Dear All The following email is self explanatory and needs our urgent endorsement, If the treaty for the visually impaired is to succeed at all.Please sign the following two online petitions and also link them to your social networking sites. Awareness on the issue needs to go viral. It is sad that vested interests want to derail the labour of many years and keep the blind in the dark. Your immediate co-operation is solicited. The first one is as follows Dear Friends:Blind and print-disabled people in the United States and across the world need your help to relieve the worldwide book famine that prevents us from receiving an education, attaining employment, and fully participating in society. The World Intellectual Property Organization is considering a treaty that would make more books available to blind and print-disabled people all over the world by promoting an exception to copyright law allowing books to be produced in special formats like Braille and to be shared across international borders. This treaty is called the Treaty for the Blind or the VIP Treaty. Unfortunately, publishers, big media, and other rights holders like GE and Caterpillar, some of whom have nothing to do with the publishing of books at all, are complicating the negotiations in an attempt to water down or kill the treaty. You can help by sending a strong message that you support a treaty that helps the blind and print disabled get access to more books. Please sign the petition at https://nfb.org/civicrm/petition/sign?sid=2&reset=1Also, please share the petition link with your family, friends, and others who you feel will support this effort.Thank you for your support.John G. Paré Jr.Executive Director for Advocacy and Policy NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
The second petition is It’s not typical for us to send you an email like this, but we felt this situation was so important it was necessary. You may already be aware, but for years negotiations have been moving forward on what many have come to call the "Treaty for the Blind." The goal of the international treaty is to make it possible for people who are blind, or have other print disabilities such as dyslexia, to get access to the books they need for education, employment and inclusion in society—no matter where they live. It's something we already do, with great success, in the United States through Bookshare.However, private interests are trying to alter the treaty in such a way that it would become useless—even harmful. For example, they’re trying to get language adopted that basically says: “if you can buy it, you can’t borrow it.” This is not only an attack on people around the world with print disabilities—it’s also an attack on libraries, like Bookshare, and could have a drastic effect on the number of books you have access to. Our biggest worry is this becoming a treaty that could stop Bookshare from serving our users in the United States the way we do today. We need our government negotiating for a treaty that supports a library like Bookshare. That’s why we’re working with a coalition of disability and library groups, including the National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind, to fight back against the proposed changes by these private interests. We’ll do everything we can to secure a treaty that both protects the access we have now and that will benefit people with print disabilities around the world—but we need your help. We’re asking you to take a moment to sign a petition on the White House’s website that urges the President to step up his support:http://ow.ly/lkJVs. If we can get to 100,000 signatures, the White House is required to respond to the petition and will, hopefully, take positive action. With your help we know we can reach that number. We also recommend the petition at the National Federation of the Blind’s site, which is particularly accessible. Thank you for your time and support. Together, we believe that our collective voice can make a real impact. If you’re interested in more background on the treaty, here are some articles and resources you can review:Huffington Post piece by Jim on how the treaty is being poisoned by private interests: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-fruchterman/poisoning-the-treaty-for-_b_3225181.htmlWIRED Magazine article that gives some recent updates on the treaty: http://ow.ly/lfP15 Sincerely,Jim Fruchterman & Betsy Beaumon, Bookshare P.S. Please post the link to the White House petition on your social media to help spread the word and get your friends involved! Again, here is the link: http://ow.ly/lkJVs. Best Regards, Dr. Sam Taraporevala ------------------------------------------ Director Xavier's Resource Center for the Visually Challenged (XRCVC) St. Xavier's College, Mumbai - 400 001 s...@xrcvc.org +91 22 22623298 (D) +91 22 22620661-5 (B); extn: 366 +91 9869378436 (M) +91 9967028769 ---------------------------------------- The information contained in this electronic message and any attachments to this message are intended for the exclusive use of the addressee(s) and may contain proprietary, confidential or privileged information. If you are not the intended recipient, you should not disseminate, distribute or copy this e-mail. Please notify the sender immediately and destroy all copies of this message and any attachments. WARNING: Computer viruses can be transmitted via email. The recipient should check this email and any attachments for the presence of viruses. The Organisation accepts no liability for any damage caused by any virus transmitted by this email. www.xrcvc.org Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/accessindia@accessindia.org.in/ To unsubscribe send a message to accessindia-requ...@accessindia.org.in with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
