2024: Member Spotlight
Around the world DAISY Members have been actively serving their communities and developing new resources. We are delighted to include a few of their stories from 2024.
Book Industry Study Group (BISG), USA
The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) works to understand and amplify DAISY’s efforts to improve content accessibility. In the past year, BISG has created an accessibility metadata working group to help the U.S. book publishing market prepare for implementation of the European Accessibility Act in mid-2025 and expected updates to Title II requirements in 2026. Representatives from DAISY join these working group meetings to help advance industry understanding. Webinars describing EAA and Title II expectations are planned for the first half of 2025.
https://www.bisg.org/
BoinIT, Republic of Korea
BOINIT, in partnership with the National Institute of Special Education, has launched accessible EPUB and PDF/UA textbook services.
The EPUB format restructures content to optimize reading order for effective learning and enhances navigation features. Meanwhile, the PDF/UA format optimizes the original layout while supporting magnification and Text-to-Speech functions for individuals with low vision.
Caption: illustration showing the workflow to create an EPUB from a textbook
This service is designed to help visually impaired students and educators access and understand textbooks in various formats more easily. It marks a significant step toward improving textbook accessibility. A short YouTube series of educational resources was created to help training (in Korean).
https://boinit.com/
Christian Library for the Blind and Visually Impaired (CBB), The Netherlands
In 2024, the CBB played a crucial role in Canon’s World Unseen campaign, which aimed to make photography accessible to blind and partially sighted individuals. By collaborating with Canon and RNIB, the CBB helped create tactile images featuring raised textures and braille descriptions, allowing visually impaired audiences to engage with photography in a multisensory way.
The World Unseen exhibition premiered at Somerset House in London from April 5th to 7th, attracting over 1,100 visitors. Following its success, the exhibition toured across Europe, reaching diverse audiences and further promoting accessibility in the arts.
The CBB’s expertise ensured high-quality tactile translations, making the images meaningful for all. This campaign set a new standard for inclusive design and showcased how technology can bridge accessibility gaps, reinforcing the CBB’s commitment to making culture and information available to everyone.
Caption: image of the World Unseen tactile visual exhibition
DAISY France, France
At the end of May 2024 (29-30), Daisy France hosted the Board Meeting of the DAISY Consortium at the Philanthro-Lab. We had 46 people participating during both days in Paris and 10 more people participating online. This event was followed by the DPUB Summit from EDRLAB on the 31st of May with more than 100 people.
A key highlight of the year was the accessibility study commissioned by the French Ministry of Culture, conducted with the active participation of the Fédération des Aveugles et Amblyopes de France. This research assessed the real-world accessibility of websites for buying and borrowing digital books, providing critical insights into the challenges faced by visually impaired users. The findings underscored significant barriers, including complex purchasing and borrowing processes, inconsistent assistive technology support, and lack of clear user guidance.
These results take on particular importance as we approach the implementation of the European Accessibility Act (Directive (EU) 2019/882) in June 2025, which will impose stricter requirements on digital products and services. Through its continued advocacy and expertise, the DAISY France group remains committed to ensuring that digital reading platforms evolve towards true accessibility, enabling more equitable access to books and knowledge.
DAISY France Member Page
Dedicon, the Netherlands
User requirements for reading apps
Dedicon has been looking for a new reader that offers patrons more options for reading complex content. In 2024, we therefor tested existing readers, analysed user needs, sought international collaboration, and engaged with software providers. The conclusion: existing reading systems do not meet all complex needs. In November 2024 we proposed a project with the DAISY Consortium to develop user requirements for reading apps. The project Reading Apps User Requirements was commissioned by and will report to the DAISY Board.
Supporting publishers in accessibility compliance
In 2024 we continued to provide awareness and training sessions for Dutch and Flemish publishers in order for them to meet the accessibility legislation coming from the European Accessibility Act. Within the APACE project, Dedicon was responsible for organising the networking events, e.g. several Ask the Expert sessions and online and live meet-ups, for instance during the Frankfurt Book Fair.
https://www.dedicon.nl
eKitabu
eKitabu’s core mission is the distribution and publishing of accessible materials to promote inclusive and equitable quality education. In 2018, eKitabu launched a service to address the lack of reading materials for deaf and hard-of-hearing learners. Studio KSL develops and produces accessible digital materials in Kenyan Sign Language to support language acquisition and build communication skills, setting learners on a path to literacy. Studio KSL has delivered over 337 sign language videos and storybooks in six African sign languages, reaching about 3,500 learners in schools and attracting over 12 million viewers on Akili Kids TV.
Studio KSL won the MasterCard Foundation EdTech Fellowship for its Digital StoryTime (DST) which revolutionizes learning for Deaf children, enhances learning outcomes, and accelerates access to inclusive and equitable education across Africa, bringing forward learner’s first exposure to sign language ahead to before starting school, supporting early language acquisition and literacy.
Caption: A class watching a sign language video
Fondazione LIA, Italy
The new APACE Project, led by LIA, organized many innovative training, awareness raising, and networking activities, including the Survey on analysis of skills gap gathering data on the adoption of accessibility practices among EU publishers. The results were presented at the Frankfurt Book Fair.
Six new organizations became members and LIA’s catalogue can now count more than 38,000 accessible e-books by 82 publishing imprints.
We broadened initiatives in Italy and globally, encompassing training and consultancy, accessibility audits for publications, websites, platforms, with a specific focus on textbooks and academic publishers and on the implementation of born accessible workflows.
Our R&D projects focused on applying generative AI tools to the semi-automatic creation of alternative image descriptions and on the creation of tools to support accessibility QA.
LIA continued leading W3C working groups and collaborated in providing consultancy to Adobe for the implementation of new InDesign accessibility features.
Fundação Dorina Nowill para Cegos , Brazil
Fundação Dorina Nowill para Cegos is a non-profit and philanthropic organization. We have been working for the social inclusion of blind and low-vision children, young people, adults, and the elderly for over seven decades.
In 2024, Fundação Dorina hosted the official meeting of the DAISY Consortium in Brazil. This international meeting discussed fundamental topics on digital accessibility, with the presence of Daisy Consortium members and invited observers.
In addition to technical discussions, the event provided networking moments and connections between professionals and specialists in the field.
To mark the new phase of the Fundação Dorina in the digital publishing market, we held the First International Accessibility Conference, which brought together international and national specialists to discuss new perspectives and global realities on accessibility in the market and presented our innovative AI solution from the Braille Ecosystem.
Caption: presenters from the Dorina Nowill First International Accessibility Conference.
https://fundacaodorina.org.br/
Humanware, Canada
In 2024, HumanWare made significant strides in accessibility with the launch of the Monarch, a groundbreaking multi-line display that transforms how students read DAISY books. This innovative device is the first refreshable braille display to support the upcoming ebraille file format by DAISY, promising to enhance the learning experience for students who are blind or have a visual impairment.
We also introduced several updates to the Victor Reader Stream and Braille Readers, refining their functionality to provide a more seamless user experience. The addition of audio support on the Mantis further expanded its versatility, allowing users to import DAISY content and making it an even more valuable tool.
To extend our global reach, we expanded library support to France (with EOLE) and Lithuania, ensuring that more users worldwide have access to HumanWare’s cutting-edge technology. Our ongoing innovations continue to break barriers and enrich the lives of users everywhere.
https://www.humanware.com/
Light for the World, Austria
In Burkina Faso, Light for the World has advanced inclusive education for blind and visually impaired students through the Bookshare project, part of the One Class For All initiative. Over the past year, 42 accessible books were uploaded to digital libraries, 20 educators certified in inclusive materials, and 29 students received tablets with Bluetooth keyboards for independent learning. The project has been recognized at international conferences such as eLearning Africa and WSIS+20, and a trained local team ensures sustainability. In Ethiopia, more than 2,600 children with disabilities will now study in inclusive learning environments thanks to a successful emergency education project between Light for the World and UNICEF and partners including Berhan Lehetsanat and HPDO. In South Sudan, we launched sign language and braille training for teachers, and a Memorandum of Understanding was signed with key ministries and the University of Juba—laying the foundation for inclusive education where students with and without disabilities have equal access to learning and support.
Caption: a sign language lesson taking place in South Sudan.
https://www.light-for-the-world.org/
National Library for the Disabled, Republic of Korea
Following the enactment of the “EPUB accessibility for reading disabled people” Part 1 Authoring guidelines (KS X 6202-1) in May 2022, the National Library for the Disabled enacted the “EPUB accessibility for reading disabled people” Part 2 Conformance criteria by level (KS X 6202-2) as a national standard (KS) in January 2024.
Part 1 provides guidance on accessibility compliance at the EPUB production stage, and Part 2 defines level-by-level standards by dividing them into three levels according to the type of e-book (e.g. novels, educational books, professional books) and the complexity of editing.
https://www.nld.go.kr
National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS), USA
NLS continued enriching the collections; additions including network-produced braille, talking-book titles, NLS-produced narration and transcription, and commercially recorded audio titles converted to the talking-book format. The circulation of materials continues to be very strong across the NLS patron base; with an average of 100 items consumed per patron.
In support of continued Marrakesh Treaty implementation, NLS acquired 1,987 works in eight languages including 1,240 audiobooks, 741 braille books and six braille music scores from countries that are members of the treaty.
NLS hosted a multi-day seminar of the International Federation of Library Associations & Institutions (IFLA) Libraries Serving Persons with Print Disabilities (LPD) Section, which brought together nearly 200 people, in-person and virtually, from 37 countries.
NLS began mass production of the next generation digital talking book machine (DA2). The DA2 enables user-friendly features including access to BARD, wireless and Bluetooth capabilities, and local device storage.
http://www.loc.gov/nls
ONCE, Spain
Most of the adaptations produced by the ONCE Bibliographic Service (SBO) are in the Daisy audio format. To improve our production of audio materials using synthetic voices, the SBO has worked in adding Amazon Web Service’s voices to the ones already in use—namely, Google’s and Microsoft’s. To speed up this process, ONCE has shared their own programming code with the Pipeline development team.
The year before the 200th anniversary of the braille code, ONCE started exploring all the options that technology may allow us to improve our braille production as well. We are at the early stages of a pilot test to explore the possibilities of braille transcription using AI. By comparing printed books with their braille counterpart, we are trying to train a software tool that will allow us to automate braille transcription in the future. The work of our technicians is essential, as they provide feedback to both the project developers and the AI itself. We will focus on simple texts first, but as objectives are achieved, we will try to cover more complex documents.
http://www.once.es
Sightsavers, UK
Sightsavers is a UK-based international development organisation working with partners in 33 countries across Africa and South Asia to eliminate avoidable blindness and support the empowerment of people with disabilities to learn, earn and participate equally in society. We have a proven track-record and strong reputation for delivering effective pan-disability education and social inclusion programs at scale.
In 2024 Sightsavers:
- managed or supported inclusive education projects in Bangladesh, Cameroon, Kenya, Pakistan, Senegal, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Uganda, and Zambia.
- finalised guidance on how to support children with disabilities in low and middle income settings using educational technology.
- continued to support the education of children with visual impairments across eight states in India, particularly through ensuring they were able to access ICT.
Taylor & Francis (T&F), UK
Taylor & Francis is committed to ensuring all our products, platforms and websites are accessible to as wide an audience as possible. In 2024 we continued to improve the quality and accessibility of our content through a series of initiatives.
We created a single view of our digital products and their accessibility reporting status, to prioritise and schedule Accessibility Statements and Conformance Reports in preparation for the European Accessibility Act (EAA).
Onboarding our digital products to a third-party auditing tool, to ensure digital governance, with a mix of automated and manual testing.
We created and remediated a range of content:
- 18,500 EPUBs created.
- 1,250 EPUB2 titles remediated to EPUB3.
- 10,500 new eBook conversions.
- 899 alternative format requests were supported through T&F books and journals request service.
To learn more about what we’ve been working on, please read the T&F Corporate Accessibility Statement.
https://taylorandfrancis.com/
Textalk, Sweden
In 2024, Textalk has made significant advancements in our conversion product Webarch.
A major milestone is the integration of Text-to-Speech (TTS) production using leading online services such as Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud, Amazon Polly, and OpenAI. This enhancement has greatly improved automation, scalability, and voice quality.
Additionally, we have implemented support for MathCAT as a preprocessor for TTS production. This innovation enables the seamless conversion of complex course materials, ensuring high-quality audio output while significantly reducing costs compared to manual narration.
These developments mark a major step forward in making educational and informational content more accessible and efficient to produce.
http://www.textalk.se
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