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Do you want to know about the latest tech and digital trends that benefit to blind and partially sighted people? What our future looks like  for mobility, leisure and culture, home automation and ambient intelligence? Register to the World Blindness Summit, June 21 to 30, 2021 More than 100 speakers and 190 participating countries. Webinars …

Since the introduction of the Marrakesh Treaty in 2013, Blind SA and other civil society organisations have been engaging government regarding the Copyright Amendment Bill and the importance and urgency of the Marrakesh Treaty, to no avail. It cannot be normal that eight years thereafter, we are still lobbying government to respect the rights of…

World Book Day, 23 April 2021 – Reading is important because it develops the mind. The mind is a muscle. It needs exercise. Understanding the written word is one way the mind grows in its ability. Blind SA endorses and encourages the right to read.  This is a basic human right. 

Not criminals, not copyright pirates, just blind.  The Marrakesh Treaty is ratified by over 90 countries and when South Africa ratifies the Marrakesh Treaty, blind people in this country may have access to over 700 000 books in braille, daisy and ePub formats.  Mr. President PLEASE, sign the CAB into law? #brailleisnocrime 

Blind people in South Africa have access to less than 0.5% of published works in an accessible format and the majority of these works have been produced by NPO’s like Blind SA. The President’s inactiveness in not signing the CAB into law is further impacting on the “book famine” experienced by blind people. 

Why, in a South Africa where the equality of its citizens is key and constitutional, is 42 year-old copyright laws still observed, making reproduction of reading and learning material into accessible formats a crime? The South African Constitution – section 9(2) states: “Equality includes the full and equal enjoyment of all rights and freedoms”.  #brailleisnocrime  #equalrightsforall…

Article courtesy of: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2021-04-15-the-blind-sa-case-watershed-moment-for-disability-rights-in-south-africa/   Almost 25 years ago, in December 1996, President Nelson Mandela promulgated South Africa’s progressive and aspirational Constitution. The document recognises a wide range of rights, including the right not to be discriminated against based on a disability. Also in 1996, a piece of less well-known legislation called the Chafee Amendment…

Available, but still not accessible – Blind SA laments the fact that due to outdated copyright laws blind and partially sighted South Africans still do not have access to all reading material that Bookshare has to offer. #brailleisnocrime.   

Blind SA’s Bookshare venture launched in October last year and has quickly become a real breakthrough for people with reading disabilities. In South Africa, access to books of all forms has been a serious difficulty for anyone with visual impairment. But Bookshare gives members choice across a vast library of e-books in accessible formats. Now,…