Abstract
Keynote Speech: Trends in DAISY Textbooks and Educational Materials as “Reasonable Accommodations”
Hiroshi Kawamura
President of the DAISY Consortium
Vice President of the Assistive Technology Development Organization
Research Advisor, National Rehabilitation Center for Persons with Disabilities Research Institute
It is essential for students to read and understand their textbooks and educational materials in the way that suits for their own learning style. However, in every country, there are many students who are not assured of these conditions to some degree or another, and efforts are being made to satisfy their needs.
The purpose of this international seminar is to identify solutions for the problems of access to textbooks and educational materials due to diversity of disabilities and environmental conditions, then explore the ideal form of textbooks and educational materials in the future based on the reports from participating countries on the use of DAISY (Digital Accessible Information System http://www.daisy.org/) Standard.
DAISY is rapidly developing as an international standard for accessible electronic publishing. In the USA, DAISY is adopted as NIMAS (National Instructional Materials Accessibility Standard) which is a legal standard for alternative textbooks and educational materials.
In European countries, DAISY is not only the standard for alternative textbooks format adopted by the government but also the source file for other alternative textbooks including those in Braille or large print. Another interesting example is the electronic textbooks using DAISY technology developed in the Netherlands to be used by all students in a classroom.
In developing countries such as India, Thailand, Philippines and South Africa, there is a remarkable movement towards production and provision of DAISY textbooks and educational materials.
In Japan, encouraged by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, 10 years long persistent dialogue between all disability sectors and Copyright Office has finally come to a landmark revision of Copyright Law, which will be in effect in early 2010. This revised law will bring new issues of how to effectively produce and provide textbooks and educational materials to be used at all levels of educational curriculum, from preschool to higher education, satisfying the users’ needs.
In the last part of the seminar, we will hold an intensive panel discussion on the role of DAISY standard as the key to provide technological solution in realizing the provision of accessible textbooks and educational materials as “reasonable accommodations” stipulated in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities as well as on the global joint action for future development and promotion of textbooks in DAISY format.