COPYRIGHT LAWS PRESS CONFERENCE

Laws deny blind South Africans access to 99.5% of published books.

In developed countries, barely 5% of all published works are available in formats which are accessible to blind people (large print, audio, Braille or DAISY) and in developing countries, this number drops to a mere 0.5%. This estimation made by the World Blind Union (WBU) brings into perspective - the current literary crisis known as the Book Famine!

With 314 million visually impaired and other print-disabled readers around the world, this lack of access to information is simply unacceptable. So what is being done about this?

On May 20, the South African National Council for the Blind will host a press conference to inform what their partners (comprising various organisations servicing the visually impaired community of South Africa, as well as stakeholders from the private and public sectors, including government departments and academia) and what we are doing about this huge injustice.

Participants in the press conference will be: Jace Nair (National Executive Director: South African National Council for the Blind); Dr. William Rowland (Honorary President: South African National Council for the Blind and Immediate Pass President of the World Blind Union); Denise Nicholson (Copyright Services Librarian: University of the Witwatersrand); Aslam Raffee (Sun Microsystems); Francois Hendrikz (Director: South African Library for the Blind); Shakila Maharaj (Daisy SA); Chris Friend (World Blind Union), and Hiroshi Kawamura (Daisy International).

The conference takes place at the Auditorium at the National Library, Corner of Proes and Andries Street, Pretoria CBD. Phone 012 321 8931 on May 20 at 16h30 (or join us at 08h30 if you would like to attend the whole workshop)

More information from Lindie van Zyl on 012 452-3811 and the email address is: lindie@sancb.org.za