Taira Ashikawa

TTS-Based DAISY Content Creation System: Implementation and Evaluation of DaisyRingsTM

Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY) content is expected to gain popularity gradually among the visually impaired according to the prevalence of e-book reading devices and the development of text-to-speech (TTS) technology. However, the development of DAISY-formatted e-books, which is undertaken by volunteers, is a time-consuming process, making it difficult to meet end user requirements. In this report, we propose a content transliteration system that can convert plain text to DAISY content including formatted HTML and audio data via automatic TTS technology. Furthermore, using the graphic user interface of the proposed system, users can correct text and accent information by inputting ruby-type data. Through this functionality, we aim to target support for transliteration workers such as volunteers, teachers, and parents to make and edit contents easily and quickly for the visually impaired. Finally, we present the results of a preliminary evaluation using the proposed method in order to compare it with the conventional method.

Implementation of Automatic Captioning System to Enhance the Accessibility of Meetings

In terms of information accessibility tools for hearing-impaired people, in order to understand meetings, expectations for real-time captioning utilizing speech recognition technology are increasing, from manual handwritten abstracts. However, it is still difficult to provide automatic closed captioning with a practical level of accuracy stably, without regard to various speakers and content. Therefore, we develop a web-based real-time closed captioning system that is easy to use in contact conferences, lectures, forums, etc., through trial and feedback from hearing-impaired people in the company. In this report, we outline this system as well as the results of a simple evaluation conducted inside and outside the company.

Practical Evaluation of DaisyRings: Text-to-Speech-Based DAISY Content Creation System

The Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY) content is gradually gaining popularity among the visually impaired, according to “The Act on the Elimination of Discrimination against Persons with Disabilities” enforced in Japan since April 2016. However, compilation of DAISY-formatted e-books, generally undertaken by volunteers, is time-consuming, and forces users to wait a long time for the delivery of such books, which they might want to read as soon as possible. Therefore, we attempted to improve this situation by providing a text-to-speech (TTS)-based DAISY content creation tool to volunteers. To practically evaluate our concept, we ran a web application site from Fall 2013 to the end of 2015. The site provides a transliteration system that converts plain text to DAISY content, including formatted HTML and audio data, by using TTS technology. The results of the practical evaluation were demonstrated in this study, and show the effectiveness of our proposal method.