World Intellectual Property Organization Advances Toward Treaty to Facilitate Access by People with Print Disabilities to Published Works; Morocco Offers to Host Diplomatic Conference in Geneva
Meeting in an extraordinary session, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) General Assembly made a landmark decision to convene a diplomatic conference in 2013 to complete negotiations on a pact to improve access to copyrighted works for people who are visually impaired and people with print disabilities around the world. The General Assembly also expressed gratitude to Morocco for its offer to host the diplomatic conference.
WIPO Director General Francis Gurry welcomed the constructive spirit of engagement among member states and the decision to convene a diplomatic conference in 2013 to agree on the provisions of an international treaty. "Member states took an important decision today in our collective efforts to facilitate access to copyrighted works by the visually impaired and persons with print disabilities," Mr. Gurry said. He added, "The future treaty will improve access to published works for millions around the world." The Director General thanked Morocco's Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Ambassador Omar Hilale, for his country's generous offer to host the diplomatic conference.
While some countries have domestic legislation that grants limitations and exceptions for use of copyrighted works by those who are visually impaired and people with print disabilities, there is a legal vacuum at the international level. Since 2004, the WIPO Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) has been considering whether certain limitations and exceptions should be harmonized internationally. The WIPO General Assembly decided that discussions relating to a future treaty to benefit people who are visually impaired and people with print disabilities are sufficiently advanced and mature to convene a diplomatic conference. The convening of a diplomatic conference signals entry into the final phase of treaty negotiations.
Some 300 million people around the world who are blind or visually impaired stand to benefit from a more flexible copyright regime adapted to current technological realities.
Individuals with a reading impairment often need to convert information into braille, large print, audio, electronic, and other formats using assistive technologies. Only a very small percentage of published books around the world are available in formats accessible to the visually impaired.
The General Assembly also decided to convene a special session of the SCCR in February 2013 to advance work on the text of the draft treaty prior to the diplomatic conference, which will be held in June 2013. At the end of the February SCCR, member states will decide "whether additional work is required with the objective of holding a successful Conference in June 2013."
The current draft text of the treaty reflects significant agreement among member states, though some differences remain.
Among the issues on which member states need to reach agreement are questions relating to commercial availability (in other words, what happens in places where a title is commercially available in an accessible format) and how cross-border transfer of accessible works will take place between countries. Also, member states must agree on how to treat the traditional formulation of the provision for national law limitations and exceptions in the draft treaty text (the so-called three-step test).
At the conclusion of the General Assembly, member states convened the Preparatory Committee of the Diplomatic Conference to conclude a treaty to facilitate access by visually impaired people and people with print disabilities to published works to consider the venue and modalities for the diplomatic conference.
Perkins School for the Blind, Helen Keller National Center, and FableVision will Lead the iCanConnect Campaign
Many thousands of Americans who have combined loss of hearing and vision may soon connect with family, friends, and community thanks to the National Deaf-Blind Equipment Distribution Program. Mandated by the 21st Century Communications and Video Accessibility Act (CVAA), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) established this new program to provide support for the local distribution of a wide array of accessible communications technology.
The FCC is also funding a national outreach campaign to educate the public about this new program. The iCanConnect campaign will be conducted jointly by Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown, MA, the Helen Keller National Center in New York City, NY, and FableVision of Boston, MA. iCanConnect will seek to ensure that everyone knows about the free communications technology and training that is now available to low-income individuals with combined hearing and vision loss. From screen enlargement software and video phones to off-the-shelf products that are accessible or adaptable, this technology can vastly improve quality of life for this population.
iCanConnect seeks to increase awareness about the availability of communications technology for this underserved population, so people who are deaf-blind and have limited income can remain safe and healthy, hold jobs, manage their households, and contribute to the economy and the community.
Information about the new equipment distribution program is available online at the iCanConnect website or by phone at 800-825-4595. Additional information is available through the online FCC Encyclopedia.
"With the right technology, people with disabilities can link to information and ideas, be productive, and move ahead," said Steven Rothstein, President of Perkins. "Perkins' most famous student, Helen Keller, exemplified the potential of a person who is deaf-blind. We are proud to have a role in this transformational program."
The CVAA, championed in Washington, DC by Congressman Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts and Senator Mark Pryor of Arkansas, acknowledges that advances in technology can revolutionize lives. Nearly one million people in the United States have some combination of vision and hearing loss. People with combined loss of vision and hearing as defined by the Helen Keller National Center Act whose income does not exceed 400 percent of the Federal Poverty Guidelines are eligible to participate in the new program.
"The mission of the Helen Keller National Center is to enable each person who is deaf-blind to live and work in his or her community of choice," explains Executive Director Joe McNulty, adding, "This critical technology access program accelerates those efforts but only if people know about the resources. iCanConnect is poised to get the word out, coast to coast."
"FableVision's mission is to help ALL learners reach their full potential," said Paul Reynolds, CEO of FableVision Studios. "With this program we advance that mission, helping spread the word about equal access to tools that offer those with hearing and vision loss the transformational power of technology." Reynolds adds, "Now everyone is invited to the technology promise powering the human network."
