DAISY is the name of a worldwide standard for navigable, accessible multimedia documents. DAISY stands for Digital Accessible Information System.
Interactivity The DAISY audio book offers comprehensive hierarchical navigation functions. The user can not just jump from chapter to chapter - he can jump over several hierarchical levels from the chapter to the page number, to the single sentence or a footnote and back again.
The DAISY Audiobook offers a variety of presentation functions, as a pure audiobook or, for example, as a full-text audiobook. The user can always regulate the speech rate - the voice does not change, its natural sound is retained. The audio layer can also be used to link texts and images.
The DAISY audio book offers intelligent editing functions. The user can place any number of bookmarks - the DAISY player displays the selected text again. With high-quality DAISY players, the user can record notes on the text read.
Since 1999, there are both hardware and software devices for the interactive use of information in the Daisy standard. The numerous features of DAISY can also be used on computers equipped with DAISY playback software.
The history of the DAISY player In 1992, the Swedish blind library TPB began developing a first version of the DAISY standard for the DOS operating system. In May 1996, six national library libraries founded the international DAISY Consortium, which has since coordinated the development of the new audiobook standard worldwide.
Since 2000, the DAISY standard has been supported by Microsoft. In 2001, the first players for digital audio books were presented, one each by the Japanese company Plextor and the Canadian company VisuAide, which is now operating under the name HumanWare Group.
Since 2002, blind libraries have produced more than 128000 DAISY audiobooks in Germany and Switzerland, in Scandinavia and the UK, as well as in Japan, Canada and the USA. Among them are u. a. the German Library for the Blind, the German Central Library for the Blind at Leipzig and the SBS Swiss Library for the Blind and Visually Impaired. For copyright reasons, these were initially not available for sale, and the libraries can only lend them to their users. In September 2005, the first DAISY audio book in Europe was presented in bookshops in Zurich. Since August 2006, DAISY audiobooks in Germany have also been offered for paid downloads. Since autumn 2008, a comprehensive edition of "DAISYfizierter" audio books on CD, which are also sold through the assortment or mail order book trade.
What is "DAISY" ? You can play your DAISY CDs with a standard DVD or CD player with MP3 function. For the normal "Listening" a CD is such a device perfectly adequate.
However, if you would like to use the various navigation and access options of a DAISY CD, we recommend a so-called DAISY player. These devices are specially designed to play DAISY CDs and are as easy to use as a tape recorder.
All DAISY players are equipped with talking buttons. This means that when you press a key, the corresponding function is announced immediately. So you do not have to worry about long and hard-to-understand user manuals, but you can use your device in full.
When searching for a suitable device, our order service will gladly help you. Here you will also find information about the conditions under which the statutory health insurance funds cover all or part of the costs of a DAISY player.
You are welcome to look at such a device at your local audiobook and try it out in peace.
You prefer to listen to your DAISY CDs on the PC? Then we recommend the MAX DAISY player from the company Dräger & Lienert.