News

Several DAISY Members and Friends are leveraging smart speaker technologies to provide simplified access to their libraries of audio and accessible text titles. An easy-to-use smart speaker (such as Amazon Echo or Google Home) can be a convenient way to listen to a newspaper or favourite books. They can be especially helpful for people who are less confident with smartphones and computers.

However, some of the features in the Google Assistant platform are being withdrawn, and some of our members are concerned about how their smart speaker services will be affected. The DAISY Consortium has formally written to Google and the relevant team is now aware of the issue. We are promised a response soon. In the meantime, if you are concerned about the planned sunset of Conversational Actions then please write to rorme@daisy.org and we can keep you updated with our discussions with Google.

We are sorry to share the passing of Scott LaBarre, DAISY board member representing the National Federation of the Blind, USA, who passed away surrounded by his family on Saturday, December 10th 2022.

Scott championed the cause of accessible books for many years and was a leader in the long and successful campaign securing the Marrakesh Treaty. Scott joined the DAISY board in 2018, and was also a willing volunteer for our board working groups and participated enthusiastically in the online meetings held during the limitations of the global pandemic.

We owe an enormous debt of gratitude to Scott for his significant contribution to fulfilling DAISY’s mission to make information accessible to people with disabilities, wherever they live in the world.

Read the NFB Statement about Scott LaBarre.

Many congratulations to the winners and finalists of the Accessible Books Consortium International Excellence Awards for Accessible Publishing, announced this week at The Guadalajara Book fair. The awards are divided into 2 categories:

Initiative Award

The finalists in this category were:

•  Accessibility Task Force of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association (Germany)
• DAISY Lanka Foundation (Sri Lanka)
• Dorina Nowill Foundation for the Blind (Brazil)
• Kalimat Foundation (United Arab Emirates)

and we are delighted to announce that DAISY associate member, Dorina Nowill Foundation for the Blind in Brazil, received a special commendation from the judging panel.

Winner: Mr. Ashoka Bandula Weerawardhana, Sri Lanka

For the first time this award was presented to an individual, Mr. Ashoka Bandula Weerawardhana. Mr. Bandula has worked tirelessly to ensure that educational texts are produced in accessible formats in Sri Lanka, developing an efficient production workflow to provide Braille textbooks in Sinhala, Tamil and English using the most recent accessible reproduction techniques. The DAISY Lanka Foundation also engages in:

• promoting inclusive publishing
• developing standards/guidelines for accessible content production and
• facilitating a fair distribution platform in Sri Lanka.

Publisher Award

Finalists in this category were:

• Constantine Editores (Mexico)
• Kogan Page (UK)
• University of Michigan Press (USA)

Winner: Kogan Page, UK

Kogan Page was recognized for developing a production workflow that ensures its front list titles are fully accessible for people who are print disabled. The jury also cited Kogan Page’s advocacy of an accessible chain of distribution for people who are print disabled.

Nominees were judged on the criteria of outstanding leadership or achievements in improving the accessibility of ebooks or other digital publications for persons who are print disabled.

The short-list for the 2022 ABC International Excellence Awards in Accessible Publishing has been announced in advance of the awards ceremony to be held at the Guadalajara International Book Fair, on November 2022.  There are two categories of awards, publishers and initiatives, and the following nominees were selected from nominations from around the globe:

Publishers

• Constantine Editores (Mexico)
• Kogan Page (UK)
• University of Michigan Press (USA)

Initiatives

•  Accessibility Task Force of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association (Germany)
• DAISY Lanka Foundation (Sri Lanka)
• Dorina Nowill Foundation for the Blind (Brazil)
• Kalimat Foundation (United Arab Emirates)

A jury made up of representatives from publishers, organizations working in the field of accessibility, and organizations representing persons who are visually impaired, is charged each year with the difficult task of choosing finalists and selecting winners. Congratulations to all those shortlisted!