P. R. PILLAI
the educational institutions to follow. India is lacking National
Library policy. National Library Policy for disabled will help
the policy makers to open the doors of libraries to all the visu-
ally challenged in India. There are mandates in Constitution to
provide education to all. The National Policy of Education,
1986; Right to Education Bill 2005, Right to Information Act
2005 also just mention about disabled as part of general public.
There is a need to have proper amendment of these Laws as far
as inclusive education is concerned. As all of us know, library
is a part of education as far as the access to information is con-
cerned.
In India various special schools were established for the visu-
ally challenged and Braille text books were made available to
these institutions free of cost by the government. The blind
receive the education free till they reach 12th standard. For
obtaining higher education in India, visually impaired persons
face the problem of availability of accessible reference books
related to their curriculum. The libraries of higher education are
not disabled friendly. The visually impaired students in India
feel neglected and isolated once they reach to higher education.
Some of the Indian Universities like Delhi University, Jawa-
harlal Nehru University, Hyderabad University, University of
Pune, Tata Institute of Social Science, recognized the plight of
disabled and started special library services for the visually
challenged. A few colleges like St. Xavier’s in Mumbai, Loyola
College in Chennai were also been in forefront in developing
special learning centres for VIPs. Many NGO in India are doing
excellent work in disseminating Information from 1960’s (NAB,
NFB, BPO) for the education of visually impaired.
The major problem these libraries face in providing informa-
tion in an accessible format was the COPY RIGHT LAW in
India.
As Roos, J. W. (2007) mentioned rightly:
“In order to make an accessible copy of a work, a library for
the blind or any other producer of that accessible copy must
obtain a license from the copyright holder that permits it to do
so. Otherwise, however laudable the purpose of making an
accessible copy, the accessible copy is an infringing copy, that
is to say a copy that infringes on the copyright of the right
holder.”
Copy Right Law in India
India has an estimated 70 million persons who cannot read
printed matter (for reasons of blindness and otherwise). These
persons have limited or no access to information which is
available to the public. Perversely, even material in the “public
domain”—such as that created by government—is often not
available in accessible formats.
Technology has made possible to convert the print into
Braille, or audio CDS. But there is a lack of awareness among
all the stak e holders as far as the ma terial t o be made accessibl e
to visually challenged in India. Very few colleges and universi-
ties in India are equipped with latest technologies in the disabil-
ity centre or in the academic libraries for the service of visually
challenged. These technologies themselves don’t help the dis-
abled in accessing information. For that purpose we need to
amend the copyright act. The publisher should allow the librar-
ian to use the electronic version of the document to freely ac-
cess for educational use. The proposed amendments to the In-
dian Copyright Act are yet to be tabled in Parliament.
Challenges in India
1) Indian Copy right Act 1957 does not contain any rules re-
garding converting any print, audio, to an accessible format for
the visually impaired.
2) Ordinary printed text is non-accessible: The blind can’t
access print. Many can access other formats like Braille. Today,
in this digital age, proper training in computer and assistive
technologies, help a blind to access the e- document just like
any normal sighted person.
3) Commercial Braille books and large print books are very
limited in India.
4) CDs and talking books in Daisy format are also less in In-
dia.
5) Electronic books in principle can be accessible with screen
readers. But many publishers are not providing access rights to
visually challenge d.
6) To find out the relevant copyright exception of each coun-
try (Copyright exemptions for the visually impaired or libraries
for the blind vary from country to country).
7) Lack of awareness is a major problem in India.
8) Lack of infrastructural, human resources and financial
crunches leads to no availability of assistive technology in the
academic libraries which will lead to non-productive human
beings as far as the life of visually impaired is concerned.
To solve this problem many NGOs voiced their concern to
Indian Government and pressed the need of amending Indian
copyright as per the UN convention of Copyright law. Blind
associations across India launched the campaign of “RIGHT to
READ” and try to awaken the awareness all the stakeholders
like publishers, librarians, visually challenged people, etc.
The National Institute for the Visually Handicapped (NIVH),
which is the apex level national organization in the field of
visual disability engaged in human resource development, ad-
ministered by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment,
has taken full leadership on this front and is working together
with the Daisy Forum of India (DFI) and other non profit or-
ganizations serving the blind across the country to set up a sys-
tem for delivery of books in accessible formats to print im-
paired persons.
Copy Right Exception for Visually Impaired in India: Until,
recently in India any alternate format creation would have been
an infringement unless it was backed up by prior written per-
mission from the rights holder (Government of India, 2001).
Copyright, like other kinds of intellectual property rights, is
basically limited in time, scope as well as exercise. From earli-
est times in copyright history, it has been recognized that copy-
right does not continue indefinitely, does not apply to certain
categories of material and, in certain cases, is limited in its
exercise (Lung, 2004). Hence there is a need to have copyright
amendments in the exiting laws as and when required. Prior to
the inclusive of Section 52(1)(zb) that the owner of copyright in
a work had the exclusive right to adapt, make copies, commu-
nicate to the public etc. the work. Therefore, any conversion of
a book into accessible formats such as Braille, Daisy, audio
books, etc., for the benefit of persons with print disabilities
could be undertaken only by the owner of copyright or with the
permission of the owner of copyright. More often than not,
owners of copyright are unwilling or disinterested to either
undertake the conversion and sale of such accessible format
copies or permit such conversion, for reasons varying from lack
of profitability to limited target audience. Now these permis-
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