Less than 0.5% of reading material is available in accessible formats for the blind and visually impaired in South Africa.
This is according to BlindSA who have now decided to take their plight to the Gauteng Division of the High Court with the help of Section27.
BlindSA’s Jace Nair said that the lack of reading material available for the visually disabled includes study material and recreational published books, adding that even in 2021, not all learners in the country have access to books in Braille.
He says there are 22 special schools for the visually impaired in South Africa, however, less than 10% of blind people have a formal education.
In the Eastern Cape, there are only three special schools which are situated in Kariega, Gqeberha and Mthatha.
The organisation now wants to challenge the apartheid-era copyright laws which it says infringes on the rights of persons with visual disabilities.
The Copyright Act of 1978 does not align with numerous international commitments like the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability ratified by South Africa in 2007 or the Marrakesh Treaty to facilitate access to published works for the blind or visually impaired.
Only 65 countries in the world have rectified the Marakesh Treaty but South Africa cannot do this due to the Copyright Act of 1978.
Nair says the Bill does not provide exceptions to copyrighted material to allow for their conversion into accessible formats such as braille, digitally accessible information system (Daisy), audio or large print and that this had resulted in a book famine for the blind.
BlindSA said that the government had acknowledged some of the challenges facing the blind and in 2015, a copyright amendment Bill was introduced to parliament.
However, it said the fate of the Bill had been up in the air following huge delays, rounds of public participation and the Bill returning to Parliament due to so-called constitutional concerns.
After six years of waiting, BlindSA and Section27 now want the government to fulfil its constitutional and international obligation to persons with visual disabilities.
They want the court to declare the current Copyright Act unconstitutional.
Current availability of Books in Braille:
Blind SA has produced about 2 000 titles over the past few decades and the past two years they produced 90 Curriculum-based textbooks (CAPS) for the Department of Education.
Producing a book in braille is nothing like downloading your favourite book on a kindle as an average book of 300 pages will take about a month to data-type and proofread before the letters get moulded or embossed into braille volumes.
Nair says producing one book can cost in the region of R24 000 but to reproduce the volumes will then cost R150.
At the moment Blind SA subsidises the cost for individuals by 99% with the blind customer only paying 1% which is about R18.00.
Nair says to get Copyright permission for any book can take months and sometimes it can take years for publishers to respond.
For the blind, visually impaired and other disabled people who love to read, the latest books on the market would simply have to be shelved for now.
