[PDFlist] World Blind Union and Other Advocates Call on WIPO Member States to Implement the Marrakesh Treaty

[Martine.the1 at xtra.co.nz]

Dear colleagues,

Message from Martine Abel-Williamson – World Blind Union President and World
Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) Accessible Books Consortium (ABC)
Advisory Board

World Blind Union and Other Advocates Call on WIPO Member States to
Implement the Marrakesh Treaty (accessiblebooksconsortium.org)
<https://www.accessiblebooksconsortium.org/news/en/2022/news_0004.html> 

 


 


World Blind Union and Other Advocates Call on WIPO Member States to
Implement the Marrakesh Treaty


July 22, 2022

During
<https://www.wipo.int/s2t/WIPOinternal/A63_ABC_side_event_en_mp4_en.html> a
panel discussion held at the World Intellectual Property Organization
(WIPO), the World Blind Union, as well as advocates for people who are print
disabled from Lesotho, Mexico and Viet Nam, called on those contracting
parties of the Marrakesh Treaty that have not yet implemented its provisions
in national law to do so.

The World Blind Union representative, Mr. Scott LaBarre, stated that it is
not sufficient for countries to ratify the treaty, it is only if contracting
parties transpose its provisions into domestic legislation that people who
are print disabled will be able to benefit from the humanitarian objectives
of the treaty.

(PHOTO: WIPO)

Mr. Scott LaBarre

The Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who
Are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled requires that
countries create exemptions in national copyright law to produce and make
available books in accessible formats, such as braille, audio and e-text, as
well as to facilitate the cross-border exchange of such accessible format
copies. Beneficiaries of the treaty are persons who are blind, have low
vision, are dyslexic or have mobility impairments that impact their ability
to read the printed word.

The side event on the Marrakesh Treaty and the Accessible Books Consortium
(ABC) took place on July 19 in the context of the
<https://www.wipo.int/about-wipo/en/assemblies/2022/a-63/> WIPO Assemblies
of Member States. The four panelists took stock of the positive impact of
the Marrakesh Treaty and ABC, nine years after the Marrakesh Treaty was
signed in Morocco. Currently, the treaty has 89 contracting parties covering
115 countries, since the European Union joined as one bloc.

The panelists examined the remaining challenges confronting people who are
print disabled and concluded that there is still important work to be done
to allow people who are print disabled to benefit fully from the provisions
of the Marrakesh Treaty.

(PHOTO: MS. KELELLO FANANA)

Ms. Kelello Fanana

Ms. Kelello Fanana of the Lesotho National League of Visually Impaired
Persons, explained that although Lesotho had ratified the treaty, it had not
yet implemented the relevant provisions into national law. In the context of
a technical assistance project funded by WIPO’s ABC to produce educational
textbooks in accessible formats she explained that obtaining permissions for
the production of these titles was a difficult and time-consuming process
that implementation of the treaty in Lesotho would alleviate.

In Viet Nam, Mr. Dang Hoai Phúc, Executive Director of the Sao Mai
Vocational and Assistive Technology Center for the Blind, explained that
ratification of the Marrakesh Treaty would be an important first step since
Viet Nam has not yet joined the treaty.

(PHOTO: SAO MAI VOCATIONAL AND ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY CENTER FOR THE BLIND)

Mr. Dang Hoai Phúc

He explained that the Sao Mai Center had benefitted from ABC training and
technical assistance and that they had been able to produce hundreds of
accessible educational titles with funding provided by Australian
Funds-in-Trust. Describing current challenges in Viet Nam, Mr. Phúc
emphasized the difficulty in making math equations accessible and that the
production of accessible math textbooks was greatly needed.

Although Mexico has ratified and fully implemented the provisions of the
treaty, Ms. Hilda Laura Vázquez Villanueva, Trainer at Discapacitados
Visuales I.A.P., highlighted that people who are print disabled still face
financial and technical barriers that can impede the availability of
accessible reading materials.

(PHOTO: MS. HILDA LAURA VÁZQUEZ VILLANUEVA)

Ms. Hilda Laura Vázquez Villanueva

Ms. Vázquez Villanueva stated the importance of providing funding for the
production of accessible titles and the need for technical solutions, such
as affordable internet bandwidth and reading devices. Ms. Vázquez Villanueva
emphasized the importance of training for all stakeholders in the production
of accessible formats. She also explained that some accessible format
standards used internationally are not compatible with the reading devices
widely used in Mexico, which means Mexico is not benefitting from the
cross-border exchange of accessible titles from other countries.

Mr. LaBarre elaborated that countries that have seen the greatest benefits
from the Marrakesh Treaty have engaged a broad alliance of stakeholders from
government, civil society, libraries, publishers, and the private sector, as
well as international initiatives, such as WIPO’s ABC. The World Blind Union
will push to have countries join and implement the Marrakesh Treaty, but
will also promote the goal of a publishing market system in which all books
are born accessible.

The concluding remark of the event came from the delegate from Serbia, who
commented that the event had opened his eyes to the real life problems of
people with print disabilities regarding the implementation of the Marrakesh
Treaty and that when he returned to his country, he would use this knowledge
with respect to the ongoing amendments of the copyright law.


Background


According to  <https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(17)30293-0> a 2017 study
published in The Lancet, approximately 253 million people are blind or
visually impaired world-wide. Nearly 90% of these are resident in developing
countries, where the World Blind Union (WBU) estimates that people who are
blind have only a one in ten chance of going to school or getting a job. A
lack of accessible books remains a very real barrier to getting an education
and leading an independent, productive life.


About ABC


The  <https://www.accessiblebooksconsortium.org/portal/en/index.html>
Accessible Books Consortium (ABC) is a public–private partnership led by the
World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) that brings together all of
the key players – organizations representing people who are blind, visually
impaired or otherwise print-disabled, authors, publishers, collective
management organizations, libraries and other authorized entities, as well
as standards bodies. ABC was established in June 2014 to implement the goals
of the  <https://www.wipo.int/marrakesh_treaty/en/> Marrakesh Treaty.
Through an effective international alliance of relevant state and non-state
actors, ABC seeks to increase, and distribute, the number of books worldwide
in accessible formats - such as braille, audio, e-text and large print.

 <https://www3.wipo.int/newsletters/en/#abc_news> Subscribe to receive
regular ABC news updates via email.

 

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