Centre for Internet and Society

Deccan Chronicle – 27th September, 2009

radha — 2011-04-02T14:50:21Z

Nirmita Narasimhan, Programme Manager, CIS, speaks at the launch of ‘Right to Read’ campaign. Loyola College in the city on Saturday launched the campaign to amend the Indian Copyright Act, 1957, and give visually challenged and dyslexic people better access to printed books in the form of Braille copy and big prints.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/deccan-chronicle-2013-27th-september-2009

Disability rights groups oppose changes to Copyright Act

praskrishna — 2011-04-02T12:26:01Z

Disability rights groups are up in arms against a Bill proposing an amendment to the Copyright Act, 1952, reports Aarti Dhar in an article published in the Hindu on April 23, 2010.

Disability rights groups are up in arms against a Bill proposing an amendment to the Copyright Act, 1952, that prevents non-governmental organisations, educational institutions and persons with disabilities from converting reading material including textbooks and reference material into audio, digital and other formats that can be used by differently-abled persons.

The amendment Bill, introduced in the Rajya Sabha this week, if passed in its current form, will prevent over 70 million people with disabilities in India, including persons with visual impairment, dyslexia, and cerebral palsy, from exercising their Right to Education and other fundamental rights, according to the National Access Alliance, a group of organisations and leading professionals working for the benefit of the print-disabled in India.

Licensing procedure

The extremely “cumbersome, restrictive and lengthy” licensing procedure proposed by the government for conversion to these formats will mean that students with print disabilities will be deprived of their Right to Education which has now become a fundamental right.

Members of the Alliance have been campaigning for the amendment to be re-worded to ensure that the conversion of books into all formats is allowed, all stakeholders, including organisations, educational institutions and persons with disabilities, are allowed to undertake the conversion; and the conversion should not be subject to red tape which will lead to delay. The campaigners had met Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal who assured them that the interests of persons with disabilities would be addressed. However, the amendment proposed by the Minister does more harm than good, Rahul Cherian and Nirmita Narasimhan, both members of the Alliance, told The Hindu.

Seeking support

The Alliance is now meeting members of Parliament from across the political parties to seek support. The Bharatiya Janata Party, the Left parties and the Nationalist Congress Party have already extended support to them and assured that their cause would be taken up.

According to CPI (M) MP Brinda Karat, the present amendment lacked concern for the disabled people. “Their cause is genuine and it needs to be addressed,” she told The Hindu, adding that the matter would be taken up once the Bill comes to the Standing Committee.

Members of the Alliance will continue their nationwide mass mobilisation for the cause to bring more attention to the plight of persons with print disabilities in relation to the lack of reading material in accessible formats.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/disability-groups-oppose-copyright-amendments

Free Copyright Control to Help Blind Students: Xavier's Resource Centre

praskrishna — 2011-04-02T13:10:36Z

This article throws light on the fact that even though technology has made it possible for visually challenged to access print material, there is little awareness among authors and publishers to make it accessible, and hence, only an amendment in copyright laws can bring about this awareness.

Technology has made it possible for the visually challenged to access the print. But there is little awareness among publishers and authors about the need to make printed documents accessible to all. An amendment in copyright laws is needed to bring about this awareness.

To make it happen, the Xavier’s Resource Centre for the Visually Challenged (XRCVC) has urged authors and publishers to support the global Right to Read [RTR] campaign initiated by the World Blind Union and Sight Savers International among others.

“The proposed amendments to the Indian Copyright Act are yet to be tabled in Parliament. But it is not just the law that needs to change,” said Dr Sam Taraporevala, XRCVC director. “There needs to be a quantum leap in the mindset, where people are thinking of accessibility across diverse dimensions.”

The XRCVC has urged authors and publishers to sign the RTR declaration. Technology can convert print into audio, larger print or Braille. But very little content has been converted into formats accessible to the print impaired.
The RTR campaign seeks to bring about changes to copyright laws, increase public awareness on the issue of access to reading for the print-impaired, and gather support for the treaty for the blind proposed by the WBU at the World Intellectual Property Organisation.

The XRCVC feels that amendments to the Indian Copyright Act should take interests of all stake holders into consideration. “A coordinated effort is required by all the stake holders, like the government, the copyright owners, persons with print impairment and organisations representing them, and the public,” Taraporevala said. “Signing the declaration does not involve handing over rights but indicates a statement of intent in support for the cause.”

For link to the original story on DNA.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/free-copyright-control-to-help-blind-students

Government websites: Access denied to special users

sachia — 2011-04-02T16:17:22Z

Article by L. Subramani in the Deccan Herald, 8 December 2008

The homepages of 23 government agencies have been identified as inaccessible to special users, the city-based Centre for Internet and Society has found.

The organisation carried out an automated test using software tools, on websites of agencies like the National Informatics Centre, Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment, Ministry of HRD etc, the majority of which have failed to meet even the basic access criteria laid down in the guidelines of Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C).

“Except for the Reserve Bank of India and CMC Vellore, all the sites don't even meet priority 1 of WCAG (W3C Access Guidelines), which would ensure availability of text for non-text elements (images) and other graphical contents that can't be read out by screen reader software,” said Nirmita Narasimhan, who carried out the tests at CIS. She mentioned that all of the websites failed in priority 2 and 3 of the guidelines.

“Despite being one of the most important sites for persons with disability, the homepage of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment - which contains documents and important government schemes for persons with disability - has completely failed to meet the accessibility criteria.

This is not only against the spirit of laws that guarantee freedom of information, but also contradicts the government's own policy of making websites accessible to persons with disability,” she added.

Handbook

Nirmita pointed out that the Right To Information handbook - an important reference for persons with disability, demanding information from government and private organisations - has been provided in an inaccessible document format.

She echoed the common contention that persons with disability are deprived of one of the most important aspects of modern technology, despite being empowered by technologies like screen readers and speech recognition software.

The information, coming soon after the International Day for Persons with Disabilities was observed, raises question marks over the government's commitment to break barriers, and its genuineness in creating an accessible society as per the Persons with Disability act (1995) and the United Nations Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disability, to which it has been one of the early signatories.

Ganesh Prasad, Director (Systems and Process) at Samarthanam Trust for the Disabled described the test results as ‘not surprising, but certainly disappointing.’

“Given the urban conditions, visiting a place in person has become one of the most difficult things for persons with disability,” Prasad said.

Priority 1 of the guidelines calls for text descriptions of images or alternative pages with text contents, while priority 2 asks for the turning off of auto refresh and other deprecated features of W3C technologies, and recommends semantic information of the page for persons with disability to instantly know the contents.

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Read the article on the Deccan Herald website here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/government-websites-access-denied-to-special-users

Lawyers get socially involved: The Right to Read

radha — 2009-12-03T09:49:08Z

Thursday, 03 December 2009 by Tanuj Kalia (www.legallyindia.com)

"Imagine life without books, without having anything to read. Wouldn't it get suffocating?" asks Moiz Tundawala, a visually impaired student at NUJS Kolkata.

A number of engaged lawyers have been working hard to address the suffocation by trying to make books accessible to all in the Right to Read campaign.

"Just place yourself in the shoes of the print disabled and try evaluating," posits Tundawala. "Why deprive them of a fair opportunity to participate in society especially when you have the technology to make things easier?"

By contrast the situation as it stands today in India is simple: if you can not read printed text for whatever reason, most books will remain forever closed to you.

Pesky laws

And while technology is making headway towards accessibility it stumbles upon myriad legal roadblocks.

The biggest spoilsport is the India Copyright Act, which does not explicitly permit the conversion of books into accessible formats without breaching their copyrights.

Three organisations active in the field have now joined hands to launch the Right to Read campaign in India, following the eponymous global campaign by the World Blind Union. The Indian campaign is supported by social enterprise Inclusive Planet with its first product BookBolé, the Center for Internet and Society (CIS) and the non-profit organisation Daisy Forum of India.

And throughout lawyers have been vital in getting the campaign off the ground.

"We believe that the right to read is a fundamental right and persons with disabilities should be able to enjoy this right just like any other person," says CIS programme manager Nirmita Narasimhan. She is an LLB graduate of Campus Law Centre, Delhi University and has years of experience in working in the courts and with intellectual property (IP).

"Nearly 70 million print disabled Indians are being deprived of this right because they are unable to read in the same manner as other persons," she continues. "This goes against our constitutional guarantees of rights to equality and non-discrimination."

The movement does not restrict itself to the blind and visually impaired and the Right to Read campaigners are quick to point out that the term print disabled is a wider term and includes persons who have dyslexia, learning disabilities and persons who due to physical disability are unable to hold books or turn pages.

The campaign therefore aspires to reach to all those who do not have access to knowledge due to the non-availability of books in accessible formats.

Technology's outer limits

Inclusive Planet's co-founder and policy head Rahul Cherian is also the founder and managing partner of IndoJuris Law Offices.

He and Narasimhan co-wrote a letter to the IPR Division of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).

In it they explained why formats like audio files and Braille cannot fully address the issue of accessibility and what should be done about it.

"Audio files have to be played serially and navigation is severely limited. In the case of Braille, the printing costs are expensive and reading a Braille book is up to 4 times slower than a normal book," they wrote.

"Moreover, Braille is extremely difficult to learn if you lose sight at a later age, and persons using Braille can communicate only with others who know Braille. Braille cannot be used by persons with other print impairments such as dyslexia or persons with physical disabilities".

Perhaps more innovative technologies are necessary but technology also has some serious limitations, such as not being able to cater to India's multilingual needs, points out Narasimhan.

Tundawala's first-hand experience with technology is instructive.

"Audio brings in the human element," he says, "but a lot depends on the reader. Some are naturally good readers, some others are not. Listening to monotonous voices is not at all enjoyable."

Cost is a big hurdle too. "A wonderful device that is in the markets in places like the US is the portable reader. It is a hand held device and comes with a camera with OCR (Optical Charachter Recognition) and TTS (Text To Speech) installed on it. How I wish to get hold of it. But this comes at a whopping two thousand dollars", says Tundawala.

Even screen reading software that converts the text on screen to speech such as JAWS for Windows comes at a mind-boggling fifty thousand rupees.

The co-founder and CEO of Inclusive Planet Sachin Malhan, who is perhaps best-known for starting up the CLAT preparation service Law School Tutorials after a stint in a law firm, defends technology.

"Any large solution will have imperfections," says Malhan, "but one must keep in mind how small these obstacles are when compared with the opportunities."

Being Good: the subtle art of Dharma

Issues of cost and accessibility are serious. Inclusive Planet, which is run as a for-profit social organisation, will face the challenge of making its first product BookBolé pay for itself.

Cherian is optimistic. "The cost of printing, stocking and distributing books which is huge in regular books is virtually nil in our model," he says.

"We are in the process of convincing a few publishers about the possibility of tapping into the needs of the millions in need of books in accessible formats. The World Blind Union has given the phrase 'Same day. Same price' for books to be made available to the print disabled and we want to live up to it."

And going by the magnitude of response BookBolé has been able to generate it already sounds like a success story.

Cherian told Legally India that Inclusive Planet has five new products and projects lined up for the disabled. Two among these will cater exclusively to needs of the visually impaired and according to Cherian will truly revolutionize the ecosystem for the visually impaired, making their world happier and more inclusive.

Tundawala, however, disagrees with this approach and argues: "If we start selling technology through the market mechanism, it may not serve the needs of the vast multitude."

Legal Samaritans

The Right to Read has journeyed well and is picking up momentum with legal activists forming the vanguard.

"The prominent people behind our freedom struggle were lawyers so the legal community owes a special responsibility in this case to help bring about a change for the better," insists Tundawala. "Their support will give a sense of hope to millions of individuals that the people who know the law empathise with them and think the way they do about this problem."

For Cherian help from the corporate sector has made life easier. "None of this would have been possible without the collaboration of corporate lawyers. Corporate lawyers have helped in the legal research and strategy."

Delhi Chalo!

The Indian campaign, which was launched in September, is also closely allied to the global debate and involves many issues and organisations.

"We are actively involved in The Treaty for the Blind, Visually Impaired and other Reading Disabled presently tabled before the Standing Committee on Copyright and Related Rights (SCCR) at the WIPO and are working with the World Blind Union to help from an India level," explains Nirmita.

She adds that earlier this month they also organised a meeting with the Director General of WIPO in Delhi and submitted a statement document on behalf of the Indian visually impaired community.

And the Right to Read, explains Cherian, will soon be taken up to India's Human Resources Development (HRD) minister Kapil Sibal.

"We plan to organise 4 more road shows in different cities, culminating with a large event in Delhi," he says.

"We will also be submitting a research paper to the HRD Ministry on the constitutional, domestic and international law compulsions that require the amendment of the copyright act for the benefit of persons with disability."

Sign the Declaration and express your support at the Right to Read campaign website. If you needed any other incentive, today is World Disability Day.

Link to the original article

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/lawyers-get-socially-involved

N.C.P.E.D.P. and BarrierBreak Technologies put forward National Policy on Electronic Accessibility

sachia — 2011-04-02T15:43:42Z

Article in Disability News and Information Service, 15 July 2009

D.N.I.S. News Network: National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (N.C.P.E.D.P.) in association with BarrierBreak Technologies has come up with a draft for a National Policy on Electronic Accessibility. The objective of the policy is to provide persons with disabilities equal access to electronic and information and communication technology and services. This policy expands on the United Nations Convention for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which India has ratified.

Shilpi Kapoor, Managing Director, BarrierBreak Technologies says, “Technology today is there in all aspects of life. Using electronic and information and communication technology, we can bridge the barriers that exist for persons with disabilities. Such a policy needs to be applicable across different ministries and departments.”

The National Policy on Electronic Accessibility emphasizes the importance of creating awareness on accessibility and universal design and creating and implementing standards and guidelines. It also aims at promoting research and development in the area of universal design and assistive technology and independent living aids and schemes in the area of accessible electronic and information and communication technology.

The policy also emphasizes the importance of building capacity to ensure that accessible products and services can be developed in India.

Nirmita Narasimhan, Programme Manager, Centre for Internet and Society, feels positive about the draft. "Having a National Electronic Accessibility Policy would be an extremely positive move for India towards bridging the digital divide; it will serve as a leading example to other developing countries to take similar initiatives and create a truly inclusive and accessible world," she said.

The draft will be placed before N.C.P.E.D.P.’s Core Group on Communication and Information Technology in its meeting on July 23 and the National Committee on the Rights of People with Disabilities on July 24. Once the policy is approved at these two forums, it will be placed before the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology for their consideration.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/n.c.p.e.d.p.-and-barrierbreak-technologies-put-forward-national-policy-on-electronic-accessibility

Can’t read, so use new tech to let books speak

praskrishna — 2011-04-02T13:43:27Z

An article in the Times of India about the Right to Read campaign organised by the Centre for Internet & Society at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi as the world book fair kicked off.

Fifteen-year-old Ravi has never read a book. Diagnosed with a brain disorder when he was just three years old, he was taught how to read in a school for special children. But apart from some local newspapers and occasional letters from his family, he could never manage to enjoy a book because reading printed words was never comfortable to him.

On Saturday, Ravi was among the 300 print-impaired people — all dressed in identical blue sweatshirts and suffering from various disabilities like blindness, autism, dyslexia etc — who gathered at Pragati Maidan as the World Book Fair kicked off. Taking part in ‘Right to Read’ campaign organized by Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), they tried to create awareness about the plight of nearly 70 million people in the country who cannot read but, nevertheless, have the ability to enjoy a book or get information if book publishers take care to use the technology.

‘‘We want that people with disabilities should also be able to enjoy popular books like White Tiger or Five Point Someone. But for this, a lot needs to be done. The outdated copyright act needs to be amended so books can be converted to form which is accessible like audio books. Many publishers and writers do not give permission to have their books converted,’’ says Nirmita Narasimhan, programme manager of CIS.
As Amina flashes her wide grin, she seems just like any other normal 12-year-old child. However, a learning disorder stopped future studies for her and now her parents want to get her ‘‘settled’’ in life. ‘‘I want to study further,’’ was all she said. Amina has come from a small town in Bihar and is in Delhi with an NGO that is helping her adjust to life as a dyslexic.

Another participant in the campaign, Manoj, is blind. While he learned braille several years ago, his biggest regret is that because of his disability, he cannot enjoy the latest bestsellers. ‘‘I read whatever books are available in braille. Popular books are never accessible to me,’’ he said. The nationwide campaign began last year and since then has taken place in Kolkata and Mumbai, with Delhi being the third destination.
‘‘The campaign seeks to draw attention to the fact that out of nearly one lakh books that are published each year, barely 700 are available to people who cannot read print. The books can be converted into formats like braille, audio and large print to make them accessible to disabled people using screen readers (talking software) but it’s rarely done,’’ said a campaign volunteer.

Members of the campaign claimed that according to World Blind Union nearly 5% books are available to print-impaired persons in the developed countries. But in India the number of such books is just .5%. Javed Abidi, convener of Disabled Rights Group and one of the key-note speakers in the campaign, said: ‘‘Mostly it’s the visually impaired who have carry out the task to make the books more accessible to them. They have to scan the book and convert it and so that they can enjoy it. This needs to be changed. The onus should be on the publishers so books are made accessible to everyone.’’

The leaders of the campaign approached Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal when he came to speak at the inauguration ceremony of the fair. The minister said he has already done a lot for disabled citizens. Since the campaign was launched, over 600 authors and publishers have pledged their support to the campaign. ‘‘While technology has enabled the print-impaired community to access print materials in electronic formats that can be read using assistive technologies, converting books to these formats is not permitted by the law. The campaign also seeks necessary amendments in the Indian Copyright Act,’’ said Narasimhan.

For original article on The Times of India

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/new-tech-to-let-books-speak

Now, online books for disabled persons

radha — 2011-04-02T14:58:42Z

An article by L Subramani – Deccan Herald (6th Sept, 2009)

Bangalore: DAISY Forum of India (DFI), who promote talking books in DAISY (Digitally Accessible Information System) format for persons with disability, has provided an accessible consolidated list of DAISY books online for disabled persons across the country to browse.
“At the moment, we have catalogues from Saksham Trust (Delhi), NAB, Mitra Jyoti (Bangalore), BPA (Ahmedabad), Blind Persons Association (Calcutta) and Discipleship Centre. We would get more catalogues in the near future,” said Dipendra Manocha, President DSI, in an email announcement.
Bookbole.com, an online portal designed for persons with disability, is hosting the catalogue. “We have about 600 books in total,” said Nirmita Narasimhan, Project Manager with city-based Centre for Internet and Society (CIS), who have partnered in creating bookbole.
“Accessibility, especially books and printed materials has been a problem for persons with vision challenge. Daisy Talking Books (DTB) have been created to address the dearth of information in accessible format,” Nirmita said. Persons who access the catalogue at bookbole.com can contact the concerned organisation directly and get the book from them.
“On receiving the request for books, we would burn it on a CD (in DAISY format) and post it to the concerned individual. This is the first time we have a consolidated list of DAISY books in the country, which is good for both people looking for books and organisations like us who have been developing them,” Madhu Singhal, Managing Trustee of Bangalore-based Mitra Jyothi.
DAISY format allows readers to access the books both in text and audio format. It is also easier for the readers to understand certain finer aspects of the book such as page numbers. “If someone wants to re-read a particular page in a book, it is entirely not possible in traditional audio format. Whereas, DAISY format lets them know exactly the place they are reading and let them go back and forth quite the same way as an able-bodied person would do with the printed page,” Madhu said.

-DH News Service

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/now-online-books-for-disabled-persons

An online community platform for people with different needs

praskrishna — 2011-09-13T05:29:10Z

An online community platform designed for the print-impaired, probably the first such in the country, seeks to make the internet accessible to people with different needs.

The platform, inclusiveplanet.com, came about after Chennai based Rahul Cherian realised while taking part in the 2008 discussions of the world blind union centering around the WIPO treaty for the blind, that there was a 'massive resource' problem that technology would fix.

Cherian said he represented India in Washington when WBU drew up a treaty with the aim of enabling people with disabilities.

The platform is basically drawn up for the print-impaired with the aim of facilitating content-sharing, information sharing and relationship building, Cherian said.

"The term 'print-impaired' implies that for some reason, physical (such as visual impairment or bodily paralysis) or cognitive (such as dyslexia), the person is unable to access content that is in a 'print' format i.e. words, images and symbols on paper or on screen."

"For such persons content has to be accessed in a wholly different way. In the past, options were limited to Braille and human voice; today, the digital world enables other solutions 'including text-to-speech software,which effectively ensures that content in most text formats can be 'read out' to print impaired persons."

Cherian and his team worked with organisations working with persons with print impairment to understand what the best solutions would be.

"The more we were exposed to the nature of the problems faced by the community, the more apparent it became what the solutions needed to look like. It is an evolving iterative effort that has been changing shape to meet the problem intelligently. "

It uses technology that helps converts text to speech. The screen readers assist visitors to navigate the website, including text-to-speech software, which effectively ensures that content in most text formats can be 'read out' to print impaired persons.

"Inclusive Planet is a social enterprise and our object is to become sustainable through revenue generation and not through fund raising. We have been supported by the Centre for Internet and Society in Bangalore who have given us office space and countless hours of advice and help," he said.

There are more than 250 million print-impaired persons in the world of whom over 150 million live in developing nations and the site has been designed to address the needs of this community.

Currently, the platform is available in English, Turkish and Arabic. Members created the Turkish and Arabic versions.

"We look forward to creating inclusiveplanet.com in various regional languages. Members from India are already sharing content in various regional languages, including Hindi, Tamil, Kannada, Bengali, Telugu and Gujarati," Cherian said.

The platform was originally offered in English.

Cherian said that most important is what these members have done and are doing' "they have shared 17500 pieces of accessible content (audio, books in text format etc.), created 260 topical channels for discussion and content sharing, published 13605 comment posts and had 100,000 plus conversations on the platform."

Gopalakrishnan, Training Officer in Charge, National Institute of Visually handicapped, finds the site very useful and disabled friendly.

Instead of going to the library, college-going students can upload and download books, utilising it, he said.

He has also started an education channel on the site, beneficial for the disabled. "I post material on the site and those interested can download or upload it," he said.

The software has been designed and created keeping in mind the needs and challenges of the print impaired community. However it is accessible to a wide range of people, due to the simple design, Cherian said.

Asked if a visually impaired person can be taken for a ride while accessing a website like tourism travel, he said "Everything on the page is visible to the screen reader that is used by most visually impaired persons. There is no scope for a visually impaired person to be unaware of whatÂ’s happening on the page.

For InclusivePlanet.com, it makes sense to be inclusive as the target market is the print impaired community.

"We also believe that it makes business sense for all organisations to be inclusive as there are 250 million print impaired people across the world and they form an important market that have specific needs."

There is a huge opportunity for various organisations to develop products and services that include the print impaired community. "For example the travel market in the US for persons with disabilities is a few billions dollars," Cherian said.

Inclusive planet has a staff strength of 15 and is based out of Bangalore, Chennai and Kochi "with few of us living in each city," Cherian added.

Read the original here

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/online-community-platform

The print-impaired millions and their right to read

praskrishna — 2011-04-02T13:10:56Z

Books, books everywhere, but not a word to read. This is the scenario for the approximately 70 million print-impaired in India, a sizeable population that includes the visually-impaired young people as well the elderly — whose vision depletes with advancing age.

If you are visually impaired and want to read the latest bestseller, the chances are that you would be staring at a blank, almost-impenetrable wall. The reason: hardly about 500 to 700 of the approximately one lakh titles that are published in India every year are converted to formats like Braille, audio books and e-books for the benefit of this population, as well as versions with large prints for those with weak vision.

Now, as the Budget Session of parliament is likely to consider amendments to the Copyright Act, those advocating a ‘right to read’ for the print-impaired are hoping that among the changes would be a permission to convert books to various accessible formats like Bookshare or Daisy Book Forum for this population that want to travel into the magic world of words but are forced to be out of it.

A National Right to Read Campaign, backed by the Global Right to Read Campaign (GRRC), is already on the job, creating public awareness against what activists call the ‘exclusion’ of millions of Indians from the ‘fundamental right’ to read books.

While there are technologies and software that have enabled this population to access print materials in electronic formats that are read aloud by the machine, it is still illegal for the print-impaired people to, say, scan a book and read it using a screen reader software (such as Adobe Read Aloud) or share it with others. The matters are complicated even more by lack of international laws that allow cross-border sharing of accessible-format books between libraries in India and other countries.

“Even though the International Publishers Association is looking for a licensing system, specifically for conversion of books to accessible formats for the visually impaired, publishers are not publishing in these versions,” says Chris Friend, chair of the GRRC and World Blind Union (WBU) representative.

However, 600 authors — including Arun Shourie, Tarun Tejpal, Meghnad Desai and Girish Karnad — and publishing houses like Harper Collins, Marg Publications, etc have pledged support to the campaign.

Persons who cannot read print are not only the blind, as is the popular perception. A print impaired person can be either visually impaired or those who have other physical, cognitive or sensory disabilities such as dyslexia, autism, learning disabilities, etc, point out Sam Taraporevala and Nirmita Narasimhan of the Centre for Internet and Society, which is spearheading the Right to Read Campaign along with the Daisy Forum.

Dismal scene

In developed countries, according to WBU estimates, only about five per cent of published books are available to print-impaired persons. In developing countries like India, the percentage is reduced to a dismal 0.5 per cent. There is increasing global attention on the issue in the form of a Treaty for the Blind, Visually Impaired and other Reading Disabled Persons, which is being discussed at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) of the UN, and for which India has expressed its support.

Disabled rights activists like Javed Abidi are for faster availability of books in other formats, and say that it’s a ‘matter of shame’ that it has not been the norm despite India moving fast along the information highway.

Publishers like Cambridge University Press and Sage, while joining the movement for making books accessible for the print impaired, are a little apprehensive about the potential of abuse of the converted formats by book pirates as well as violation of rights of authors, whose permissions are necessary to convert any book to another format under the law.

“Publishers fear leakage of accessible formats into the open market,” says Manas Saikia of CUP. Something that Friend completely pooh poohs. “It’s a myth that we visually impaired are going to rob authors’ rights or leak the books into the open market. The Daisy format watermarks every converted production, and any leakage can be traced back to the source. Also, some publishers are opposing the WBU treaty at WIPO saying we want free books. That is another myth. We are ready to pay, just give us books to read,” he says.

But the debate in public space seems to be creating some impact. Even as publishers and authors are coming out in large numbers to support access of books to the print impaired, the human resource development ministry is working on providing an exception for conversion to various formats if it is for the print impaired.

In fact, G R Raghavendra, registrar for copyrights at the ministry, confirms that such a move is afoot to remove this ‘unfortunate’ lacuna in the law. Quite naturally, everyone who loves the printed word is hoping that the print-impaired book worms will sooner than latter witness sunnier days.

For the original article in the Deccan Herald

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/print-impaired-millions

Print Impairment and Copyrights

radha — 2011-04-02T14:49:19Z

An article by Swaraj Paul Barooah - SPICY IP (Google groups)

There have recently been discussions by the CIS (The Center for Internet and Society) over some important issues relating to the intercourse of copyright protection and accessibility of content. Bringing up important points about the lack of access that certain categories of people have to printed material, they seek to approach the government for appropriate amendments to the present copyright laws. They have broadly defined 'print impaired’ people as those who cannot access standard printed material due not only visual impairment which composes the largest part of this group, but also other reasons such as dyslexia, paralysis, and other learning and physically challenged people. (In connection to this, readers may recall the post by Sumathi on the WIPO Treaty for the Blind being kept on hold earlier this year)

According to the WHO, there are about 314 million visually impaired people in the world, and about 70 million of these are in India (and one should keep in mind that these are just the documented statistics). Totally, there are about 400 million people in the world who suffer from some sort of print impairment. The primary problem that these people are facing is the lack of material which is suitable for their consumption. According to CIS, only 0.5% of the books in India are available in one or more alternative formats. The exclusion of easy availability of such material is effectively leading to a 3 stage process of marginalization of these people from society due to the artificial dependencies created, powerlessness as a result of this and these two together are resulting in the limiting of their capability expansion which could’ve occurred in the presence of the accessible material.

Currently, though the technology exists to transpose books into alternative formats such as braille or audio-books, which provide easier access for the print impaired, copyright laws are proving a hindrance to publishers, as this would technically constitute an infringement. The process to seek approval is a long and tedious one, which creates unnecessary barriers to access to information. As Rahul Cherian of CIS points out, there are also no national policies or action plans to ensure that these people have methods of accessing publications. He also points out in his article here that while there is no specific exception mentioned in the Copyright Act,

"Indian courts have routinely upheld the rights of persons with disability and the Supreme Court has specifically recognized that the “right to life” as enshrined in Article 21 of the Constitution includes right to dignity including basic necessities such as reading and writing[1] The right to education has also been recognised as a fundamental right. For print impaired persons to enjoy their fundamental rights, it is essential that they have access to material, including but not limited to educational material, in accessible formats. In this context it can be argued that the fundamental rights of Print Impaired Persons are being infringed because the Copyright Act, 1957, does not provide exceptions and limitations for the benefit of Print Impaired Persons."

Further more, India has already signed and ratified the UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disabilities wherein ensuring accessibility is one of the principle guiding points. The Bombay HC, in Ranjit Kumar Rajak Vs State Bank of India, has also read in provisions from this convention, stating it as law. You can see a further analysis of the legal framework in Rahul Cherian's article here.

A welcome initiative that CIS has taken in this regard is the Right to Read Campaign. Together with their endeavor of raising awareness of this pressing issue of lack of accessibility of material, they are also preparing a white paper giving suggestions and advice to the government as to what kind of changes should be made to the Copyright Act. As mentioned in a previous post, the required changes have been considered for the Amendment Act, but this is just hearsay and there is no specific information available as to the current proceedings of this. The campaign also is pushing for the Indian government to support the World Blind Union which is promoting the Treaty for the Blind at the WIPO.

Another great initiative which they have taken is in the form of an online platform which they have just launched. Seeking to be part of the solution as well, the site aims to provide a platform where print impaired people can upload and share their collections with other print impaired people, subject to the end user terms. The idea behind this is that since there is so much difficulty in making alternative materials available, the ones that have been made available should be made more easily available for sharing purposes. Earlier branded as Readable.in , the site is now www.BookBole.com . In the short time period that this site has been up, they have already had visitors from 54 different countries and uploads have been made in 34 different languages. In fact, there have also been requests from other countries requesting if the service could be launched in a local language.

This effort by CIS is indeed applauded by our Spicy IP team. You can also support this cause on their campaign site at http://www.righttoread.in

Link to the article in SPICY IP

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/print-impairment-and-copyrights

Reading For All

radha — 2011-04-02T14:26:41Z

Right To Read campaign has begun in India to voice the needs of the disabled to gain access to books - an article by Lubna Salim in Kolkata Mirror - Saturday, November 14, 2009

This year marks the beginning of the countrywide Right to Read campaign. As part of this campaign there will be road shows in the four metros and then these will be held in the different cities. Actors Nandita Das and Amir Khan and veteran journalist Rajdeep Sardesai are supporting the campaign.

The events of the campaign will include presentations, debates as well as demonstrations. There will be book reading sessions along with stalls whereby different accessibility tools shall be demonstrated. After the success of the first road show of this campaign in Loyola College, Chennai, the second one road was held in Kolkata. The venue for the Kolkata chapter of the Right To Read campaign was NUJS.

“As a visually impaired person I can identify with the goals of the campaign. I have suffered a lot having no access to books and other reading materials. Lack of access tends to make you so dependent on others,” says Moiz Tundawala, 5th year law student, NUJS.

Innumerable Indians are not able to read various printed materials due to their disabilities. Today there are technologies which can help such people to read print, once the materials are converted into alternate formats. These formats could be big print, audio and Braille or any sort of electronic format.

“Just try imagining life without books, without anything to read! Making reading materials available in accessible formats may go a long way in improving the life conditions of the print disabled and also help to make our society more accommodative, more inclusive. It is unfair to deprive some people of such a basic entitlement for no fault of theirs,” adds Moiz.

Our Indian Constitution guarantees its citizens “Right to read” as one fundamental right. But the copyright system does not allow us to convert books into accessible formats for the advantage of people who have print impairment. This leads to the creation of a “book famine”.

The international conventions to which India happens to be a party require it to revise its copyright laws. This will enable persons with the disabilities to avail of information plus material on the same basis as they are available to the others.

Moiz says, “People must endorse this campaign because it will give some people who have to struggle everyday for print access some hope that there are others who understand their concerns and think the same way as they do.”

Link to the original article

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/reading-for-all

Right to Read event in Brussels

praskrishna — 2011-04-02T12:19:06Z

A 'Right to Read' event is being held at the European Parliament, Brussels on 4 May 2010.

Blind and other reading disabled people face a "book famine". In the North less than 5% of books published are available for reading disabled people. In the South the figure is less than 1%.

Most accessible books are made by specialist agencies using charitable money. At present, such agencies, operating in different countries, but with a common language, often both transcribe the same book. They cannot avoid this needless and expensive duplication by sharing one accessible file or copy. This is because, under present copyright law, reading material in Braille, or formatted digitally for reading disabled people, cannot legally cross borders. This waste of scarce resources significantly hinders access to reading for the world's 300 million visually impaired people and millions of other reading disabled people, especially the poorest.

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities says that disabled people have a right to read. The best way to guarantee this right is the adoption of a binding treaty that establishes limitations and exceptions to copyright for the non-commercial production and distribution of accessible books.

The World Blind Union representing over 160 million blind and partially sighted persons in 177 member countries, has now drafted a " WIPO Treaty for Improved Access for Blind, Visually Impaired and other Reading Disabled Persons" to combat the "book famine". It is now being considered by the World Intellectual Property Organization where it has been sponsored by Brazil, Mexico, Ecuador and Paraguay. We have invited stakeholders, experts and EU officials to discuss a way forward and to ask the EU to support a binding treaty. This conference is supported by the European Blind Union and the Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue.

For further details, click here.

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/right-to-read-brussels

Right to Read campaign - Chennai (NDTV, Hindu)

radha — 2011-04-02T14:50:32Z

The first event was covered by NDTV Hindu and an interview with Rahul Cherian and Nirmita Narasimhan was telecast on 26th September.

Excerpts from the interview are available on the given links

Part 1

Part 2

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/right-to-read-campaign-chennai-ndtv-hindu

The disabled also grapple with copyright issues

radha — 2009-12-03T09:34:58Z

An article in The Hindu by Deepa Kurup - 03rd December, 2009

Go beyond Braille to include e-formats in amendment, they tell Government

MOVING AHEAD: Making books legally available in e-format will fuel technology-enabled learning among the blind.

BANGALORE: Young management executive Hari Raghavan, who is visually impaired, runs into a moral obstacle every time he wishes to read a contemporary novel or a management textbook protected under copyright. For, the Indian Copyright Act (1957) does not explicitly allow for conversion and distribution of reading material in alternative formats persons with disability can access.

While a proposed draft amendment to the Act includes a clause that allows for “specialised formats” such as Braille and sign language, it nevertheless ignores the needs of a large section of the disabled. Rights groups are currently lobbying for equal access for people like Mr. Raghavan and others with medical conditions such as cerebral palsy, dyslexia, multiple sclerosis or paralysis. The amendment is legally discriminatory as it requires these people to apply for licences to the Copyright Board, which will finalise licence terms and royalties, explains Rahul Cherian, a copyright lawyer working with Inclusive Planet, a non-governmental organisation working in this sector.

'Use technology’
Mr. Raghavan’s dilemma is precisely what drives the need to modify this clause. An IBM employee set to receive the Empowerment of People with Disability 2009 Award from President Pratibha Patil on Thursday, his blindness was a “deteriorating condition” so he never took to Braille. “Like me, a significant number of the ‘late blind’ use computers and e-formats to read. Making books legally available in e-formats is critical as it will fuel greater technology-enabled learning among the blind,” he says.

In a country where less than 0.5 per cent of printed material is available in e-format, it is imperative that the law makes it easier to access copyrighted works, Mr. Cherian explains. His Right to Read campaign, in association with Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society, attempts to address these very issues. “Why should a person with cerebral palsy who cannot hold a book or a dyslexic person having trouble reading print not be treated on a par with someone who uses Braille?” he asks.

Onscreen keyboard
For instance, 26-year-old Deepa Narasimhan suffers from spinal muscular dystrophy. Her condition does not allow her to hold a book or flip through its pages. However she can read text on her computer using an onscreen keyboard. This self-taught graphic designer says in this “technological world” such legislation could change the way she looks at making copies of books. “If there was a legal and easy way for us to get a book converted, it would make a world of difference,” she says. At present she has to scan every page of a textbook for her correspondence course. “I find it difficult to make people understand why I need everything in an e-format. Recognising my condition legally and making a provision for us would really broaden our horizon.”

Link to the original article

For more details visit https://cis-india.org/news/the-disabled-also-grapple-with-copyright-issues