[Nfb-idaho] Fw: [State-affiliate-leadership-list] FW: [tvi-discuss] Video: StevieWonder appeals for finalization of books for blind treaty

Sun Jun 23 00:41:35 UTC 2013

I think many of you will be interested in this message from the international conference dealing with a treaty on availability of books for the blind.  

Ramona
----- Original Message ----- 
From: Scott C. LaBarre 
To: State Affiliate Leadership List 
Sent: Saturday, June 22, 2013 12:21 AM
Subject: [State-affiliate-leadership-list] FW: [tvi-discuss] Video: StevieWonder appeals for finalization of books for blind treaty

Greetings my Federation friends:

I wanted to give you a quick update from here in Marrakech, Morocco where we are negotiating a treaty for the blind and print disabled that would allow exceptions and limitations to copyright law throughout the world to produce accessible format copies of published materials and allow nations to exchange these accessible formts across international borders.  Some in the U.S., and yes some even in our own organization, have asked why the Federation has spent so much time and effort attempting to secure a strong treaty.  The reason is that even though we have a good law here in the U.S., the Chafee Amendment, we still only have access to something less than five percent of published works in the U.S.  Throughout the world, that figure falls below one percent.  Additionally, those of us in the United States cannot get access to accessible format copies of books in other English speaking countries and foreign language collections in countries that don't speak English.  I recall very vividly how I was not able to pursue a double major in Spanish because of the great problem I had attempting to get accessible Spanish novels and other materials.  So, if this treaty is adopted, it will open up a great deal more  information to all of us and promote greater production of accessible books and published works.

This is a historic opportunity for us.  It is the first time that any international treaty has addressed the specific needs of the blind.  Through this process, we are literally educating the world about the real problems we face and how lack of access to information keeps us in second class status.  

Any way, the Diplomatic Conference started officially on Tuesday, the 18th of June.  Thus far, there is no consensus on any language and there are many issues being hotly debated and contested.  This has to be concluded by the 28th and if there is no consensus by that time, this diplomatic conference will fail and we will have to go back to the drawing board, a process that could take many, several more years.  A great deal is hanging in the balanace at the moment and please stay tuned for urgent calls to action to help push the U.S. government to negotiate appropriately.  We will know more later today about exactly what we need to do.  Stay tuned for updates from Fred Schroeder or me as this process goes into the home stretch.

Finally, I have concluded this update with a link to a message from Stevie Wonder.  We and BookShare urged Stevie to get involved because these international delegates hold Stevie Wonder in extremely high regard.  He spoke to this U.N. body in 2010 to urge that the treaty be adopted.  We hope that he will be able to come here to Marrakech to help celebrate a successful conclusion.

Best to all for a great weekend!

From: tvi-discuss [mailto:tvi-discuss-bounces at lists.keionline.org] On Behalf Of Manon Ress
Sent: Friday, June 21, 2013 9:37 AM
To: TVI-Discuss
Subject: [tvi-discuss] Video: Stevie Wonder appeals for finalization of books for blind treaty

http://youtu.be/l6Dp2s3CidI

-- 

Manon Ress, Knowledge Ecology International, KEI
manon.ress at keionline.org, tel.: +1 202 332 2670

www.keionline.org

KEI is a not for profit non governmental organization that searches for better outcomes, including new solutions, to the management of knowledge resources. KEI is focused on social justice, particularly for the most vulnerable populations, including low-income persons and marginalized groups. 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

_______________________________________________
State-affiliate-leadership-list mailing list
State-affiliate-leadership-list at host.nfbnet.org
http://host.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/state-affiliate-leadership-list_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for State-affiliate-leadership-list:
http://host.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/state-affiliate-leadership-list_nfbnet.org/ramona.walhof%40gmail.com
-------------- next part --------------
An embedded and charset-unspecified text was scrubbed...
Name: Untitled attachment 00035.txt
URL: <http://nfbnet.org/pipermail/nfb-idaho_nfbnet.org/attachments/20130622/aac960be/attachment.txt>