Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for All: Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY) for Persons with Print Disability Training held from 1-18 February 2005 in Bangkok, Thailand was organized by the Asia- Pacific Development Center on Disability (APCD). Ten participants from India, Malaysia and Thailand, from governmental and non-governmental organizations included three blind persons and one person with a physical disability participated.
The main objective of the training was to understand the concept of DAISY and be able to produce a multimedia book with the DAISY format for persons with print disability. They could be blind or vision impaired, have a physical disability limiting their ability to hold/ manipulate printed matter, unable to follow a line of print or to comprehend information in print format. Trained participants are then expected to produce and promote a multimedia book in DAISY format in their home country.
APCD believes that access to information particularly print materials is a basic human need. Persons who are unable to access printed information struggle to access information, especially public information, which should be distributed equally to all citizens including persons with disabilities (PWDs) since the multimedia book in DAISY format is one solution.
The training curriculum was divided into lecture and hands-on. Mr. Monthian Bhuntan, resource person of APCD and President of the Thailand Association of the Blind, lectured about the concept of DAISY. For more information, please refer to the website of DAISY Consortium and APCD Project training contents.
During the hands-on training, Ms. Miki Azuma, JICA Expert and Trainer of DAISY Consortium, instructed how to produce a multimedia text book in DAISY format. Participants learned about DAISY production with MyStudio PC and Sigtuna DAR 3. Participants made DAISY multimedia books according to the needs of their target groups of PWDs.
An excellent example of DIASY production for learning disabilities was made by Ms. Nibedita Patnik, Lecturer in Special Education at the National Institute for the Mentally Handicapped in India. She created a DAISY multimedia text book for persons with learning disabilities. Mr. Phunlop Maolanon, Center for Educational Technology, Thailand, made a DAISY joke book containing colorful pictures with a variety of voices, which is interesting for students who want to study English as well as for a person with print disability.
All participants made DAISY multimedia talking books; books ranged from guidebooks for disaster preparedness, a profile of their organization, to an APCD newsletter as well as the above mentioned books.
APCD hopes that the participants can further promote information accessibility.
It is not adequate to receive the DAISY training only one time. Since DAISY is continually developing as a technology, the knowledge about DAISY can not be acquired in just one training course. Follow up, much practice and study are necessary to get the most. There is a project in the DAISY Consortium providing DAISY training but it is not enough. I hope all organizations implementing DAISY can collaborate with each other in some way.
I think that ICT is essential for persons with disabilities since it opens the door to new possibilities and opportunities. I realize that it is difficult for persons with disabilities in some countries to implement ICT. However, once it is a reality, it will be easier to get information which they need to study whatever they want, instead of waiting for support from others. In this regard, ICT promotes independent living for persons with disabilities.
Some ideas how they will promote DAISY in their countries are:
"I will try to explain the benefits of DAISY to people in India, that it is not only a good educational tool for persons with print disability, but other types of disabilities as well." 
"Actually we have already done some talking books in our organization. After returning to my country, I will set up one of my three studios for DAISY. I will encourage people to produce DAISY books in their local languages such as Hindi and Marathi, which may help boost DAISY in our country. I will provide them playback tools as well."
"As an approaching administrator from the National Library for the Blind, I have great expectations to convey knowledge learned from this program to improve the quality of the audio books produced in the library system. Although we had a pilot project dealing with a series of audio-books and assistive technologies for several years, there are a few reliable resources, where we can learn about the real DAISY system. I am also convinced that after we make DAISY known in Thai's visually impaired society by distribution via the digital library system, this will raise a great educational opportunity for people with disabilities countrywide."
When DAISY was first being developed, research indicated that the traditional talking book analog representation of a print publication did not adequately meet the reading and information needs of the readers. That's when DAISY's Digital Talking Book (DTB) was developed which does meet the talking book reader requirements by providing access to the talking book that has never before been possible with a human voice production of a print book.
