- From: David Poehlman <poehlman1@home.com>
- Date: Wed, 15 Aug 2001 12:03:58 -0400
- To: "wai-ig list" <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Pattison" <srp@bigpond.net.au> To: "Access L" <access-l@icomm.ca> Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2001 7:55 AM Subject: Fwd: Prestigious Awards for DAISY and two of its Leaders From: William Jolley wjolley@bigpond.com To: vip-l@softspeak.com.au Hello Everyone I am delighted to inform you that Ingar Beckman Hirschfeldt, President of the DAISY Consortium, and George Kerscher, International Projects Manager of the DAISY Consortium, are the winners for 2001 of the Dayton M Forman Award from the CNIB National Library for the Blind. More information is in the piece below which is the lead article in the inaugural edition of our newsletter, "DAISY News". Cheers Bill PRESTIGIOUS AWARD FOR DAISY LEADERS Ingar Beckman Hirschfeldt and George Kerscher are the proud recipients for 2001 of the Dr. Dayton M. Forman Memorial Award. This prestigious award, established by the CNIB Library Board in January 1996, recognises outstanding leadership in the advancement of library and information services for Canadians who are blind or vision-impaired. It is offered in tribute to Dr. Dayton M. Forman, an exceptional humanitarian and longstanding CNIB volunteer, who exemplified the leadership required to make a difference for more than half a million people who are blind or vision-impaired throughout Canada. Award winners receive a bound copy of the Award Citation, together with a silver medal bearing the likeness of Dr. Forman. Ingar and George were recognised for their outstanding achievements in overcoming barriers to information equity for people who are blind or print-disabled in Canada and beyond. Their achievements were seen as broad in scope, of an enduring nature and significant in terms of library and information services as a whole; demonstrating great leadership and innovation, and serving as a positive role model for others. Ingar Beckman Hirschfeldt has been President of the DAISY Consortium since its formation in 1996, and as director of the Swedish Library of Talking-Books and Braille she has led the development effort to create and implement the worldwide standard for digital talking-books, the DAISY standard. George Kerscher, who pioneered accessible eText documents for people who are blind or print-disabled as long ago as the late 1980s, has been Project Manager and Technical Director of the DAISY Consortium since 1997. "I am deeply honored by this news", George said, "I look forward to standing with Ingar to receive the award on behalf of everybody who has contributed to the efforts of the DAISY Consortium. Ingar is the leader we all want in this effort to improve access to information for persons with print disabilities." Stop Press We are delighted to inform you that DAISY is a winner in the International Access Awards Ppogram for 2001 of the International Coalition of Access Engineers and Specialists (ICAES). The purpose of the awards Program is to recognise significant innovative technical contributions to the access engineering profession. All entries were judged on innovation, creativity, scope-of-benefit to consumers and the universality of the product or service. The Daisy Consortium, National Information Standards Organization (NISO) and Open eBook Forum (OeBF) have won ICAES' Collaboration and Coordination Award, recognising their successful endeavours to resolve and promote compatibility and interoperability. The work of DAISY, NISO and OeBF has converged nicely in the development of file specifications for Digital Talking-Books and eBooks. In announcing the Award ICAES stated that "... digital talking-books based on the open standards being developed by Daisy and NISO provide significant advances in usability and functionality for people with print disabilities. The Open eBook specification, a base format for mainstream electronic books, incorporates features to promote accessibility. These organisations are working together to build a future where the world of electronic books will be open to all." ICAES is a non-profit membership organisation which fosters international co-operation and support for the design of products that are as accessible and usable by persons with disabilities, as economically possible, and technically feasible. Achieving this mission will deliver better products, for all consumers, on a global basis. For more information go to http://www.icaes.org . William Jolley Secretary General of DAISY Consortium Email: wjolley@bigpond.com Tel.: 613 9807 5137 20 Wadham Parade MOUNT WAVERLEY VIC 3149 AUSTRALIA Regards Steve, mailto:srp@bigpond.net.au.
Received on Wednesday, 15 August 2001 12:04:46 UTC