The benefits of DAISY Digital Talking Books for people with vision or print impairments
A DAISY Digital Talking Book (sometimes referred to as a DAISY book) combines all of the features of the written text and the audio recordings of the text, in a single structured format. By combining and synchronising the text and audio in this way, you have the option of reading the text and listening to the recordings independently or simultaneously. As the audio is played, the corresponding text is highlighted - providing a cognitive link between the spoken word and the text, and delivering text based materials in a totally accessible format.
- DAISY books are multi sensory and are therefore an ideal learning media for print impaired and visually impaired students who are put off by text only materials
- Software DAISY players enable dyslexic students make the association between the spoken word and the corresponding text, improving their rate of learning
- DAISY improves exam results - combined audio and text has been shown to improve exam scores for people with print disabilities
- DAISY audio can be quickly and easily created from Word documents using commercial production tools - so no need for time consuming narration.
- DAISY is an optimal format for education environments because of its suitability for a variety of needs such as visually impaired students, dyslexic students and anyone with additional literacy needs.
- DAISY files are digital and fully navigable, so users can scan forward, backward and bookmark important words and paragraphs - similar to hard copy book readers.
- Software DAISY players enable students to customise the appearance of text and create bookmarks and notes against files, just like colleagues using print might make notes in the margin.
- Because DAISY files are digital and small they can easily be archived and reused for different purposes unlike some other altformats.
- Up to 40 hours of navigable speech and audio will fit onto one CD or be distributed over the internet.
- DAISY is an international standard developed by a consortium of users and is therefore designed for the users
Interesting facts and statistics:
The British Dyslexia Association states that people remember:
- 10% of what they read
- 20% of what they hear
- 30% of what they see
- 50% of what they hear and see
Research conducted by Johns Hopkins University and RFB&D in 2003 found that:
"Combining text & audio in course materials has increased learning effectiveness by 40%"
"Creating alternative formats to printed text is such a relevant topic for the British Dyslexia Association right now. DAISY is gaining a great deal of momentum in the UK, the States, Japan and Scandinavia and many countries in Eastern and Western Europe. Although it has been accepted for many years in the visual impaired community, its attraction for people with dyslexia is also very exciting as it allows the electronic text to be synchronised with audio to help people with reading difficulties. I also love the fact that the student can search for words or pages or chapters and once found, the text and audio is instantly synchronised."
Carol Youngs, British Dyslexia Association