Access for the Differently Abled

Here is a news item that just appeared last Friday in the Indian Express, reproduced in its entirety:

The visually challenged can now hope for a far better deal under the Copyright Amendment Bill, 2010 with both the PMO and Sonia Gandhi having already nudged the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry in the direction. It is learnt that the ministry will give many more copyright exemptions and concessions to the visually challenged and those facing other disabilities will also be factored in, following a series of representations made to the ministry and the Parliamentary Standing Committee which is examining the proposed amendments.

The ministry is likely to allow greater access of reading material to the disabled by allowing them to convert it to any format instead of only special formats like Braille.

The legislation aims at bringing the Indian copyright rules in line with international norms and has already ignited debates with creative artistes and film producers sparring over royalty sharing while disability activists are alleging the Bill is discriminatory and restrictive. Both the Prime Minister’s Office and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi have forwarded petitions they had received from disability activists and asked the ministry to consider these.

While the current Copyright Act 1957 does not have any provisions to address the needs of the disabled, including the visually impaired, and permission has to be sought from copyright holders every time a visually challenged person requires access, the amendments proposed by the ministry are to allow automatic conversion of reading material into “specially designed” formats for the disabled like Braille and sign language. Disability activists, however, argue that to truly allow the visually impaired unfettered access to reading material, it should be made available in mainstream formats like audio formats, e-texts with screen reading software, reading material with large fonts rather than the limiting ‘special formats’. The fact that miniscule reading material in India in available in electronic formats further underscores this point. Many visually disabled persons prefer to convert reading material into electronic formats that can be listened to.

That apart, disability activists allege that the Bill leaves out large sections of disabled people affected by dyslexia, cerebral palsy and those suffering from partial impairments.

This seems like a good place to highlight the work being done by the organization Braille without Borders who have established an important project in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, the International Institute for Social Entrepreneurs.

The IISE is an institution that focuses on leadership training in order to create social change. The participants  are inspiring visionaries who mainly come from developing nations. All of them have overcome significant life challenges ranging from vision impairment, disability, poverty, war, discrimination and exploitation. They have a passion to make the world a better place and the strength to be forces of good rather than victims of circumstance.

The IISE programme is designed to create and nurture future social entrepreneurs. Previous formal education is not a requirement: instead participants who apply for this program have to be committed to a personal dream project for social change, and have the personality and creative ideas to make this happen.

Having a vision is so much more than just being able to see.