Table of Contents

Message from the President 3

Vision, Mission, Key Activities and Community 5

Vision 5

Mission 5

Key Activities 5

Community 6

2023: Year in Review 7

Welcomes and Recognitions 7

DAISY Board and General Meetings 7

Developments 9

Special Projects 11

Training & Support 12

Member Spotlight 14

Financial Review 2023 27

Treasurer’s Report 27

Independent Auditor's Report 28

Your DAISY Consortium Board 31

Message from the President

Profile photo of Maarten Verboom
Caption: photo of Maarten Verboom, President of the DAISY Consortium

Reviewing the achievements of the past year, I’m pleased to report on the significant progress and tangible results that the DAISY Consortium has accomplished in 2023.

In the fields of standards, tools and member support, our core business, our staff was highly successful and attained the goals which were set. In this way we contributed to the successful production of accessible content by our Members and to greater access to reading materials for persons with print disabilities.

The countdown to the implementation of the European Accessibility Act (EAA) in 2025 has led to raised awareness and need for knowledge and support in the publishing industry. In our role as the global authority on accessible publishing and thanks to our tools and activities the DAISY Consortium and our Members are increasingly delivering this support.

Also in 2023, we were able to execute a number of special projects, thanks to the contributions and participation of funds and member organizations.

In a project funded by Microsoft we developed solutions that make low-cost production and reading of accessible materials possible in some of the world’s most underserved regions. In the eBraille project a large group of members and friends works on a new standard file format for digital braille for a better braille reading experience. In the Music Braille project production tools have been developed and a network of music braille producers has been formed. The European Inclusive Publishing Forum brings together organizations from Europe and beyond in exchanging information and experiences in the preparation of the implementation of the EAA.

You’re welcome to read more about our activities and achievements in this Annual Report.

Our board meetings in 2023 were generously hosted by NLS in Washington and by RNIB and Google in London. The board welcomed David Andrews representing the National Federation of the Blind, following the sad loss of Scott LaBarre at the end of 2022. In May 2023 we combined our board meeting with the Annual General Meeting and a joint meeting with the Braille Authority of North America. The General Meeting approved the application from the American Printing House for the Blind to convert from Associate Membership to Full Membership effective from July 1, 2022. The days following the November board meeting in London we organized together with RNIB the Accessible Publishing Conference and the DAISY Technical Meeting.

The common denominator in all our meetings is the high level of interaction between the participants. Besides the formal business items, the value of these meetings is in the high amount of networking, exchange of knowledge, discussions, triggers for collaboration.

The year 2023 was the last year of my first term as president of the DAISY Consortium. In last General Meeting I have been elected as president for another 4 years. I thank the eligible members for their confidence. It will be an honour and pleasure working together with the board and staff of the DAISY Consortium for success in interesting and challenging times.

Maarten Verboom
President of the DAISY Consortium

Vision, Mission, Key Activities and Community

Vision

People have equal access to information and knowledge regardless of disability; a right confirmed by the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

Mission

To develop global solutions for accessible publishing and reading, in partnership with civil society, publishing and technology industries, standards bodies and governments.

Key Activities

To achieve our mission, vision and goals we will:

Help creators, distributors & service providers of access-enhanced publications be more effective

Help DAISY Consortium member organizations to work together to deliver inclusion

Help authors and mainstream publishers build inclusion into their publishing processes

Help publishing, reading technology and content authoring tool industries to enable a great reading experience for people reading with their eyes, ears or fingers

Influence legal, copyright and standards bodies to make an efficient global marketplace that includes developing countries

Help governments, civil society and disabled peoples’ organizations to achieve their inclusion aims

Help people with disabilities benefit from the improvements

Community

The DAISY Consortium is the hub of a global community of organizations which works together to share expertise and collaborate to bring about the accessibility of published materials. The Member Spotlight section of this report highlights the accomplishments of a few of our members from around the world.

World map approximately three quarters highlighted in blue to illustrate the DAISY Consortium global community.
Caption: World map showing countries where there are DAISY Members marked in dark blue, and other countries where DAISY was active in 2023 marked in light blue.

2023: Year in Review

Welcomes and Recognitions

The DAISY Board and wider community benefit from the contribution of many people, and occasionally that dynamic changes, allowing a constantly fresh approach and always keeping the door open for new perspectives.

In 2023 the DAISY Board welcomed David Andrews representing the National Federation of the Blind, following the sad loss of Scott LaBarre at the end of 2022. In the DAISY Team we said farewell to Jo Bond who supported DAISY as finance administrator, and we welcomed Ruth Bates to the role.

DAISY Board and General Meetings

In May we had the pleasure of being hosted in Washington DC by the Library of Congress for our Board meeting and Annual General Meeting, both of which supported remote participation. We also held a series of dedicated project meetings and a joint meeting with Braille Authority of North America.

Caption: Group photo of the joint DAISY and BANA meeting

In November we were delighted to be hosted by RNIB and Google in London, facilitating our board meeting, our first full day technical meeting in a few years, and the UK’s first accessible publishing conference which was live streamed to a global audience.

Caption: the International Panel session at the Accessible Publishing Conference in London hosted by Google.

Developments

DAISY leads several open-source development initiatives that deliver practical solutions to Members and the wider community.

Accessible Publishing Knowledge Base

Known globally as the definitive EPUB accessibility reference resource, the Knowledge Based was regularly updated to convey the latest best practices and support users in creating the most effective accessible EPUB files. The site also received a user experience update, improving the navigation and search functionality.
https://kb.daisy.org/publishing

Ace by DAISY

The Accessibility Checking for EPUB which is used widely in both the specialist and mainstream publishing, received further updates for maintenance and feature enhancement. Improvements included full support for EPUB Accessibility 1.1, the new success criteria added to WCAG 2.1 and updates to the underlying Deque aXe system.
https://inclusivepublishing.org/ace

Ace SMART

SMART is the Simple Manual Accessibility Reporting Tool for EPUB designed to aid people in performing the accessibility tests which cannot be automated. SMART has received a series of updates including checking against WCAG 2.1 AA, and fully supporting the EPUB Accessibility Specification 1.1.
https://inclusivepublishing.org/smart

InclusivePublishing.org

We continue to update the wider publishing industry on developments related to accessibility, events and best practices through our website, sending regular updates via email newsletter. The site is regularly referred to as a leading publishing accessibility resource.
https://inclusivepublishing.org

Obi

Obi is used globally in many specialist organizations as their primary tool for audio book creation and editing, all of whom rely on this free tool for their content creation. The tool received further updates to ensure that it continues to deliver the requirements of our users globally. In addition, work has also taken place to update the core system in readiness to migrate to a modern technology, ensuring that Obi is well positioned for many more years of use.

https://daisy.org/obi/

Pipeline

The DAISY Pipeline is a cross-platform framework for document processing and conversion, providing the core conversion technology for organizations globally. The application received several updates to both the main code and conversion scripts to support requested improvements.

Thanks to funding from Microsoft a new DAISY Pipeline App was created to support the straightforward conversion of content by people on older technology who won’t necessarily have previous experience of using tools like this. Connecting to cloud services for audio generation the new App can make the most of the new AI powered text to speech technologies.
https://daisy.org/pipeline/

Reading System Testing

We continue to test a wide range of reading systems to assess and offer feedback to developers and consumers about their accessibility, publishing the data on epubtest.org for everyone to review. In addition to continued testing updates were also made to our testing methodology to update and incorporate further elements.
https://epubtest.org

Save As DAISY

The Save As DAISY plugin for Microsoft Word received a series of updates this year to ensure it benefits from the latest Pipeline developments.
https://daisy.org/saveasdaisy/

Tobi

Our tool for producing full text and full audio EPUB 3 and DAISY format titles is currently in maintenance mode and did not require updating but remains a popular solution for book creation.
https://daisy.org/tobi/

WordToEPUB Tool

Further updates were made to our simple yet powerful converter tool for transforming accessible Word documents to EPUB, this included expanding support to many more languages and applying updates to address user feedback.
https://daisy.org/wordtoepub/

W3C Publishing

Throughout 2023 the DAISY team continued to drive accessibility in W3C in Publishing Groups and through W3C leadership, contributing in many areas including EPUB 3.3, EPUB Accessibility 1.1, WPUB Reading Systems 3.3, DPUB ARIA, Accessibility Platform Architecture and the User Experience Guide for Displaying Accessibility Metadata.
https://www.w3.org/publishing/

Special Projects

eBraille Project

A working group of international experts have continued efforts towards a modern, flexible, file format for electronic braille. The objectives were updated to clarify the problem statement, priority use cases and explore how these might be met through, or by extending existing standards.
https://daisy.org/ebraille/

EPUBCheck

Our work under contract to W3C on the development and maintenance of EPUBCheck, the global tool for validating EPUB files against the specification, concluded in 2023 with the release of version 5.1 and a subsequent minor update.
https://www.w3.org/publishing/epubcheck/

European Inclusive Publishing Forum

As legislators across the European Union are actively implementing the legal framework for the European Accessibility Act and authoring guidance in readiness for implementation in June 2025, the Forum continues to be an essential channel of communication for identifying disparity and finding commonalities between countries.
https://daisy.org/euipf/

Microsoft Low-Cost Assistive Technology Project

With thanks to Microsoft for their continued support in 2023 through their AI for Accessibility which enabled us to expand the capabilities of Pipeline, improving conversion scripts, supporting connection to the Azure AI powered voices, and working with partner organizations to design, test and refine a simplified user interface.
https://daisy.org/mlcat/

Music Braille

The project to make strategic improvements to the global music braille ecosystem has improved the creation of accessible master files, automated conversion tools, file formats and metadata. These interventions now facilitate effective and low-cost creation and sharing of music braille files, as well as the dissemination of good practice and teaching and learning materials. Our focus has now turned to promoting a ‘born accessible’ agenda in the mainstream music publishing industry, so that musicians with print-disabilities have access to mainstream scores which can be easily converted into accessible formats such as braille and Modified Stave Notation. We’ve held a second Round Table event and agreed to establish an Accessible Music Publishing Action Group.
https://daisy.org/music-braille/
https://daisy.org/accessiblemusicpublishing

Training & Support

https://daisy.org/info-help/guidance-training/

Throughout 2023 training was delivered as a mixture of in-person and online events supported by webinars, digital handouts and online learning systems.

Image Caption: Photo of Dipendra presenting in at ICEVI Africa in October 2023

Training

A range of in-person and distance training was delivered throughout the year, including: Armenia, Gambia, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia, Mauritania, Philippines, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda and Zimbabwe, delivered under ABC capacity building projects.

In collaboration with Light For The World we provided training and support in Burkina Faso and created 15 video and interactive text-based tutorials. These learning materials are released under creative commons license on CapAble and UNESCO web sites.

Webinars

The DAISY Webinar series on accessible publishing and reading delivered 3 high quality webinars to a global audience, producing the full session recording, transcript, links, slides, and a description as an enduring learning resource.
https://daisy.org/webinars

Online Training

Our online learning site received further updates this year with the addition of new courses on Making Inaccessible Text Accessible, Accessible PowerPoint Presentations, and Accessible STEM that are freely available. Updates behind the scenes to keep the site running smoothly and offering the best service to our more than 400 registered users.
https://learning.daisy.org/

Caption: a learner engaging with the DAISY Learning site

Member Spotlight

Around the world DAISY Members have been actively serving their communities and developing new resources. We are delighted to include a few of their stories from 2023.

Amnet, India

Amnet ContentSource is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and creating a digitally accessible and inclusive world. We empower organizations to adopt and implement accessibility standards for their business objectives.

In 2023, we launched Digita11y—a suite of accessibility scanners and tools to deliver customers’ content efficiently.

Scanners: Web and EPUB

Tools: Conformance, Audit Repository, and Audit Summary

At the London Book Fair 2023, we hosted a panel discussion, titled “Inclusion & Accessibility—Are We Nearly There?,” with experts Richard Orme, DAISY; Venu Prasad, Amnet; and Oliver Gadsby, Gadsby Consulting. They discussed the challenges and solutions faced by publishers in digital accessibility. Our webinar series “Digital Accessibility: Are We Nearly There?,” chaired by Oliver Gadsby, featured valuable insights from prominent accessibility evangelists Michael Johnson and Stacy Scott.

We expanded our Thought Leadership series by publishing insightful articles about digital accessibility by industry experts Bill Kasdorf and John Foliot.

Caption: Richard Orme, Venu Prasad, and Oliver Gadsby at the London Book Fair panel discussion
https://www.amnet.com

APH, USA

American Printing House for the Blind (APH) is a mission focused organization with a vision that all companies should have – making the world accessible and providing opportunity for everyone. APH demonstrates that everyone deserves access to technology, learning, working, and life and that providing products and services that work for everyone is an achievable goal. 

Together with our partners at HumanWare and the National Federation of the Blind, we have developed the Monarch, a device capable of displaying both braille and tactile graphics on the same surface. Working with the DAISY Consortium and over 100 braille experts from 20 different countries, APH and our partners have created a new international eBraille file standard that adds new functionality and semantic markup to digital braille so that it is reflowable, easier to navigate, and includes tactile graphics integrated with text. Learn more at Meet Monarch | American Printing House (aph.org). 

Caption: photo showing the Monarch refreshable braille tablet

BoinIT, Republic of Korea

BoinIT has completed a way to verify and enhance accessibility across DAISY, EPUB, and PDF/UA-1 formats.

In the year 2022, we launched BUCC (Boin Universal Contents Converter), a Korean conversion service for DAISY. 5 organizations in Korea, including the National Library for the Disabled and the Korean Welfare Association for the Blind, are utilizing the service in 2023~24.

BoinIT released the Accessible EPUB Verification system in 2021. Through this system, you can view ACE/EPUBCheck error messages in Korean. It is currently being used by over 80 publishers to evaluate and improve EPUB for accessibility. National Library for People with Disabilities website.

In the second half of 2023, we introduced Korea's first accessible PDF service. Provided 9 tutorials aimed at facilitating accessible PDF publishing and 7 manuals for users. PDF Accessibility Tutorial YouTube

Caption: Screenshot of the BoinIT Service offering DAISY, EPUB, and PDF/UA-1 format titles.

https://boinit.com/

CBB, The Netherlands

Many seniors do not use DAISY, often because they lack digital skills and struggle with streaming and digital menus. Even the buttons on a CD player are often perceived as too complicated. Seniors with dementia frequently forget how the buttons work. That's why CBB successfully developed a very simple player: BAS. The foundation is streaming, but the streaming is activated by inserting a card with a QR code into the device. That is the only necessary action. With large clear buttons, it is also possible to navigate on one level. BAS can play not only DAISY content but also all available online audio, making it both simple and versatile.photo of the BAS streaming audio player with a booklet of QR codes used to select source.

Caption: image of the BAS audio speaker.

https://www.cbb.nl

DAISY France

For DAISY France, 2023 presented an opportunity to actively participate in finalizing the transposition of European Directive 2019/882 into French law, especially concerning issues related to inherently accessible books. This involvement led to various participations and publications.

Moreover, the prospect of a national portal for adapted and accessible publishing, aiming to reference and gather all available adapted productions for the needs of individuals regardless of their disabilities, along with a catch-up plan to address the observed gaps in the collections of documents in adapted formats, also constituted a significant focus of this group's work. This portal, planned for 2026, represents an important area of consideration for public authorities to structure the sectors and organize, on a national level, mediation around the collections.

Dedicon, the Netherlands

In 2023 we developed a series of training courses for publishers to aid the creation of born accessible publications. The training courses provide publishers an interactive program addressing the most important principles, standards and guidelines. The training courses begin in March 2024 and will also be part of the APACE project.

We were also busy preparing for the Tactile Reading and Graphics Conference 2025 which runs from 2 – 4 June 2025 in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The Conference website is now live where you can register to stay up to date with the latest information.

Dedicon also participated in the Make a Difference Award project with tactile maps, with the Dutch Land Registry and Esri Netherlands. The aim of the project was to help blind persons gain more spacial awareness by making more accessible topographical tactile maps with braille.

https://www.dedicon.nl

Dorina Nowill Foundation, Brazil

In 2023, Fundação Dorina's Braille and Digital editorial offices together produced more than 360,000 pages of accessible books in braille, epub3 and HTML5 formats. In addition, our printing company has printed more than 14 million pages in Braille.

This work is essential so that we can bring more and more education, inclusion and access to books to people with visual impairments.

With the constant technological evolution and systematization of our production ecosystem, we are increasingly able to expand these brands and increase our production capacity.

https://www.fundacaodorina.org.br/

EBSCO, USA

In 2023 we updated our EPUB validation requirements to meet the latest EPUB and WCAG standards and revalidated 1.6 million EPUB files to interrogate their accessibility features and validate their compliance. This validation data enables EBSCO to inform our publishers about the accessibility of their files and allows us surface accessibility metadata in our products.

A brand-new user interface was developed which will be rolled out to EBSCO customers over the next 12-18 months. This interface improves accessibility across all EBSCO products, including eBooks. Users can expect accessible full-text formats such as HTML, EPUB and DRM-free articles and eBooks as well as descriptive text, text-to-speech, transcripts for videos, and a simplified and responsive design for a smoother experience on any device.

https://www.ebsco.com/

Digital Literacy Trust

Digital Literacy Trust member eKitabu in collaboration with RTI Tanzania and the Government of Tanzania, has been working under USAID Jifunze Uelewe since 2022 to address a major challenge: the limited availability of assistive technology and accessible learning materials for students with disabilities. In 2023, we delivered training to capacity-build teachers with the skills necessary to cultivate inclusive teaching and learning environments. Lazaro Baraka, a visually impaired teacher, is one of the passionate teachers who gained experience using accessible educational resources and incorporating them into teaching methods. With support from teachers trained in the workshop, students are better able to learn independently and with each other.

Caption: Teacher Lazaro (Blind, center) with other teachers interacting with the orbit reader 20 during the Jifunze Uelewe training in Iringa, Tanzania.

Caption: Teacher Lazaro facilitates a harmonious class session, bringing together mainstream and visually impaired students.

http://www.digitalliteracytrust.org

European Digital Reading Lab (EDRLab), France

EDRLab is an international, non-profit development laboratory, working on the deployment of an open, interoperable and accessible digital publishing ecosystem, worldwide. Founded by more than 70 members, the association actively participates in W3C Publishing group's activities, and dedicates expert resources to the deployment of an open, interoperable and accessible digital publishing ecosystem, worldwide.

In 2023, EDRLab integrated one full-time project manager dedicated to accessibility and coordinated the Accessible Backlist Ebook Laboratory (ABELab) project, a Creative Europe funded initiative in partnership with the LIA Foundation and the Dutch National Library (KB).

The organisation also followed up with the important work of studying and defining better ways to efficiently inform the reader about ebook accessibility features and the development of Audiobooks in smart speaker applications. 

https://www.edrlab.org/accessibility/

HumanWare, Canada

HumanWare’s landmark achievement of 2023 is the launch of Victor Reader Stream 3, the highly anticipated successor to the renowned Victor Reader Stream 2 and 1. Building upon a decade of innovation, this latest iteration embodies our commitment to advancing accessibility for blind users worldwide. With cutting-edge technology and enhanced features, including improved menus and updated hardware, Victor Reader Stream 3 sets a new standard in accessible reading solutions. Its seamless integration of DAISY formats ensures an enriching experience for users, empowering them to explore a vast array of digital content with unparalleled ease. We are honored to continue our legacy of innovation and inclusivity, reaffirming our dedication to creating a more accessible world for all.

Caption: The Victor Reader Stream 3 from HumanWare

LIA Foundation, Italy

In 2023, Fondazione LIA broadened its initiatives both within Italy and globally, encompassing training and consultancy services, accessibility audits for publications, websites, and platforms, as well as R&D.

It started offering at international level its Quality Assurance program that mirrors the title-by-title methodology adopted in the Italian market, to guarantee the adherence to international EPUB accessibility standards for each file.

LIA trained more than 350 publishing professionals at nationally and internationally on all the topics related to accessibility: production, image description, metadata, legal issues.

To promote accessibility and inclusion over the year LIA organized many awareness-raising initiatives and professional events as an Accessibility Camp during Readmagine in Madrid, bringing together publishing professionals and experts in digital accessibility, Readings in the Dark within the European project Aldus UP.

In 2023 the LIA catalogue of Italian Born accessible e-books passed 35.000 titles.
https://www.fondazionelia.org/

Medibus, Germany

In 2023 Medibus started the work on a project to set up a common webservice of all Medibus agencies, that are located in Germany. The goal is to provide one platform for customers, where they can search and lend digital files such as E-Books and digital Braille files. Medibus plans to go live with the platform in 2025.

Medibus is still working together with the German Associations of publishers to support publishing industry in the arena of inclusive publishing. Tutorials and FAQ have been developed and publish in the German language.

dzb lesen, as part of Medibus, started in cooperation with the ‘Friends of dzb lesen’ another project. It is called ‘Do it’ and aims to provide easy and intuitive information to learn an instrument. Several video tutorials have been designed and created for a beginner level. These will be published in 2024, with tutorials for advanced users scheduled for the following year.

https://medibus.info/

Readium Foundation, International

The Readium community develops and maintains development toolkits, open interchange formats and best practices for digital publications. A non-exhaustive list of applications developed using the Readium toolkits can be found on the Awesome Readium webpage. Attention to accessibility is essential for the Readium Foundation, and the developments made by the Readium community reflect that attention.

In 2023, the most notable accessibility-related innovation is the addition of accessibility metadata inferences made available in the Readium Go Toolkit. This work has already been used to add context information to the De Marque web reader. Another use case has been the possibility to batch evaluate accessibility functionalities available in more than 2 million EPUB files available in 5 countries from the De Marque warehouses.

A new project has just started about collecting practices and defining how to efficiently display accessible content from fixed layout EPUBs, as audio or full text.

https://readium.org/

SBS Swiss Library for the Blind, Visually Impaired and Print Disabled, Switzerland

After intensive project work, SBS has managed to introduce an innovative new book format in August 2023.

Thanks to our "Text-Hörbücher" (Text-Audiobooks), SBS users are now able to listen to our professional narrators and at the same time read word-synchronised text on screen. The speed, font size and type as well as colour and contrast can be adjusted as required. Also the user can set how many lines are visible on screen and double tab on a word to listen to this word only.

Caption: tablet device with headphones showing the SBS online player

Technically, our new format is based on EPUB with media overlays. Our sophisticated process allows us to synchronise the audio books recorded with Obi very accurately with the respective words in the text. Among other tools, we use the Lipsync SDK from Annosoft for this purpose.

Our Text-Audiobooks can be enjoyed on our online player, as well as on Dolphin EasyReader (iOS, Android and Windows).

https://www.sbs.ch/

Sensotec, Belgium

Sensotec is dedicated to improving accessibility by using technology to make audiobooks available to as many reading impaired people as possible.

For 2023, Sensotec highlights are:

Voiced Library solutions: Tests with AI and voice input to find information and select books, navigate within books and manage the bookshelf. Using Alexa, (web) app or Daisybox.

With an increased support for more and more libraries around the world, libraries recognize the power of directly streaming the books to their users instead of sending out CD’s. By streaming books the Sensotec’s Daisybox helps reduce libraries environmental footprint and the transition to a connected library.

The further expansion of our DODP services, called SensoReader server solutions, with two types of servers, dedicated and shared, and associated apps.

We look forward to presenting our innovations for 2024 so that more libraries, large and small, can offer their readers digital audiobooks through the most effective means. photo shows a man seated with a Daisybox streaming device resting on his leg while he uses the control buttons

Caption: photo of the Daisybox portable streaming device from Sensotec

https://sensotec.be/

Sightsavers, UK

Sightsavers is a UK-based international development organisation working with partners in 33 countries across Africa and South Asia to eliminate avoidable blindness and support the empowerment of people with disabilities to learn, earn and participate equally in society. We have a proven track-record and strong reputation for delivering effective pan-disability education and social inclusion programs at scale.

In 2023 Sightsavers:

was the disability-lead for the UK government’s five-year flagship education programme in Sierra Leone supporting the education of up to 1.6 million children, and managed inclusive education projects in Bangladesh, Cameroon, Kenya, Pakistan, Senegal, Malawi, Nigeria, Uganda, and Zambia.

signed an agreement with CONFEMEN to make the PASEC assessment of mathematics and literacy accessible for learners with disabilities in 20 Francophone countries in West and Central Africa and beyond.

supported the education of children with visual impairments across eight states in India, particularly through ensuring they were able to access ICT.

https://www.sightsavers.org

The South African Library for the Blind, South Africa

The South African Library for the Blind (SALB) plays a vital role in providing accessible reading materials to blind and visually impaired individuals in South Africa.

Audiobook Production Methods:

Centralized Studio (Makhanda): Located at the SALB headquarters in Makhanda, these primary studios leverage a dedicated team of volunteers narrators who undergo training to ensure high-quality recordings.

Home Volunteers: we also rely on a dedicated network of home volunteers who remotely narrate audiobooks and send the audio files to SALB headquarters for editing and processing using Obi software.

Mini-Studios in Public Libraries: Recognizing South Africa's diverse linguistic landscape, SALB established mini-studios within some public libraries. These studios serve as recording hubs in local communities where specific indigenous languages are spoken enabling books to be recorded and sent back to SALB for final processing and conversion.

In total 272 titles were produces in-house, 330 were converted from external sources, and 57 indigenous language audiobooks were created.

https://www.salb.org.za/

Textalk, Sweden

At Textalk, our mission is to build stronger communities through products that enhance participation and belonging. In 2023, we achieved full coverage in the Swedish newspaper market with Prenly, our mainstream e-paper platform, significantly enhancing accessibility for readers with print disabilities. Our expansion into Denmark, Finland, and Norway established us as the premier provider of digital publications, enabling DAISY Members to have immediate access to a broad range of publications upon their release.

We proudly supported FSTF in expanding their talking newspaper service with cultural magazines by adding new export channels for some of our existing Prenly customers. This endeavor not only broadened the cultural horizons for readers but also showcased our capability to provide content in formats that cater to diverse needs.

Additionally, our Webarch product has seen significant advancements, particularly in optimizing the content conversion and validation process for books. Furthermore, a notable enhancement is the integration of text-to-speech (TTS) services directly from the Webarch interface, enabling on-demand audio with high quality voices.

https://www.textalk.se

Vision Ireland (previously NCBI), Ireland

Following the successful launch of Bookshare Ireland in November 2019, Bookshare Ireland continues to grow and develop its digital collection and content.

Bookshare Ireland currently holds over 1.3 million titles in PDF, EPUB, Word, DAISY, BRF and audio MP3. In the past year, we increased our school educational titles to over 1000 PDF books. We also work closely with Dolphin to promote the EasyReader App as an assistive technology tool to access Bookshare Ireland.

In 2023, we launched our audio magazine and newspaper service with Alexa. Library members can access the latest recordings of national magazines and newspapers using the Alexa Skill.

The Library Access Services is in regular talks with Irish Book publishers with regard to the European Accessibility Act ( June 2025) and its implications on ebook production and distribution. This legislative framework seeks to improve accessibility of a number of products including ebooks and our Library Access Service is advising publishers on this journey.

https://www.vi.ie

Financial Review 2023

Treasurer’s Report

The balance sheet, income statements and auditor’s report presented in this Financial Review are a summary of the 2023 Financial Report, which has been approved in its detailed form by the DAISY Consortium Board of Directors at its May 2024 meeting.

The Consortium finished the year with a surplus of 89 thousand dollars, which is just under 7% of revenue and exceeded expectations.

Our major sources of income have continued to be split between membership and other sources. The team have worked hard to secure the additional income for funded projects as well as deliver tools and standards for members which has resulted in the positive balance.

I am pleased to report that DAISY continues to be in a good financial position and has maintained its capital reserve at the target level as well as increase its strategic reserves.

Alison Long
Treasurer

Independent Auditor's Report

Report of the statutory auditors to the General Meeting of the DAISY Consortium

As statutory auditors, we have audited the accounting records and the financial statements (balance sheet and income statement) of the DAISY Consortium for the year ended December 31st, 2023.

These financial statements are the responsibility of the board of management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements based on our audit. We confirm that we meet the legal requirements concerning professional qualification and independence.

Our audit was conducted in accordance with auditing standards promulgated by the Swiss profession, which require that an audit be planned and performed to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free from material misstatement.

We have examined on a test basis evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. We have also assessed the accounting principles used, significant estimates made and the overall financial statement presentation. We believe that our audit provides a reasonable basis for our opinion.

In our opinion, the accounting records and financial statements comply with Swiss law and the company's articles of association.

We recommend that the financial statements submitted to you be approved.

Zurich, March 14, 2024

BETSCHON TREUHAND AG
Christian Schmid
Auditor in Charge

BALANCE SHEET AS AT 31 st DECEMBER 2023

ITEM | 2023 | 2022
ASSETS |  |
Bank | 527 | 540
Accounts receivable | 133 | 12
Accrued income | -23 | 0
Current Assets | 636 | 552
Capital assets | 0 | 0
Fixed assets | 0 | 0
TOTAL ASSETS | 636 | 552
LIABILITIES |  |
Accounts Payable | 12 | 17
Accruals | 56 | 57
LIABILITIES | 69 | 74
Capital reserve | 300 | 300
Strategic reserve | 268 | 178
Equity | 568 | 478
TOTAL LIABILITIES | 636 | 552

OPERATING INCOME AND EXPENSE 2023 - SUMMARY

ITEM | 2023 | 2022
INCOME |  |
Full members | 548 | 507
Associate members | 69 | 70
Friends | 77 | 93
Total membership Fees | 694 | 670
Technical Training and Capacity Building | 219 | 237
Tools and Standards | 320 | 376
Other Projects and Miscellaneous | 89 | 59
Total Additional Income | 628 | 672
TOTAL INCOME | 1,321 | 1,342
EXPENSE |  |
People costs | 982 | 962
Administrative costs | 30 | 25
Other costs | 26 | 34
Standards | 3 | 9
Tools | 114 | 105
Technical training and support | 20 | 18
Communication, marketing, fundraising | 33 | 16
Organization structure and administration | 23 | 7
TOTAL EXPENSE | 1,232 | 1,178
BALANCE | 89 | 164

Your DAISY Consortium Board

In 2023 the DAISY Board members were as follows:

Chairman of the Board: Maarten Verboom, Dedicon, The Netherlands

Treasurer: Alison Long, Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), United Kingdom

David Andrews, National Federation of the Blind, USA

Daniel Frelén, Myndigheten för tillgängliga medier (MTM) Swedish Agency for Accessible Media, Representing the Swedish DAISY Consortium, Sweden

Daniel Dam Freiling, Nota, Denmark

Nicole Gaines, American Printing House for the Blind (APH), USA

Michael Johnson, Benetech/Bookshare, USA

Won Jong-Pil, National Library for the Disabled (NLD), Republic of Korea

Prof. Dr. Thomas Kahlisch, DZB (Deutsche Zentralbücherei für Blinde) Representing Media Association for Blind and Vision Impaired People – MEDIBUS, Germany

Hiroshi Kawamura, Assistive Technology Development Organization (ATDO), Japan

Flavia Kippele, SBS Schweizerische Bibliothek für Blinde, Seh- und Lesebehinderte, Representing the Swiss DAISY Group, Switzerland

Arne Kyrkjebø, Tibi, Representing the Norwegian DAISY Consortium, Norway

Francisco Martínez Calvo, Organización Nacional de Ciegos Españoles, O.N.C.E, Spain

Basile Mignonneau, Association Valentin Haüy, Representing DAISY France, France

Alice O’Reilly, National Library Service for the Blind and Print Disabled (NLS), Library of Congress, USA

Minna von Zansen, Celia Library, representing the Finnish DAISY Consortium, Finland