Dolphin Publisher

Create human narrated DAISY talking books

Latest Version: 3.03 - What's new?

Dolphin Publisher Case Study: The Catholic University of America embraces Dolphin's Altformat Toolkit

The Catholic University of America is unique as the national university of the Catholic Church and the only higher education institution founded by the U.S. bishops. Established in 1887 as a papally chartered graduate/research center and located in the heart of Washington DC. The Catholic University of America is committed to being a comprehensive Catholic and American institution of higher learning.

Historically, the process of creating the necessary alternative formats at The Catholic University of America was a mind-numbing process, as Emily Singer (Director of Disability Support Services at the Catholic University of America) explains;

"Our process before using Dolphin was long and tedious. Our turn-around time was very slow. The editing was the most tedious part and not always as accurate as it should have been. We were not able to offer a variety of formats."

The Disability Support Service was often frustrated by these delays in producing the required alternative formats as it was affecting the students they were actively trying to support;

"...some students were left behind academically because they did not have their books right away and were often without them for the first 2-3 weeks of the class. We would often get calls from angry parents saying that this was unfair."

This was even more problematic in the University's law school where students just cannot afford to lag 2 or 3 weeks behind in their studies.

After thorough research The Catholic University of America decided to purchase a range of alternative format software solutions from Dolphin including Dolphin Publisher (Professional Digital Talking Book authorising software), EasyReader (Digital Talking Book software player) as well as LunarPlus (Screen magnifier with speech.)

During the first semester where Dolphin's range of Alternative Format software solutions has been used, the results of this revolutionary software have already been felt. The Catholic University of America

"anticipate(s) that students will see an improvement in grades as they are getting back their books in a timelier manner and are now able to read them in their own rooms rather than having to go to the computer labs."

Thanks to the EasyReader site license which enables the Disability Support Service to provide copies of EasyReader which the students can install on their own computers.

The combination of the Dolphin software solutions on offer from the University has enabled staff and students alike to benefit in very different ways.

"The office uses Publisher to convert the documents into electronic format and then students use EasyReader ...to have their textbooks read aloud, and enjoy the ease of navigating."

Moving forward Emily anticipates a significant increase in the use and demand of alternative formats and DAISY digital talking books in particular. And thanks to Dolphin's toolkit, alternative format conversion will be easy as 1, 2, 3.