Statement of Principles for the Creation and Production of Accessible Books and Materials

Structure Guidelines for DAISY/NISO
Last Revised: September 10, 2005

This Statement of Principles represents the minimum standard to be met by Libraries for the Blind and producers of material in DAISY format.

The DAISY Consortium endorses the following: Alternative format productions should be a faithful representation of a published works to ensure that those who are blind, visually impaired or have print-disability, have access to the same information as the rest of society. Libraries or other producers of accessible format materials who adopt these Principles assure readers that their accessible publications, regardless of country of origin, represent the original published work as closely as possible.

In terms of these principles, accessible is defined as follows: the print document is rendered in a format which enables a reader with a print-handicap to extract information from the document as easily and fully as possible.

The DAISY Consortium supports the following principles in the creation and production of alternate format materials:

Producers will respect and maintain the integrity of the published work to every extent possible. The producer will not alter the content or omit essential components unless absolutely necessary to provide access to the information.
It is recognized that it may be necessary for producers to alter the intended order of the published work or add explanation of visual material so as to make the content accessible to the reader.
If it is necessary to alter the presentation of the published work solely for the purpose of accessibility any information that a producer adds or omits must be identified as such.
It is acknowledged that some producers will be required to produce only a portion of a published work.These partial books should be identified as such.
It is strongly recommended that producers of digital materials apply a structure to the published work to facilitate access and navigation by the reader.

Prepared for: DAISY Consortium and IFLA: Section of Libraries for the Blind
Date: January 27, 1999

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