The right to knowledge and literacy for the blind is a worldwide priority
By Christina Clift
One critical component is the right to read and manipulate the written word. For the blind, this right has been difficult to achieve, and its full realization and permanency are not yet secured. Besides the obvious barriers limiting our right to read, the inability to physically to read visual print and inaccessible information technology, there is another major barrier to our full enjoyment of the right to access information, and this is copyright laws.
Without an exception or limitation, international law makes it overwhelmingly clear that reproducing a copyrighted work—no matter the kind of copy, violates the exclusive right of the copyright holder to control distribution of their work. So the only way to get around this exclusive right is to ask each copyright holder permission to copy their work in an accessible format. That permission is either granted, which takes a long time, or denied.
The United States Congress passed an amendment to the United States Copyright Act in 1996, often referred to as the Chaffee Amendment, which includes an exception that permits reproduction of published works into accessible formats such as braille, audio, and accessible electronic texts. The Chaffee Amendment would not have been possible without the combined efforts of the National Federation of the Blind and the Association of American Publishers.
However the exception in the United States does not address the vast wealth of accessible works throughout the world. It has been estimated that over 95 percent of the world’s works of not been available in accessible formats. International copyright laws have either outright banned the practice of exchanging accessible works over international boarders or have made it extremely difficult to do.
This phenomenon has been dubbed the “book famine for the blind.” That is why the NFB has partnered with the World Blind Union to put forward an international agreement that would amend international copyright law. The agreement permits exceptions and limitations allowing reproduction of works into accessible formats and allows such accessible works to flow across international borders.
On June 28, 2013, in Marrakesh, Morocco, an international treaty was born. A treaty holding out the promise to eradicate the book famine for the blind and signaled a global priority on the right to access information, the right to access knowledge and literacy for the world’s blind.
Over the past four years implementing the Marrakesh Treaty has become an official, binding, legal instrument for all the countries that have ratified or acceded to it. So far, twenty-nine countries have joined the Marrakesh Treaty community by delivering their accession to the World’s Intellectual Property Organization.
One of the countries that is notably absent from the 29 member countries who’ve already ratified the treaty is the United States. How can the country who led the way in producing accessible book titles at both the governmental and private sectors and who has one of the strongest exceptions to our copyright law permitting the creation of accessible formats not be on that list?
Well, that is because the United States has signed an intent to ratify the treaty. We made our intent clear on October 2, 2013 and as of yet have still not ratified the Marrakesh Treaty. Pursuant to the Constitution, President Obama sent the Marrakesh Treaty for ratification to the U.S. Senate in February 2016. In the Senate the treaty seemed to have no voiced opposition and in fact, seems to have a majority support. Why hasn’t it been ratified?
After President Obama forwarded the Marrakesh Treaty along with proposed implementing legislation, key copyright stakeholders such as the publishers and the library community expressed their reservations. They wanted to add amendments to the treaty. This was the same opposition we met back in 2013. As a result, we had to re-argue the same issues, the same issues that had proposed solutions, and the same issues and solutions that these same key stakeholders had agreed to.
Thanks to the efforts of the NFB these key stakeholders have once again been brought back to the table. The issues have once again been resolved. Now, we have the full support of the American Council of the Blind, the American Foundation for the Blind, The American Library Association, the Association of American Publishers, and many more. As a result, the legislative language has been submitted to the appropriate Senate committees. These Senate committees are currently conducting their due diligence, and it is my hope and that of the NFB that the U.S. Senate will ratify the Marrakesh Treaty by the end of the year.
The Marrakesh Treaty will be implemented on a practical level by the Accessible Book Consortium (ABC) that was created by the World’s Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). The Accessible Book Consortium is a public-private alliance representing key stakeholders.
ABC has three main objectives. First, to operate the ABC Global Book Service. This is a platform where authorized entities can list and share their accessible titles. So far, they have acquired 400,000 accessible titles and 130,000 blind individuals from around the world have downloaded titles and are using them. Second, capacity-building or adding new members and work with existing members to increase the amount of accessible titles. The final objective of the ABC is to promote inclusive publishing. This means that ABC works with publishers to provide techniques and guidance on how to make books and have them born accessible.
To that end ABC has several projects in this area including a guide for self-publishing authors on how to make accessible books, creation of a starter kit for accessible publishing, and created a charter of accessible publishing which several publishers and publisher associations have signed indicating their intent to create works that are born accessible.
The Marrakesh Treaty is the first time in human history access to information, the right to knowledge and literacy for the blind is a worldwide priority. It was NFB founder Jacobus TenBrook who once said “we have a right to live in the world.” Part of that right, and in fact fundamental to it, is the right to access information on terms of equality. We will accept nothing less.
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