タイにおけるDAISY

DAISY National Development in Thailand: Thinking Globally and Acting Locally

By Monthian Buntan
President, Thailand Association of the Blind and
Assistant Manager, DAISY For All Project</>

Introduction

Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen: First of all, I am very honored and thankful to the host of this event, the China Braille Press, for inviting me to be present and to share my experience at this seminar. Also please kindly forgive me for being unable to come earlier even though I would love to, due to my heavy engagement in the Senate House. Being able to talk about and to promote the use of DAISY in China has always been my dream. Therefore, please accept my sincere thanks and gratitute for kindly helping me fulfill such dream. The topic of my presentation today will focuss mainly on DAISY in Thailand, but I may need to refer to some thing else, for the sake of clarity and bett understanding of how things have developed as such.

Thinking Globally: from Philosophy to Policies, standard s and Mandates

• Achieving an inclusive information society for all, including persons with disabilities by "Universal Design" and the use of "Assistive Technologies (see from the World Summit on Information society at www.itu.int/wsis);
• "accessibility" as a general principle to ensure full and effective enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms for persons with disabilities (see the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities from the UN website at www.un.org/esa/socdev/enable) and
• Following an internationally-recognized accessibility standard which is open and non-propriatary (see DAISY specification from DAISY Consortium website at www.daisy.org/).

Why did we choose DAISY?

• Accessibility,
• Affordability and
• Sustainability.

Acting Locally (Thai Way): Applying All for DAISY Strategy

When DAISY was first introduced to Thailand by Mr. Hiroshi Kawamura, we found ourselves very isolated and with no official recognition from the government. Therefore, we had to apply the All for DAISY Strategy especially from bottom up. Below are, what we think, worth sharing, realizing that our way may or may not work else where.

Combine the strength of the grassroots, the service providers and the academics

Since 1999, DAISY implementation in Thailand has been coordinated by a national networking body called Thailand National Committee on DAISY Production and Services (TNCD. This network comprises of organizations of and for the blind, research institutions and universities. Currently, there are thirteen member organizations within TNCD. Member shipis expected to grow beyond the blindness community now that DAISY has received more attention from other pprint disability groups and public at large.

Empower Consumers to Take a Leading Role

Since the beginning, DAISY implementation in Thailand has always been driven, promoted, administered and monitored by blind people. Most trainers and technical support staffs are also blind. This is by no mean to monopolize the ownership of DAISY, but to ensure its solid foundation and sustainability.

Winning Public Heart

Since the 2000, DAISY has enjoyed full recognition and support from HRH Princess Mahachakri Sirindhorn, leading to public attention and recognition of DAISY. HRH symbolic and monumental support includes:

• Fund the purchase of many DAISY pplayback machines to be distributed to many schools for the blind;
• Support the establishment of DAISY production house at Rachasuda Foundation and
• Support, through HRH IT initiative project, establishment of DAISY production unit in the Central Women Correctional Institution.

Obtaining Political Support

• Lobbying with DaISY demonstration to many political leads, such as, the Prime Minister and other key decision makers within the government;
• Circulating DAISY books to all members of House of Representatives and House of Senet from time to time
• Convincing the government to heavily get involved with the UN Convention until its adoption, moving successfully to get Persons with Disabilities Empowerment Act, with strong section on accessibility and antidiscrimination, passed by the parliament, and, currently,
• in the process of amending the Copyright Act so that making information available in alternative formats will not be considered violation of the law.

Develop Strenth from Within while Collaborating and Sharing with Ouside

• Development and sharing of TABPlayer which is a freely-available DAISY playback software, and a few other scripts and plugins to enhance more accessibility of production tools;
• Development and, soon to be available for, sharing of TABTelephony which is a telephone-based DAISY playback service system, etc.

Current Status and Beyond

• Having a national coordinating body which is growing beyond the blindness community;
• Having three main production house: National Library for the Blind (through Thai Blind Peoples Foundation or TAB Foundation), Ratchasuda Foundation under the chairmanship of HRH Princess Mahachakri Sirindhorn and Central Women Correctional Institution with three more just recently started;
• Having produced about 2000 titles of DAISY books, 200 of which are full-text version;
• Having tested and established a 30 line telephone-based DAISY playback service system and will soon be expanded to 1000 lines with fixed calling rate nationwide and
• Reaching out for greater alliance, such as publishers, public information producers and providers, linguistic/cultural minorities, disease control and disaster preparedness movements/communities and
• Convincing, through my role as Senator of Thailand, important government bodies/agencies, such as the soon-to-be-established Digital Library for the Parliament of Thailand, to adopt DAISY as digital content format, etc.

Weaving the social fabric through living examples

The living and growing spirit of "DAISY for ALL" and applying the "All for DAISY" in Thailand and many countries to come under the DAISY for All Project is just one living example of an ICT design and development model, guided by Universal Design principle and the use of assistive technologies, as stated in the WSIS and UN Convention. It is an example of inclusive and open participatory approach to ICT development, which we believe, will pave the way for all including persons with disabilities towards the real goal of Information Society for All

Concluding Statement

• Imagine that there is a book digitally produced, stored and distributed.
• Imagine that such book can be read by listening, watching and touching.
• Imagine that such book can be read by people of all ages, with or without disabilities and with or without written languages.
• Imagine that such book with more than 1,000 pages can fit in one CDROM.
• And imagine that technology to produce, store and distribute such book is based on an open/non-proprietary standard at the international level.
• Most importantly, imagine that such technology is based on the principle of "universal design" or "Design for All" which can guarantee &quotAccess for All" results.

Our imagination is now best described, in truth, by Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY.