WBU E-BULLETIN
VOLUME 8, ISSUE 3
September 2013
CONTACT US AT:
World Blind Union
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CONTRIBUTIONS OF NEWS TO THE E-BULLETIN 1
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE 1
WBU’s new Strategic plan 2
UPDATES FROM WORKING GROUPS 3
The Treaty of Marrakesh explained 3
What’s the goal of the Treaty? 3
Other Noteworthy Provisions in the Treaty: 5
What the Marrakesh Treaty Means for
Blind People in Developing Countries 7
WBU Leaders attend Meetings at UN 9
WBU FAQ SHEETS ON UN AND HUMAN RIGHTS INSTRUMENTS 9
feature article 11
DISABILITY UPDATES FROM AROUND THE WORLD 12
Changing the Lives of People with Albinism in
Tanzania by providing vision testing,
eye health training, and corrective lenses 12
Mandela’s on the Money 13
Israel’s Annual Blind Day 13
New Ambassador on Disability in Australia 14
SOCIAL MEDIA UPDATE 15
ANNOUNCEMENTS 15
This September and October Barcelona2Rome
Cycling Tour, a WBU Fundraiser 15
Art Senses 2013 Italy event 15
October 13 is the international day for
disaster risk reduction 16
Call for Nominations for 2014 Migel Medals 16
Steve Rothstein is leaving Perkins 16
Maryanne Diamond - IDA 17
Stefan Tromel to leave IDA to take up post at ILO 17
"Visually-impaired musicians' lives" project: 17
Procedure for Applying to Host the WBU/ICEVI
Joint General Assembly Events in 2016
available on the WBU website: 18
RESOURCES 18
World Advocacy Guide & Toolkit 18
World Braille Usage 3rd Edition 18
Perkins Braille Summit 19
Benetech 19
Eye Sight is a new free adaptive software 19
App TapSee 19
Audible Teleprompter for Public Speaking 19
Disabled Studies Quarterly Vol 33, no 3 20
Hadley Continuing Education 20
AFB eLearning Centre 20
Say Yes to Inclusion Campaign 20
Source – International Online Resource Centre
on Disability and Inclusion 20
National Industries for the Blind Celebrates
75th Anniversary 21
2013 important dates/CONFERENCE NOTICES 21
NEWS FROM THE REGIONS 24
AFRICA 24
ASIA 24
ASIA-PACIFIC 24
EUROPE 24
LATIN AMERICA 24
NORTH AMERICA & THE CARIBBEAN 25
WBU OFFICERS 26
REGIONAL PRESIDENTS 27
WBU STAFF 27
Please keep us up-to-date 27
We Thank Our Donors 28
OUR PLATINUM SPONSORS 28
OUR DIAMOND SPONSORS 28
CONTRIBUTIONS OF NEWS TO THE E-BULLETIN
We welcome stories and articles from those from the regions and by those who wish to share their good news with the rest of the world. Our next deadline for content submission will be January 6, 2014. We still accept story submissions in English, French, and Spanish, preferably in electronic format. Please send to Marianne by the deadline date at
PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
One year ago we were planning for our General Assembly. A lot of our work was focusing on this big event, and we thought about how would be to meet all our members to report back what we have achieved during the term. One of the issues was the WIPO treaty. We hoped that we could get a treaty, but we did not know when. International work will always take time. I have often been asked, why should we put resources into international work? Why should we spend the member’s money to support meetings, conferences and participation in international bodies? In November 2012 we did not know that we were going to celebrate one of our biggest victories of our organization the 28th of June when the WIPO treaty came in to reality. This will mean a lot for blind and partially sighted people in our world, and since 80 % of us leave in developing countries, we know that this treaty will open the world for millions and millions of blind and partially sighted. The World Blind Union WIPO team has made a great job. On behalf of all the visually impaired people in the world I would like to say thank you to all the members of the team, and of course a special thanks to our former president, Maryanne Diamond.
We are now sending out the bid documents for the next General Assembly. It will take place in 2016, and I hope more members will send in bids for that event. It is a great challenge to organize this huge gathering of people, but it also gives a wonderful opportunity to promote ourselves.
In the first week of October the Officers are going to meet in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The work plan for the next term is in place; now the time has come to keep on working.
The WIPO treaty shows that international work is meaningful for the individuals on the grass root level. It takes time to get there, but we made it. There are still areas which are important and which can make a difference for the blind and partially sighted. Let us put all our efforts together to solve the problems. We need to work together, and I hope that more members will also have the opportunity to support the work through financial support and human resources!
Arnt Holte, President
WBU’s new Strategic plan
The next E-Bulletin will be devoted to providing details of the plan, and information on the committees and working groups that are responsible for carrying out the work involved. This special edition should be out by the end of 2013.
UPDATES FROM WORKING GROUPS
The Treaty of Marrakesh explained
This short document is written to explain the contents of The Treaty of Marrakesh (formal name: “The Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works by Visually Impaired Persons and Persons with Print Disabilities”). It covers the meaning and use of the main treaty contents.
This is deliberately a layman’s explanation of the Treaty- not an in-depth legal analysis. The Treaty looks complex to non-experts, but in fact WBU is happy, by and large, with what it allows us to do.
What’s the goal of the Treaty?
The goal of the Treaty is to help to end the book famine faced by people who are blind, visually impaired or otherwise print disabled. Currently only some 1-7 per cent of the world’s published books ever make it into accessible formats. This is partly due to access barriers in copyright law- something the treaty helps to remove. It does that in two main ways.
Firstly, by requiring countries which ratify the Treaty to have an exception to domestic copyright law for visually impaired and print disabled people. This means that countries which ratify the treaty must ensure their laws allow blind people and their organisations to make accessible format books without the need to ask permission first from the holder of copyright (e.g. author or publisher).
Secondly, by allowing for import and export of accessible versions of books and other copyrighted works, again without copyright holder permission. This will help to avoid the duplication of transcription efforts in different countries, and also allow those with larger collections of accessible books to share these collections with visually impaired people in countries with fewer resources.
Only so-called “authorised entities”, such as blind people’s organisations, can send accessible books under the treaty’s terms. However, the Treaty allows accessible books to be imported / received either by other “authorised entities” or directly by visually impaired / print disabled individuals.
Here is an outline of what the most relevant articles in the Treaty mean:
Article 2(a). Works Covered. It refers to the type of publications which can be transcribed / distributed under the terms of the Treaty.
These are:
“literary and artistic works … in the form of text, notation and/or related illustrations, whether published or otherwise made publicly available in any media;”.
The definition therefore covers books; periodicals and other similar textual works, as well as sheet music. It doesn’t cover films. The Treaty does not allow for the contents of a Work to be changed (e.g. to “easy read”) rather just for the Work’s contents to be transcribed into an accessible format.
Article 2(b). Defines the term “accessible format copy”
This is a broad definition which does not limit the format or the technique you use to make a book accessible. It allows whichever format will provide access to the work “as feasibly and comfortably as a person without visual impairment or other print disability”.
Article 2(c). Defines the term “Authorized Entity”. The role of the Authorized Entity is critical in the Treaty, and it’s a straightforward definition. It’s a non-profit or government agency that makes accessible copies of Works, and limits distribution of those copies to people with bona fide disabilities, which it calls “Beneficiary Persons.” It covers not-for-profit entities that provide services to beneficiary persons using public funds and on a non-profit basis.
There is no specific process or approval mechanism to qualify as an “Authorised Entity”. Meeting the (broad) criteria in Article 2c is sufficient.
Article 3. Defines Beneficiary Persons. It’s a broad definition that includes just about any disability that interferes with the effective reading of printed material. It includes people who are blind, visually impaired, reading disabled (example: dyslexia) or have a physical disability that gets in the way of effectively holding a book, turning pages or focusing on the page.
Article 4. Requires countries which ratify the Treaty to enact a domestic copyright exception. This will allow Authorized Entities to make accessible copies of Works without having to ask permission from the rightsholders. This is satisfied by having a law like the “Chafee Amendment” in the U.S, or one of the exceptions to copyright law for print disabled people the EU Member States have enacted under the terms of the EU Copyright Directive.
Articles 5 and 6. The treaty permits the cross-border exchange of accessible format books, both between authorized entities and directly from one authorized entity to individuals in other countries.
Article 7. Technological Protection Measures (“TPMs”). These are the sort of “digital padlock” that publishers (and sometimes blind people’s organisations themselves) put on a digital book, to stop it being passed on or accessed illegally. Unfortunately this padlock can also inadvertently block legitimate access by print disabled people, for instance those using screen-reading text-to-speech software. Article 7 therefore says it should be legal to circumvent (i.e. break) TPMs so that a person with a print disability can get access to books. (And only for that purpose)
Article 8. Requires privacy to be respected when using the treaty.
Other Noteworthy Provisions in the Treaty:
Respect for copyright holders’ interests
Article 2 of the Treaty makes it clear that accessible books sent under its provisions should be solely for the use of “beneficiary persons”. It asks also that “authorised entities” take “due care” when handling these books, and that they discourage the reproduction and distribution of unauthorised copies. These are reasonable requirements.
Commercial availability of accessible format books
One of our big concerns going into the Treaty negotiation was that the Treaty might require that you could only send or receive books in accessible formats where they were not deemed to already be available commercially in that format. Meeting such an obligation would have been impossible in practice and rendered the Treaty very difficult or impossible to use. This concept survived in the Treaty in a much weaker form, which allows countries to choose to have a commerciality requirement in their national copyright law, which some countries like Singapore and Australia already do have. Such countries have to let WIPO know formally that their domestic law requires a commerciality test, and also whether they intend it to affect imports of accessible materials into that country from elsewhere. There is no “commercial availability” requirement for exporters of accessible books.
The “Three Step Test”
This is a concept well-known to international copyright law experts, but few others. It caused a lot of concern among advocates concerned that it might be a Trojan horse for more extensive commercial availability requirements. It appears all over the treaty, but we don’t think it is likely to get in the way of helping blind people except in rare situations.
The Treaty across the world
With a concerted effort for widespread ratification and implementation, the Treaty will have a huge impact on accessibility for people with print disabilities. It should both promote the domestic production of accessible materials in each country, as well as provide access to books produced elsewhere. This will be important for books in languages that cross national boundaries, languages like English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Russian, Chinese, Bangla/Bengali, Indonesian, Swahili and so on. It will also be especially important for countries that haven’t traditionally had robust services for people with disabilities: these less wealthy countries should benefit greatly from access to the extensive collections developed in wealthier and larger countries.
Conclusion
In plain language, this is a Treaty that should start to remedy the book famine. It provides a crucial legal framework for adoption of national copyright exceptions in countries that lack them. It creates an international import/export regime for the exchange of accessible books across borders. It is necessary for ending the book famine, but it is not sufficient. Countries need to sign, ratify and implement its provisions. Non-profit organizations, libraries, educational institutions and government need to take advantage of these provisions to actually deliver the accessible books people with disabilities need for education, employment and full social inclusion. The World Blind Union will work with our colleagues and supporters all over the world to implement the Treaty and fully end the book famine for people with print disabilities. To read the treaty link to the WIPO website here: http://www.wipo.int/meetings/en/doc_details.jsp?doc_id=241683 Available in 6 languages, English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Chinese.
What the Marrakesh Treaty Means for Blind People in Developing Countries
By Marcus Low
Approximately 80% of the world’s blind and visually impaired people live in developing countries. It is estimated that only 1% of the books available to people with normal sight are available to blind and visually impaired people in these countries. When we talk about a book famine, we are in the first place describing a famine afflicting the developing world.
When the Marrakesh treaty was signed on June 28 2013 we took a significant step toward ending the book famine. However, it was only a first step. More than a month after the signing of the treaty the book famine is still as bad for most blind people as it was before the treaty was signed.
The next step on the road to ending the book famine is to have the treaty come into effect. This only happens after twenty countries ratify the treaty. In other words, until the twentieth country ratifies, the treaty is literally nothing more than a promise about the future. This is why blind people and organizations representing blind people across the world must lobby their governments to sign and then ratify the treaty. It is our treaty and it is up to us to get it enacted.