Load2Learn – making curriculum materials
accessible.

Hello. Welcome to this Load2Learn video on
how to use the free software AMIS to read

DAISY books.

In this video, we will have a look at what
is AMIS and what is DAISY, then we’ll look

at how to open a DAISY book, how to read a
DAISY book, how to navigate a DAISY book,

and finally how to configure AMIS to suit
your needs.

So first, DAISY is a special format that links
text and audio and text structure and makes

it much easier for students with visual difficulties
but also with cognitive difficulties to access

the text.

You need a special piece of software to read
books in the DAISY format. There are many

very good commercial options but you can also
start with the free software called AMIS that

you can download from the Daisy Consortium
website.

Once you have installed AMIS and you know
you have some DAISY books on your computer,

you can start reading DAISY books. However,
DAISY books are different from other formats

in that they cannot be opened by simply double-clicking
on them. You need to open the DAISY reader

first and open the book from within the programme.

So first you open AMIS and click on the ‘Open’
icon, or go to the File menu and choose ‘Open’.

Then you need to navigate to the folder where
the DAISY book is and open the folder, and

in that folder you will find the file that
opens the book, and AMIS should automatically

find the right file which is most often NCC.HTML
or .HTM, and then simply click the ‘Open’

button.

Once you have opened a book in AMIS, you can
start reading it. You can play the book back

by simply pressing one of the playback buttons
on the toolbar or simply by clicking anywhere

in the text. Once the book starts being played,
the text will be highlighted and you can control

the playback by using the ‘Pause’ and
‘Play’ buttons. There are also many keyboard

shortcuts for controlling the playback and
you can find more about them through the Play

menu. Most importantly, you can use ‘Space’
to pause and play, and ‘Control +’ or

‘–‘ to slow or speed up the speed of
playback.

Another important feature of DAISY books and
AMIS is the structure for navigation. Make

sure you enable the navigation through the
View menu and choosing ‘Sidebar’, and

once you have the sidebar available you simply
click on any of the items there and the DAISY

book will start playing from that point.

Again, there are many keyboard shortcuts you
can use to navigate and you’ll find out

about them through the Navigate menu. Most
important are the arrow keys that will help

you go up and down in the text or jump by
phrase, but you can also use the Control F

shortcut to help you search through the book.
If you want to mark a place to return to later,

you can use the Bookmarks menu to add a bookmark.

If you use AMIS a lot, you may want to use
the Preferences to configure it for your needs.

The most common preference that people may
want to go to first and disable is ‘Self-Voicing’.

By default, when you install AMIS, it will
be turned on so that every time you click

on a menu, it will read out what the menu
does, but many people will find that too distracting

so they may want to go and turn that off,
but again, many people will find that very

useful, so it is a good default option.

The next important option is to choose the
voice you want AMIS to use to read the text.

Than can be a commercial voice such as Brian
from IVONA or one of the free voices that

you can download from the internet or that
comes pre-installed on your computer. If you

would like to change the way text is displayed
on page, you can go to View and choose the

page style or the size of the font. In the
Text Style, you can choose the type of font

and the way the text is highlighted as well.
To remind yourself of some of the functionality

and features of AMIS, you can print out the
AMIS cue card from the Computer Productivity

and Accessibility Cue Cards, you can download
the cue cards from the Load2Learn website.

They are free and you’re also free to make
new ones and share them with other people.

Thank you for watching.

Thank you for watching. For more tutorials
or information about Load2Learn, please visit

load2learn.org.uk or contact us on 0300 3038313.

Copyright © 2012 Dyslexia Action and RNIB
Licenced under the Creative Common Licence

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