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The right to read
What is the Right to Read Campaign?
The Problem
Nearly 70 million persons in India have some form of disability (visual impairment being the most common) that prevents them from reading printed matter. The good part is that there are technologies available which can help persons with print impairment to read, if the material is converted into an alternate format such as large print, audio, Braille or any electronic format. Unfortunately the Indian law does not permit a person with print impairment to make an accessible copy of a book in order to be able to read it. What this means is that every time a print impaired person wishes to read a book he/she has to get permission from the copyright-holder – a completely unfeasible proposition.
The Solution
To solve this problem the law in question i.e. the Indian Copyright Act, 1957 should be amended to permit persons with print impairment to convert materials into accessible formats.
Campaign Objective
The Right to Read campaign seeks to accelerate change in copyright law, raise public awareness on the issue of access to reading for the print-impaired; and gather Indian support for the Treaty for the Blind proposed by the World Blind Union at the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).
Latest on Right to Read
Right to Read Campaign moves to Delhi
Date:30th January, 2010.
The Venue:Lal Chowk, Pragati Maidan
Open the Cookie Jar
Not Quite Right
Time:02:00pm-05:00 pm
Come for the event and show your support. The event coincides with the International World Book Fair being held at the same venue. What better time and venue can we have for us to show that while publishers from around the world are showcasing their publications, we, the disabled community, still have no books to read?
In light of the approaching session of Parliament when the amendment to the copyright act will be presented, it is a useful exercise to bring together all the stakeholders to come together to speculate the wording of the proposed amendment and in its impact on the print impaired community.
The support for the campaign has been steadily increasing. We have had a support in the form of videos, posters and blog entries.
A report on the nationwide Right to Read campaign which had its second road show at the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata on 7th November from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Read the latest blog post Let’s Talk the Language of Rights, by Moiz, a final year law school student who shares his personal experience of growing up with visual impairment
Arvind Mohandas, an account manager with a leading IT company has created this simple presentation, to convey the message of the campaign
Abdul and Tausif, two law students with visual impairment from Pune, along with their friends have made this video to support us!
The right to read Chennai event gets covered by NDTV Hindu
Check out the posters designed by Sudhir Nair, a PGDM Student from IIM Indore which captures the essence of the campaign!
Open the Cookie Jar
Not Quite Right
