1. Key Policy Questions and related issues:
How can existing IP regulation (notably the WIPO Marrakesh Treaty) support access to content for people with disabilities?
What the challenges faced by people with disabilities to access content?
2. Summary of Issues Discussed:
The Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works for Persons Who Are Blind, Visually Impaired, or Otherwise Print Disabled’ was signed on the 27th of June of 2013 and in few years made it possible to exchange accessible books among member countries. It represents one of the best examples of an ambitious, pragmatic and impactful multilateral treaty that the international community was able to agree upon in recent years.
The Accessible Books Consortium (ABC), is a public-private partnership led by WIPO. The platform brings together all key players to implement the objectives of the Treaty. ABC offers three services which are; ABC Global Book Service, Capacity Building ad Inclusive Publishing.
it was also explained that there’s no one way to be deaf, so people use different modalities to communicate depending on their conditions and concrete situation. There are many different ways to access content and many software tools which don’t support all formats. Often publishers don’t invest in alternate formats