visually impaired, and some 113,000 illiterates islandwide.

Such persons can now only receive printed material with the help of 
volunteer readers or through the few braille transcripts and tapes that are 
available at some libraries.

"It's really very limited the material that is available. We want to change 
that. We want to have everything, all types of material available via the 
Talking Book medium," says project manager Halcee Anderson-Pessoa.

Only one obstacle stands in the way, and that is procuring copyright 
permission to convert these books from print to audio format, says Vivian 
Blake, the project's technical assistant.

Blake became blind after a failed glaucoma operation at age two.
He has a Bachelor's degree in Social Work from the University of the West 
Indies and is now studying towards a teaching diploma in Language and 
Communication at the Vocational Training Development Institute.

All his life he has depended on tapes of print material read by volunteers, 
for his own personal use.

"Even though we have to stress that the project is totally non commercial, 
we have difficulty sometimes identifying the owners of the copyright - the 
publishers and authors - and this being a pilot there are some time 
constraints as well," he says.

"In places like Canada, the UK, Australia it is legislated that all 
information should be provided in accessible format to persons who are 
blind, visually impaired and other persons who are print disabled like 
dyslexics."

He wants to see the same here. Specifically he wants the matter addressed at 
the legislative level and he is planning to approach the relevant ministries 
in advocating for the change.

In the meantime, the project after completion, will mean more information 
per compact disc for its users, plus ease of navigation by page, chapter or 
section.

The files however will be scrambled which will prevent access through 
regular MP3 or CD players.

Users will need DAISY playback equipment to unscramble the information, 
which will be available at the institutions.

Managed by a steering committee, the Caribbean Digital Collection for the 
Blind and Print-Disabled is being pioneered in Jamaica and will provide a 
model that can be adapted to other Caribbean Territories.

The steering committee comprises representatives from the National Library 
of Jamaica, the Jamaica Society for the Blind, Jamaica Library Service, UWI 
Library, Radio Education Unit, Salvation Army School for the Blind, Canadian 
National Institute for the Blind and the National Library and Information 
System Authority from Trinidad and Tobago.

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/magazines/Business/html/20050619T220000-0500_82756_OBS_TALKING_BOOKS.asp

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