Testimonials

Testimonials

 

Association Valentin Haüy CERTAM – France     AVH logo

About the returns on our experience on Obi, we find that the translation has greatly contributed to its popularity in France. Obi’s interface is simple and facilitates its grip. In France, the production of DTB with human voice is important for individuals and small organizations or when textual sources are not available.
Regional groups of AVH who produce audio books, use it more. Their previous practice was to create files with Audacity, and then, send the result to the siege of Paris for all tasks structuring and exporting to Daisy format. By allowing local production directly in Daisy format, Obi provides save a lot of time working, increases productivity and involve, from the beginning of the process, the volunteers who record their voices at the Daisy format.

The fact that Obi is open source, it’s supported by the DAISY Consortium and it benefits from regular updates is also major benefits that we never fail to report and which are appreciated by the French public.

We have some feedback from users outside the AVH. They now use this tool to their surroundings “unable to read” or the organization to which they belong. For some, it’s an opportunity to discover the existence, use and benefits of the format.
Currently, we know that at least two training are regularly taught to the use of Obi : one by a regional committee of the AVH, another outside of our association.

Finally, the use of French is not limited to our territory, we strongly hope that the many other francophone countries found in Obi a cost-effective product for the widest possible diffusion of DTB adapted to their users.

Best Regards, Jean-Pierre – Association Valentin Haüy, France

 

Mitra Jyothi           Mitra Jyothi logo                                                      

We have been using the DAISY format for production since 2008. We first started with My Studio PC and Sigtuna. We started using OBI 1.2 in 2011, and have upgraded to Obi 2.5, when the version was released. Currently, we are having more than 1000 books in DAISY format in languages such as English, Hindi and Kannada.

There has been a sharp increase in the number of volunteers since 2011, as Obi is a free open source tool, which can be downloaded by anyone. Between April 2011 to March 2013, we have trained about 500 volunteers. Corporate also find it easy to get permission to use this software in their official computers, as it is open source. Further more, the user friendly interface and ease of use has made it very easy for new volunteers to learn the software in a short time. We have also successfully trained senior citizens who had no idea about using a computer and many of them are now using Obi. One of our oldest volunteers is a 75 year old lady who records and edits her own books.

The number of errors and troubleshooting problems has reduced considerably, as compared to Sigtuna, which we were using earlier. Even now, when volunteers face problem while recording, in most cases, it is easily sorted through instructions over the phone. In some rare instances, when we got stuck and did not know the solution, we got instant support from the technical support team and development team of DAISY Consortium.

Since 2012, we have started using Tobi to create full text full audio DAISY books as well. We already have about 10 books in full text full audio. Our staff find it easier to use it than other similar tools, and we are in the process of creating more number of full text full audio books using Tobi.

We would like to congratulate and thank DAISY Consortium for their continued endeavour in providing quality open source production tools, which has boosted production of DAISY books by many fold.

Anusuya Das, Chief Coordinator, Digital Talking Book Library – Mitra JYOTHI,Bengaluru,India

 

Chakshumathi      Chakshumathi logo                                                                                        

Since Malayalam language does not have a competent Malayalam Speech engine, all books in Malayalam is made out of OBI. With in last year Chakshumathi produced 170 titles of audio only DAISY books in Malayalam Language using OBI. Chakshumathi provides 4 monthly and one fort nightly audio magazines. All these are produced using Obi.

Besides reading, all the other task of DAISY production at chakshumathi is done by persons with blindness or low vision. This was made possible due to complete accessibility and usability of Obi with screen readers.

The low learning curve of Obi enables even children to start DAISY production. In Eyes Free Science Camp – part 2, (organized to encourage visually impaired student to pursue career in science) the Chakshumathi team trained a 12 year boy in Obi, he became the youngest DAISY producer of the world.

The open source licensing of Obi & Tobi enables their wide spread use in educational institutes.This year onwards students at the institute in Electronic and TV Journalism will be getting training in OBI and Tobi. We made it as part of the Curriculum. Two major programmes are also being introduced this year for OBI and Text to DAISY production.

  • All are DAISY editors: In this program, every blind student in the State will be given training in OBI and Text to daisy.
  • Teach the budding journalist on assistive content development: In conjunction with the Journalism Institute of Kerala at Trivandrum, all the students of Electronic Journalism will be trained OBI, Tobi, Text to speech and Web protocols for assistive websites.

The Chakshumathi’s staff has been trained in Tobi and will commence production of engineering books in next 2 months.

  Ram Kamal – Managing Trustee Chakshumathi Assistive Technology and Empowerment Centre, Kerala