October 2002
Japan Library
Association
National association
of Institutions of Information Service for the Visually Handicapped
Association of Public
Library Workers with Visual Disability (Nagoya-kai)
the Right of Accessing Information for
People with Disabilities
Our aim is to improve the informational environment of
people with disabilities, more specifically, to revise copyright laws, and to
establish systems and laws to guarantee disabled people’s rights of accessing
information.
In 2002, in commemoration of the final year of the Asian and
Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons, many primary international meetings have
been held in many parts of the world.
Taking advantage of this occasion, we appeal to the United Nations,
Japanese and all other nations’ governments to acknowledge the importance of
the issues above and to bring a solution to the issues.
In recent years, along with the increase of awareness
regarding intellectual property rights, the momentum toward protecting rights
of the owner of the copyright has become more important. This movement is especially predominant
in this day and age of information digitalization. Although it is a matter of course that rights of the owner
of the copyright should be protected, we should be concerned about an
unfortunate fact. That is to say,
an excessive emphasis on the protection of the rights of copyright’s owners is
preventing people with disabilities from accessing information. People with visual or auditory
disabilities are left behind as informationally - handicapped persons.
In order to obtain information, Braille transcription and
text-to-speech conversion are indispensable tools for visually impaired
persons, and captioning and sign language interpretation are vital means for
auditory impaired persons. It is
known that talking books are also beneficial for people with learning disabilities
(LD) or dyslexics who have difficulties in reading texts even though they do
not have eyesight problems.
Popularization of the computer and development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have brought great potentials to people with disabilities in accessing information. Development of technology has enabled us to subtitle TV programs or films more easily, and has opened the way for a synchronized multimedia presentation provided through different types of means, such as sounds, texts, graphics, and so forth, at one time. With digital technologies, it is also easy to convert information into easy-to-read materials for people with cognitive or intellectual disabilities. As a result, it has become a reality to obtain information quickly through various measures accessible to individuals with different types of disabilities.
However, despite the technological capability, the copyright
law stunts this possibility. There
is a grim reality that we cannot make full use of the technology because of the
limitations of the law.
Furthermore, it withholds the rights of children with disabilities to
receive an education by blocking the production of their textbooks and
resources in accessible format.
It also impedes the service of the public library, whose
role is to provide knowledge and information to the general public including
people with disabilities. The law
sets many limits to information conversion that is crucial for the public
library services for people with disabilities. It does not only hinder the missions of the public library
stated in the UNESCO Public Library Manifesto (1994), but also infringes those
people's rights to access information.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights advocates that ‘1. Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community, to enjoy the arts and to share in scientific advancement and its benefits.’ and ‘2. Everyone has the right to the protection of the moral and material interests resulting. (Article 27)’ We all, with or without disabilities, would like to respect the idea and participate in the cultural life of the community.
For people with disabilities, the right of accessing information is a fundamental human right that supports their 'right to know' and 'right to education' and ensures their 'right to life'. When we observe the above situations, we should state that the human rights of people with disabilities are seriously violated. Therefore, in order to guarantee the rights of accessing information for people with disabilities in harmonization with copyrights, we hereto appeal as follows:
1. Practical
descriptions considering information accessibility for people with disabilities
should be stated in copyright conventions, and in accordance with the
descriptions, copyright laws should be revised in Japan and in other countries.
2. The United
Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (the UN ESCAP)
should include practical approaches to solve the problems in the action plan of
the Second Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons.
3. The right
to accessing information of people with disabilities should be placed in
proposed international convention on the rights of people with
disabilities. This right should be
clearly guaranteed by laws banning discrimination towards people with
disabilities in Japan and in other nations. Each government should take its initiative in setting
practical targets for establishing standards to meet the various needs of
people with disabilities.
[English translation of Japanese original text]