DAISY Consortium 2009 Annual Report

George Kerscher, Secretary General of the DAISY Consortium

Mission and Vision

Vision

The DAISY Consortium envisions a world where people with print disabilities have equal access to information and knowledge, without delay or additional expense.

Mission

The DAISY Consortium's mission is to develop and promote international standards and technologies which enable equal access to information and knowledge by all people with print disabilities and which also benefit the wider community.

DAISY: Collaboration for Global Information Access

DAISY Consortium achievements and the achievements of the DAISY membership in 2009 are outlined in this Report, and the collaborative efforts within the international DAISY community were in the forefront throughout the year. The efforts to move the proposed WIPO Treaty for Improved Access for Blind, Visually Impaired and other Reading Disabled Persons forward demonstrated the community's commitment to accessible reading materials across borders and around the world. In the published WIPO SCCR 19 (Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights) Conclusions WIPO's commitment to finding a solution and continuing with its efforts to do so was evident:

The Committee reaffirmed its commitment to continue without delay its work in a global and inclusive approach, including the multifaceted issues affecting access of persons with print disabilities to protected works...

Global Affiliations

In addition to the collaborative work done by the DAISY Consortium with its membership, the Consortium is affiliated with numerous international organizations, including:

• ICEVI (International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment)
• EUAIN (European Accessible Information Network)
• IDPF (International Digital Publishing Forum)
• IFLA/LPD (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, Libraries Serving Persons with Print Disabilities Section)
• ITU (International Telecommunication Union)
• NISO (National Information Standards Organization)
• UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization)
• W3C (World Wide Web Consortium)
• WAI (Web Accessibility Initiative)
• WBU (World Blind Union)
• WHO (World Health Organization)
• WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization)
• WSIS (World Summit on the Information Society)

At the September meeting of the DAISY Board of Directors the proposed "DAISY Developing Countries Alliance" was approved. One of the primary roles of the Alliance is to address problems such as sustainability, technical support, training, and local language adaptation of production and playback tools in developing countries where DAISY has been introduced. To address these issues and to ensure coordination among organizations which support DAISY related projects in developing countries, the following organizations agreed to establish a "DAISY Developing Countries Alliance" Working Group:

• Christoffel-Blinden Mission
• DAISY Forum of India (DAISY Associate Member)
• DAISY South Africa
• FORCE Foundation (DAISY Associate Member)
• ICEVI - International Council for Education of People with Visual Impairment
• Perkins School for the Blind
• Sightsavers International (DAISY Associate Member)
• Thai Blind People's Foundation (DAISY Associate Member)
• WBU - World Blind Union

Continued collaboration within the DAISY community and with these and other international organizations unifies and solidifies worldwide efforts to bring accessible information to everyone, everywhere.

§ Awards and Recognition

The awards received by the DAISY Consortium and its team members in 2008, including the ITU World Telecommunication and Information Society Award, the Dr. Jacob Bolotin Award and the Dr. Roland Wagner Award, helped to build an even more solid foundation for 2009 and the future. The recognition received put the DAISY Consortium front and centre in WIPO Stakeholders Platform developments and also acknowledged the Consortium as being a leader in standards development and accessible information access.

Jodi Digital Access Online International Award

The first International Jodi Award was received by Dedicon for its production and distribution of books, newspapers and information in accessible formats to 30,000 print disabled people in the Netherlands. The award was presented to Maarten Verboom, a member of the DAISY Board of Directors in December, 2009. Dedicon is a long-time Full Member of the DAISY Consortium.

RoboBraille Receives Access-IT@Learning Award

RoboBraille, the service developed by Synscenter Refsnaes, received the 2009 ACCESS-IT@Learning Award. This award recognized RoboBraille for being a free service that facilitates the creation of accessible electronic documents for blind people by anyone. Synscenter Refsnaes is an Associate Member of the DAISY Consortium.

Microsoft MVP Award

Kenny Johar received the Most Valuable Professionals (MVP) award from Microsoft. This award is given to a highly select group of experts in recognition of their commitment to sharing expertise and deep commitment and willingness to help others in the community. Kenny works with Vision Australia and is also co-lead of the DAISY Online Delivery Project.

George Kerscher Elected President of IDPF (International Digital Publishing Forum)

George Kerscher, the DAISY Consortium's Secretary General, and one of the founding members of the IDPF was elected President of IDPF (International Digital Publishing Forum) in December. Kerscher has served on the IDPF (International Digital Publishing Forum) Board for eight years and is also the Chair of the EPUB Standards Maintenance Working Group.

§ Standards

Following the thorough requirements gathering process in 2008, the revision of the DAISY Standard, officially the ANSI/NISO Z39.86 Specifications for the Digital Talking Book progressed well in 2009. Both Working Groups (Part A - Authoring and Interchange, and, Part B - Distribution) have noticeably broader representation (both from within and from outside the DAISY Consortium) than in previous revisions of the DAISY Standards. The current overall target is to have both Parts A and B submitted to NISO prior to the end of 2010. However, several dependencies on the EPUB revision, may affect the target date.

In support of the revision of the DAISY Standard and to ensure that implementation of the Standard can take place upon its official release, the Consortium continued the development of its validation tools and will continue to do so in the coming year.

DAISY: Authoring and Interchange (ZedAI)

Three working drafts of Part A of the Standard - Authoring and Interchange - were produced and published in May, October and December respectively. A face-to-face meeting of the ZedAI Working Group was held adjacent to the CSUN Conference in March.

A Last Call Public Working Draft is targeted for April 2010. Following public testing and harmonization with Part B, as needed, a submission to NISO as a Draft Standard for Trial Use is planned for later in the year.

DAISY: Distribution (ZedDist)

A face-to-face meeting hosted by Microsoft was held in Redmond in November. Two strawman designs were produced (the most recent has been approved by the Working Group).

Planned work for 2010 is divided in two phases. The first phase, with a target release for May, will produce a first working draft (excluding advanced features) and the Text-only profile. The second phase, planned for completion in the latter part of 2010 will include the advanced components excluded from phase 1. A Working Group meeting is planned for the second quarter of 2010.

Related Standards Activities

In June the Board of Directors of the DAISY Consortium approved the Charter for the EPUB Standards Maintenance Working Group. In August the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF (International Digital Publishing Forum)) officially announced that maintenance of the EPUB standard would begin. The DAISY Consortium has taken a lead role, providing leadership and resources to assist in EPUB standard maintenance. This move illustrates the DAISY Consortium's commitment to standards harmonization and the alignment of the EPUB and DAISY Standards. Participation is open to groups such as publishers, hardware/software manufacturers, distributors, service providers, developers, and retailers utilizing EPUB. George Kerscher, Secretary General of the DAISY Consortium is also Chair of the EPUB Standards Maintenance Working Group.

§ Projects

At the June 2009 meeting of the DAISY Board of Directors, the proposed 'project development cycle' was approved. This new approach to projects undertaken by the DAISY Consortium will ensure transparency, well controlled technical development, and will provide the DAISY membership with the opportunity to evaluate project outlines with respect to their internal planning needs and budget cycles.

All DAISY Consortium projects require a charter. A project outline, including a clear timeline for the stages within a project and identification of required resources will also be required for all new projects. A smaller number of active projects is planned for the future, enabling the Consortium to focus and concentrate its resources more effectively. These changes are already beginning to bring positive results.

Open source tool development within the DAISY Consortium supports the DAISY Standards to ensure that there is little or no time lag between the release of a new or revised Standard and its implementation.

Projects of the DAISY Consortium are supported by its Members, Friends and stakeholders globally, through financial contributions and commitment of human resources. DAISY membership support makes it possible for the Consortium to develop and maintain the DAISY Standards, to create the tools necessary to support those Standards, and to participate in critical international information access activities.

"Save As DAISY"

"Save As DAISY" Add-in V2 from Microsoft

This open source development project progressed from DAISY XML output in earlier releases to the March release of version 2.0 with support for DAISY 3 books with audio.

The add-in for Microsoft Word includes a 'lite' version of the DAISY Pipeline generating full-text and full-audio DAISY content in one step. Microsoft, Sonata Software Ltd. and the DAISY Consortium collaborated closely throughout the project.

Microsoft announced Project Buttercup at the same time. The Buttercup Reader is a browser-based player that uses Microsoft Silverlight for the presentation of full-text and full-audio DAISY books.

Save As DAISY – OpenOffice.org Odt2DAISY Add-On

In November Odt2DAISY 1.0, the add-on for Open Office, replacing Odt2dtbook, was released. Odt2DAISY which is designed for OpenOffice.org™ 3.0 or higher and runs on Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, Solaris™ and OpenSolaris™, enables the export of documents into full-text and full-audio DAISY books. This project is not a project of the DAISY Consortium or its membership, however, it is open source, the developer is an advocate for DAISY, and the output is DAISY 3, full-text and full-audio.

DAISY Online Delivery Project

The Online Delivery specification is a protocol which standardizes the communication between a compliant Reading System (DAISY player) and a service provider over the Internet. It is being developed to transfer DAISY and other accessible content from service providers to end user DAISY Reading Systems.

Between April 15 and May 15 the specification underwent a 30 day public review period, consistent with the Consortium's policies and procedures. It was determined as a result of the input received that further development was required before the specification could be submitted to the Board of Directors for approval. The first goal of the revitalized project, co-chaired by Markus Gylling, DAISY Consortium CTO, and Kenny Johar of Vision Australia, was to develop a Draft Standard for Test Use.

In August a first internal working group draft of the specification was made available for review. The DAISY Consortium Board of Directors approved the DAISY Online Specification, second draft for trial use, at the September Board meeting in Leipzig Germany.

The collaborative efforts of the DAISY Online Project Working Group continued through the remainder of the year. Release of the Final Draft Specification is planned for early 2010.

DAISY Pipeline & Pipeline 2

The DAISY Pipeline continued to be one of the star open source developments of the DAISY Consortium, with a beta release in the first quarter leading up to a release candidate and major release in April. The April release included numerous important improvements and new features, including:

• Support for MathML-in-DAISY (Narrator Script*)
• Narrator functions directly on Linux, Mac OS X and Windows
• Narrator supports multiple language TTS rendering on all platforms

* The DAISY Pipeline is comprised of numerous scripts which enable the Pipeline transformations. The Narrator Script transforms any valid DTBook 2005 document into a valid DAISY 2.02 full text, full audio book, or, a valid DAISY 3 (DAISY/NISO 2005) full text, full audio book. The audio in both DAISY outputs is generated with synthetic speech using TTS (Text to Speech).

The Pipeline Lite is a minimalist interface for the Pipeline functionality which is designed for being embedded in third-party software that will include some Pipeline functionality. Custom Pipeline Lite distributions were released to the development teams of the "Save as DAISY" Microsoft Word Add-In, Obi, and also to the odt2dtbook OpenOffice.org extension.

In December a Pipeline Beta Release was announced with work continuing toward a public maintenance release in early 2010. The DAISY Pipeline Project clearly demonstrates the collaborative nature of the Consortium's development work. In addition to the development work done by the DAISY Consortium software development team, contributions were made by numerous groups.

Pipeline 2 Project

Pipeline 2 is the first DAISY Consortium project to follow the project development cycle which was adopted in 2009. The proposed outline for the Pipeline 2 Project was approved at the June DAISY Board meeting and the call for participation was distributed to the DAISY membership later in that same month. Development of the Pipeline 2 Charter was initiated, with completion planned for the first half of 2010.

DAISY PipeOnline

DAISY PipeOnline is a Web application for using the DAISY Pipeline over the Internet with a Web interface, which transforms, converts and migrates content. This collaborative project undertaken by the Norwegian Library of Talking Books and Braille (NLB) and the DAISY Consortium was launched in 2009. PipeOnline is intended for use by universities producing accessible materials. At the DAISY2009 Conference in Leipzig, Germany, NLB announced that PipeOnline was now in maintenance mode. NLB encourages third party adoption of the software.

AMIS

AMIS 3 Release Candidate 1 was made available in February. AMIS (Adaptive Multimedia Information System) is the DAISY software reading system (player) developed by the DAISY Consortium. It is an open source project and the software is available at no cost. In May the final release of AMIS 3 was announced. One notable improvement in AMIS 3 over previous versions was the significant reduction in subsequent load times for DAISY formatted materials.

On December 19 AMIS 3.1 was released. Major changes in this release included:

• Audio speed slow down without pitch distortion
• Enhanced DAISY 3 text display, including images
• Support for DAISY 2.02 multivolume books
• Additional stability improvements

AMIS was developed over a five year period and many dedicated people around the world contributed to the project. AMIS 3 was a complete rewrite based on an experimental version of AMIS 2.6 which incorporated the Ambulant SMIL player. This project is an excellent example of the collaborative development work by the DAISY Consortium, its Members, Friends and Supporters.

Obi

Obi 1.0, the free, open source audio recording tool for the production of structured DAISY audio books, was released by the DAISY Consortium on March 27. The DAISY 3 (officially, the ANSI/NISO Z39.86 Specifications for the Digital Talking Book) output from Obi provides meaningful navigation to the audio content. Obi is released under the LGPL license.

In September, Obi 1.1 was released with additional features, enhancements and bug fixes. Projects can be exported to both DAISY 3 and DAISY 2.02 DTB, and can validate and encode to MP3 within the production tool processes. A "DTB Merger" utility allows users/producers to combine two or more DAISY books into a single DAISY Digital Talking Book. It is an easy to use software tool that requires minimal training and is accessible to people who have a print disability. Support for Unicode allows producers to create DAISY content in numerous languages.

Work on the Obi project has streamlined the development process of the Urakawa DAISY SDK (Software Development Kit) and SDK-based tools such as Tobi (see below). It has created a path for the development of and refinements in future DAISY tools.

Tobi

Tobi the open source, multimedia DAISY 3 authoring tool being developed by the DAISY Consortium will produce accessible multimedia formats. It will provide an easy-to-use user interface and an intuitive recording workflow with support for rich document markup such as the DTBook XML open standard.

Tobi was demonstrated for the first time at the DAISY2009 International Technical Conference in Leipzig Germany. An "early access" release was made available for testing in the last quarter of 2009. The first stable, production-ready release is scheduled for the first quarter of 2010. This software is available at no charge, and is distributed under a business-friendly license. Tobi's modular software architecture supports the development of third-party plugins, reducing long-term development costs and encouraging sustainable community-based effort.

This project is a collaborative development effort being undertaken by the DAISY Consortium and some of its international Members including the Nippon Foundation (Japan) and RNIB (United Kingdom).

The development of the Urakawa DAISY SDK (Software Development Kit) runs as a parallel track to the development of Tobi which is based on the SDK.

Global Accessible Library (GAL)

The DAISY Consortium Board of Directors and members of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions, Libraries Serving Persons with Print Disabilities Section – IFLA/LPD are working together to establish a global digital library which is accessible. Many organizations around the globe are involved in this initiative, and its success is dependent upon this continued commitment and collaboration. The GAL initiative is being integrated into the WIPO Stakeholders working group and trusted intermediaries.

A global, accessible, digital library service for persons with print disabilities is:

• a network of online collections of digital objects,
• collaboratively created/collected according to internationally accepted principles for collection development,
• made available digitally in a coherent, accessible and sustainable manner,
• supported by services to allow authorized users worldwide to retrieve and exploit global resources, and
• all subject to copyright.

GAL Vision

The vision of the overall Global Accessible Library initiative is to enable people with print disabilities worldwide to locate and access accessible library materials, anytime, anywhere.

GAL Objectives

The objectives of the Global Accessible Library are:

• Enable clients to access a wider range of resources
• Enable libraries for the print disabled to share resources
• Develop partnerships with publishers through global publishing deals that benefit all
• Develop partnerships with "mainstream" libraries, Google, Yahoo etc.
• Leverage international co-operation to deliver more services to clients in a range of community languages

The Global Accessible Library Communications Strategy and Guidelines were published and posted on the DAISY website in 2009.

The Collection Sharing working group is one of the four key working groups of the GAL Project Plan. This group will investigate, consider and recommend preferred methods in creating and developing content through collaborative efforts. Version 3 of the Collection Sharing Interim Report was released and posted to the DAISY website in June 2009.

In August the draft document prepared by the Business Model Project Team was completed and posted on the DAISY website. The draft provides business model samples and presents three business model options followed by the team's recommendation for a model for the GAL. In December Business Model Project Team completed the Proposed Global Accessible Library Terms of Conditions

Discovery and Access is another of the four key project teams identified in the GAL Project Plan. The purpose of the project team is to explore and recommend preferred approaches to current end-user discovery and access challenges, desired capabilities, options for moving forward, and recommendations (including costs). The final version of the Discovery and Access Interim Report was release in late December 2009.

The GAL Steering Committee meeting minutes are on the DAISY website and are publicly available along with the other GAL documentation. There were three Steering Committee meetings in 2009.

§ Membership

The membership of the DAISY Consortium is made up of non-profit organizations, companies and individuals from around the globe as illustrated in the map at the beginning of this report. There are DAISY Members and Friends in both developed and developing countries. With the exception of Antarctica, DAISY is represented on every continent. Collaborative efforts within the DAISY community continue to grow in number, across borders, between continents. The bond which puts DAISY Members and Friends on the same platform is the understanding that all people everywhere have the right to information access; the shared goal is to make this right a reality.

The continued contributions of both financial and human resources from the DAISY membership enable the Consortium to maintain and develop the DAISY Standards and DAISY tools as well as participate in critical collaborative projects such as the Global Accessible Library.

New Members, Friends and Supporters of DAISY

The list of new Members and Friends joining the DAISY Consortium as conveyed in Annual Report is being returned to the calendar year as it had been prior to 2007. The period covered in the 2008 Annual Report was April 1, 2008 to March 31, 2009. The new membership for 2009 is reported for the period January 1 to December 31, 2009. There is therefore an overlap in the new Members and Friends listed in the 2009 Annual Report (for the period of January 1 to March 31). Those joining during that period, and which are also listed in this Annual Report due to the overlap, are identified in the lists below with an asterisk (*).

New Full Members

• DAISY Latino Group*

The Full Member application from DAISY Latino, officially established October 23, 2008, was received and approved by the DAISY Board of Directors at the October 2008 Board meeting held in Amsterdam. The 2009 General Meeting confirmed the application retroactively to January 1, 2009. One of the founding members, Instituto Nacional para Ciegos (INCI) located in Columbia, has been a DAISY Associate Member since 1998.

New Associate Members

• Montfort Education Centre for the Blind, Malawi
• National Autonomous University of Mexico*
• National Centre for the Rehabilitation of Blind People, Albania
• National Changhua University of Education Library - Visual Impairment Materials Section, Taiwan
• National Tsing Hua University Recording Books Service Center for the Blind, Taiwan
• Workshop for Rehabilitation and Training of the Handicapped - WORTH Trust, India

New Friends and Developers

• Acapela Group, Belgium
• Adobe Systems Incorporated, USA*
• Everyone Counts, USA
• HIMS, Korea
• Makevoice Oy Lukimo, Finland
• Net Systems Informatics, India
• Nuance Communications, USA
• Planman Technologies, India

New Publishers, Educators and Advocates

• AEL Data, India*
• Alternate Text Production Center, USA
• BoJo AS, Norway*
• Gracevoice Oy, Finland
• Palestinian Ministry of Education, Palestinian Territory*

New Individual Supporters

• John Churchill, USA
• José Luis Herranz Ruiperez, Spain

The DAISY Consortium welcomes each of these organizations, companies, institutes, and individuals to the DAISY community.

§ Communications & Marketing

As more organizations, companies and individuals become aware of DAISY (the Standards, tools, and multimedia DAISY content) and as the DAISY membership continues to increase, the need for effective and efficient communication grows. To this end development of the DAISY website continued through 2009, usage of the DAISY forums increased, the DAISY You Tube Channel and DAISY Twitter feed were created, additional wikis for DAISY development groups were implemented, and the DAISY Planet newsletter was reposted to numerous websites and lists by those who receive it. Our email lists continue to provide us with a way to reach out to the DAISY membership quickly and directly, and the DAISY news feed brings current news items to every subscriber.

The DAISY Communications and Marketing Team developed a Marketing Kit designed to serve as an introduction DAISY; it is available in .doc, .txt and .pdf formats.

DAISY Website

During 2009, according to the Google Analytics report on activity on the DAISY Website, "181,935 visits came from 199 countries/territories" (there are officially only 195 countries in the world; however there are also territories which are not defined as "countries"). Of the 181,935 visits there were 118,503 unique visitors to our site, 33% more than in 2008.

The top five areas visited were:

1. DAISY Home page
2. AMIS project page
3. Save As DAISY page
4. Tools & Services area
5. Z3986 - DAISY 3 Standard page

In February in addition to the DAISY You Tube Channel with five video clips, a Google Map of the world with DAISY membership locations and links to the Member, Friend and Supporter profiles on the DAISY website was added. The DAISY Wikipedia entries in different languages have been updated with help from DAISY enthusiasts around the world, generating more traffic to the DAISY website. The frequency of news entries has increased - 180 news entries were posted in 2009 as compared to 128 in 2008. As a result, web traffic has increased and several accessibility related websites have posted the DAISY News Feed to their website. The DAISY Twitter feed which was set up in May 2009 had 411 followers at the end of the year.

Review of our website content continued through 2009, with new pages such as "DAISY Navigation" and "DAISY in Education" added. Sample DAISY content was validated, finalized and posted to the DAISY website in August 2009.

In December the daisy.org website was changed to the Drupal Content Management System (CMS) platform. All content was converted to the Drupal CMS; all links were changed with 'redirects' and aliases for web page addresses. DRUPAL is the free, open source content management platform selected by the DAISY Consortium. This upgrade will allow the DAISY Consortium to offer more extensive website features and significantly improved user capabilities. In 2010, following the December 2009 launch, work on the conversion and implementation of new features will continue.

DAISY Planet

The Consortium's monthly newsletter, the DAISY Planet provides in depth coverage of DAISY community news and events from around the globe. The number of subscriptions continued to increase in 2009, as did input from the readership. The DAISY Planet is also distributed to all of the DAISY Consortium lists and many of those who receive the DAISY Planet forward it to others in their organizations or companies, and to associates who are committed to information access for all.

The number of DAISY Planet subscribers increased by 64% between January 2009 and December 2009.

§Events

It is essential that the DAISY Consortium develop and maintain its Standards and the tools which support those Standards; it is also essential that it share the knowledge and expertise of its team members, and at the same time remain abreast of related developments, technologies and activities. One of the ways in which this is achieved is for the DAISY Consortium, its Members, Friends and Supporters to attend conferences and events around the world.

In previous years a list of these activities has been provided in the DAISY Consortium's Annual Reports. However, as this information is provided in the DAISY website Calendar Archive the list will not be reproduced in the Annual Report for 2009.

DAISY Board of Directors: Meetings in 2009

The DAISY Consortium Board of Directors is responsible for the policies which determine the direction of the Consortium's activities. It sets priorities and strategies, providing direction for the DAISY management. In 2009 the meetings of the Board of Directors were held in:

• Kyoto, Japan, February 3 – 4
• Seoul, South Korea, June 1 – 2,
• Leipzig, Germany, September 26 – 27

Historically the Board of Directors of the DAISY Consortium has met three times per year. Beginning in 2010, there will be two DAISY Board meetings, the first of which will be held in conjunction with the Consortium's Annual General Meeting.

§ Financial Review for 2009

Summary of Finances as at December 31, 2009

The DAISY Consortium financial report for 2009 is incorporated into the Annual Report (a reporting process which began with the 2008 Annual Report). In addition to this descriptive summary, the report includes the balance sheet, operating income and expense sheet, and the auditor's report. The year under review closed with assets of USD 202K.

Both financially and in terms of long-term planning, the DAISY Consortium is progressing in line with the budget, the medium-term financial plan (projections spanning three to four years), investment in the staff team, and the corresponding organizational management strategy (see also the 2008 Annual Report). The DAISY Consortium is investing in its strategic objectives and in the DAISY Standards which have a critical role in the future of accessible information around the world. The Consortium is growing on all fronts. This is reflected in its continued success, in the increasing acceptance and recognition of its work, in the additional tasks the DAISY Consortium has taken on, and in the ongoing increases in membership.

Growth is essential but with growth come increasing challenges both in terms of efficient use of resources and increasing requirements for overall coordination and for support of the DAISY Consortium membership and other potential stakeholders worldwide.

Independent Auditor's Report

BETSCHON TREUHAND AG
Report of the statutory auditors
to the General Meeting of
DAISY CONSORTIUM
Zürich

As statutory auditors, we have audited the accounting records and the financial statements (balance sheet and income statement) of Daisy Consortium for the year ended December 31st, 2009.

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.

Zürich, January 29th, 2010

BETSCHON TREUHAND AG
Hanspeter Gresch
Auditor in Charge

Christian Schmid
Auditor

Balance Sheet as of December 31, 2009

DAISY Consortium	capital	2009	2008
BALANCE SHEET as per 31st of December 2009 (USD in thousands)
ASSETS
Liquid Funds
Banking Accounts		160	83
Securities		182	607
		342	690
Debtors
Membership Fees		46	35
Other debtors		75	76
		121	111
Accruals for potential unpaid membership fees
		-33	-24
Transitive Assets
General Positions		16	19
Withholding Tax		4	4
		20	22
Capital Assets
		4	3
TOTAL ASSETS		454	803
LIABILITIES
Credits
Credits		19	88
DAISY for All (reserve account)		1	94
		20	182
Transitive Liabilities
		132	6
Accruals
		100	0
Capital
Capital at the Beginning of the Year	615
Gain / Loss for the Year	-413
Capital at the End of the Year		202	615
TOTAL LIABILITIES		454	803

Operating Income and Expense as of December 31, 2009

DAISY Consortium
OPERATING INCOME AND EXPENSE as per 31 December 2009 (USD in thousands)	2009	2008
INCOME
Membership Fees	608	538
Full Members	474	389
Associate Members	102	110
Friends: Developers	67	59
Friends: Publishers, Educators, Advocates	6	0
Friends: Individual Supporters	1	1
Accruals for potentially unpaid fees	-42	-20
Fundraising	233	569
Contributions from Members	149
Third party income	73
Training and Technical Support	12
DAISY for ALL	0	687
Capital	1	15
Interest	1	15
TOTAL INCOME	843	1,809
EXPENSE
Travelling and Accommodation Board Meetings	60	31
Administrative and Various Costs	51	63
Organizational Structure and Administration	96	156
Direct Costs	22	62
Internal Manpower	73	94
Total Before Projects	207	250
Standards and Tools	439	542
Direct Costs	29	97
Internal Manpower	410	445
Training, Technical Support, Consultancy	127	0
Direct Costs	15
Internal Manpower	112
Communication, Marketing, Fund Raising	381	331
Direct Costs	73	72
Internal Manpower	309	259
Total Projects	947	873
Not in Work Plan	0	6
DAISY for All	0	687
Accruals	100	0
Amortization of Capital Assets	2	0
TOTAL EXPENSE	1,256	1,815
TOTAL INCOME	843	1,809
BALANCE	-413	-6
CAPITAL AT THE BEGINNING OF THE YEAR	615	621
CAPITAL AT THE END OF THE YEAR	202	615

§ DAISY Consortium Board of Directors

The Board of Directors is composed of one representative from each Full Member organization within the DAISY Consortium. As Full Members these organizations may appoint one representative to the DAISY Board. In addition to providing leadership for the Consortium, each of these individuals plays a leadership role within his or her own organization.

In 2009 there were three new members of the DAISY Board. Flavia Kippele joined the Board as the representative for the Swiss DAISY Consortium, filling the position held by Heinz Zysset for two years. Thanks are extended to Heinz for his contribution. Peter Beran joined the Board as the representative for Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic. A special word of thanks is extended to John Churchill who had represented RFB&D for more than a decade, and who in 2009, joined the DAISY Consortium as an Individual Supporter. Although Edgard Pinto Ferreira filled the new Board position as the representative for the DAISY Latino Group, the position has been vacant since September.

Sincere thanks goes to each of these individuals who together make up the DAISY Consortium Board of Directors.

The DAISY Board of Directors supports the collaborative efforts within the DAISY community. They share a common goal - to make information access everyone's right.

The 2009 DAISY Consortium Board of Directors

Hiroshi Kawamura (President) Japanese DAISY Consortium	Arne Kyrkjebø (Treasurer) Norwegian DAISY Consortium
Peter Beran Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic	Elke Dittmer Media Association for Blind and Vision Impaired People	Trish Egan Vision Australia
Kjell Hansson Swedish DAISY Consortium	Neil Jarvis Australia New Zealand Accessible Information Group	Stephen King Royal National Institute of Blind People
Flavia Kippele Swiss DAISY Consortium	Markku Leino Finnish DAISY Consortium	Francisco Martínez Calvo Spanish National Organisation of the Blind
Margaret McGrory Canadian DAISY Consortium	Edgard Pinto Ferreira DAISY Latino Group	Stephen Prine National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped
Maarten Verboom Dedicon	Michael Wright Danish National Library for the Blind	Keun Hae Youk Korean Braille Library