DAISY Open Board Meeting – November 2025
The DAISY Board meeting was kindly hosted by WIPO in Geneva, Switzerland. The open meeting was live streamed on Zoom and we’re happy to include the video and related resources on this page. The full recording is almost three hours long but shortcuts to the different presentations and discussions can be found below and in the video description.
This page contains:
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- Full Video of the Webinar
- eBraille Specification Update
- User Requirements for DAISY Reading Apps
- Artificial Intelligence for DAISY Members
- Member Survey on AI and Update on the Special Interest Group
- AI Voices Acapela Speech Group
- Evaluation of Arabic AI Voices
- Dedicon TTS Evaluation Project
- Benetech leveraging AI for math worksheets in Bookshare Reader
- Nordic Group’s PDF conversion
- PDF Conversion Quality Framework
- Locally Generated Image Descriptions
- AVH Comparison of Image Description Models
- AI for Image Description at Dorina Nowill
- Member and Friend Information Sharing
Full Video of the Webinar
eBraille Specification Update
Nicole Gaines from APH delivered a short presentation on the eBraille specification, providing an update on the current status, methods of creating and reading eBraille, as well as future plans.
Jump to the eBraille presentation in the video.
Download the eBraille presentation slides.
User Requirements for DAISY Reading Apps
Kirsten De Haan from Dedicon provided an update on the Reading Apps User Requirements project to define an internationally agreed set of user needs for specialized reading apps. The Reading Apps specification document was published in October 2025 and contains over 120 user requirements organized into 11 themes.
Download the Reading Apps User Requirements slide deck.
Jump to the User Requirements presentation in the video.
Artificial Intelligence for DAISY Members
Richard Orme from DAISY introduced the topic of AI use by DAISY Members which was followed by a series of presentations on the topic.
Jump to the AI introduction in the video.
Member Survey on AI and Update on the Special Interest Group
Richard introduces the results of our latest AI Member survey, summarising the AI related activities and interests reported. The work of the AI Special Interest Group is also discussed, and the Fido development tool.
Download the AI Member Survey slide deck.
Jump to the Member Survey on AI in the video.
AI Voices Acapela Speech Group
Nicolas Mazars introduces the work of the Acapela Speech Group with samples showing the evolution in text to speech technology, showcasing their latest voices and talking about the AI technology they’ve been using for a few years.
Jump to the Acapela Speech Group presentation in the video.
Evaluation of Arabic AI Voices
Yasmine Youssef delivers a presentation showing interim results of a project working to evaluate Arabic text to speech voices.
Jump to the presentation on Arabic AI Voices in the video.
Dedicon TTS Evaluation Project
Davy Krager discusses a project evaluating text to speech voices intended to benchmark Dutch and English language voices.
Jump to the TTS Evaluation Project presentation in the video.
Benetech Leveraging AI for Math Worksheets in Bookshare Reader
Michael Johnson introduces a video demonstration of accessible math in Bookshare Reader.
Jump to the Benetech Math presentation in the video.
Nordic Group’s PDF Conversion
Arne Kyrkjebø and Jonas Manley discuss plans for a collaborative PDF conversion analysis project with the goal of quicker and more independent methods of conversion from PDF to accessible formats.
Jump to the Nordic Group’s PDF discussion in the video.
PDF Conversion Quality Framework
Richard Orme continues the theme of PDF conversion by introducing work on the PDF Conversion Quality Framework, employing one of the features of the Fido development tool.
Download the PDF Conversion slide deck.
Jump to the PDF Conversion Quality Framework presentation in the video.
Locally Generated Image Descriptions
Richard continued to discuss how image descriptions can be generated by AI without using a cloud service, providing examples from a book recently made accessible.
Jump to the presentation on locally generated descriptions in the video.
AVH Comparison of Image Description Models
Basile Mignonneau presents the results of testing different image description generation services using Fido.
Jump to the Image Description Comparison presentation in the video.
AI for Image Description at Dorina Nowill
Rafael Martins highlights how AI is being used to aid document conversion at Dorina Nowill and introduces Punção a free web tool for drawing using braille letters.
Jump to the presentation from Dorina Nowill in the video.
Member and Friend information sharing
Global Campaign on Braille Literacy
Dr Praveena Sukhraj-Ely and Dipendra Manocha introduce the joint ICEVI and WBU braille literacy campaign which will launch in January 2026.
Download the Braille Literacy Campaign slide deck.
Jump to the braille literacy campaign in the video.
Beyond Physical Distribution
Several DAISY Member organizations are in the process of migrating audio services away from physical media and agreed to share their current work and learning points.
DAISY France Supporting the Transition Away from the CD-ROM
Basile Mignonneau reflected on the recent discussions at DAISY France about work to support the transition.
Jump to the DAISY France CD discussion in the video.
Celia’s Transition from CD distribution
Minna von Zansen delivered a short presentation about work at Celia to transition from CD, the reasoning behind the move, the steps taken, lessons learnt so far and their ongoing processes.
Jump to the Celia presentation on transition from CD distribution in the video.
RNIB Pilot for Digital Distribution
Helen Atwere discusses the testing taking place in the UK to explore how RNIB might migrate from CD to digital distribution, including conducting 5 pilots projects.
Jump to the RNIB presentation on digital migration in the video.
Low Cost Audio Reader, Solar Grove
Joel Templeton from Solar Grove delivered a presentation on their latest players, highlighting the robust and low cost features.
Download the Solar Grove side deck.
Jump to the Solar Grove presentation in the video.
EasyReader Latest, Dolphin Computer Access
Mattias Karlsson and James Green from Dolphin Computer Access highlight the latest developments and new features in EasyReader including connectivity to more library services including the ABC Global Book Service.
Jump to the EasyReader presentation in the video.
Miscellaneous
Tactile Graphics Working Group
Maarten Verboom introduces work which is about to begin, forming a working group to progress the sharing of best practices and resources related to tactile graphics.
Jump to the tactile graphics presentation in the video.
Celia Merger
Minna von Zansen explains the changes that are taking place at Celia and the implications for the DAISY Board.
Jump to the Celia Merger presentation in the video.
BASE and GCA Developments at Benetech
Michael Johnson presents updates on the Global Certified Accessible, Approved EdTech Tools and the Benetech Accessibility Services for Education, discussing the new US legislation impacting accessible publishing.
Jump to the Benetech BASE and GCA presentation in the video.
Thanks to WIPO
Maarten Verboom begins to close the meeting by thanking our hosts WIPO.
Jump to the message of thanks in the video.
Message from WIPO
Monica Halil Lövblad, Head of the Accessible Books Consortium, shares a message about the key role DAISY and the Member organizations have played in their ability to improve access to publications globally.
Jump to the message on behalf of WIPO in the video.