The Persons with Disabilities also grapple with copyright issues

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The Persons with Disabilities also grapple with copyright issues

Deepa Kurup

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."