Remember, last week, when I asked my T-A-B friends to speak up for the rights of the Disabled?

[capri0mni]

Well, here's your chance. Go read this post from troubleinchina:
Spread the Word; Contact your Representatives, and follow its advice.

The short version:

Putting out alternative versions of books for people who can't read an ordinary printed page (blind people, but also dyslexic people, paralized folks who can't hold a book, et. alia) is rediculously expensive. There are often national exceptions to copyright law that allows these alternative versions to be printed, to protect the rights of the blind, and other disabled people.

But these laws don't apply to cross-border trade. So Brazil, Paraquay, and Ecuador have banded together to create a treaty that would allow such trade.

Guess who's opposing it?

The United States (So much for the campaign pledge to focus on Disability Rights as Civil Rights. Color me disappointed).

The European Union

Australia

New Zealand

Norway, and

The Vatican (WTF? I guess their point of view is that Jesus only loves the blind and paralized if he can make an example out of them).

Blog about this. Post links. Make a stink; make a noise; make it messy. Make it embarrassing.

[ETA: the link to troubleinchina's post is now fixed. Also, here is an additional link she posted: World Intellectual Property Organization, listing the 184 member nations involved here. Click on the name of the country you're interested in to find contact (and other) information.]

Comments

[alryssa.livejournal.com]

That link just leads me right back to my own friendslist, FYI.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

D'oh!!

::Facepalm::

Thanks for the heads-up. It's fixed, now (I'd copied the u-r-l, but forgot to paste it into the "a h-ref equals" tag).

I took that as my cue to go ahead and have that snack, and come back. :-)

[alto2.livejournal.com]

The blind-rights treaty survived and will be on the agenda for the next WIPO meeting. Full report here.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Yay! Thanks for the link to the report.

I will still write letters to my representatives about it, though, to let them know that I'm in favor of it, even though I won't benefit from it directly (as I am not print-handicapped). Because although it survived this round, it isn't a done deal yet (or so I gather from that report).

[alto2.livejournal.com]

What I've read doesn't indicate that Congress has any actual role here, so I'm not sure what good it would do to write them, though I suppose it never hurts. I got the feeling from Cory Doctorow's posts on Twitter that now that it's survived this round, it'll probably go on from here, so I am keeping fingers and toes crossed.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Well, I was thinking of writing not to my congressman, and senators per se, but also to Clinton and maybe our UN ambassador, et alia, just to remind them that I'd support them for supporting this. And if it passes before I figure out what to write in said letter(s), to thank them for supporting it. And I'd point out why access issues are important to me, even though I'm not one of "those" people. ... if just to plant the notion that various disability rights issues are "general" rights issues -- not a fringe or minority interest.

ya know?

[troubleinchina.livejournal.com]

*nodnodnod*

I think writing to our elected reps and talking about access issues in general is very important.

Thanks so much for linking about this. <3

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Oh, you're very welcome. And thank you for putting it out there for me to link to.

If it weren't for that, I was contemplating writing a poem about how much bitterness I feel when people stare at me, and grumble under their breath about having to unlock the "Special" back door with the ramp. So this is much better. :-)