By Loveth Asogwa,
Nigeria Association of the Blind (NAB) on Thursday 1st of September, 2022 organized a press conference plead with Nigerian government to domesticate the Marrakesh treaty so that persons with print disabilities can read like others and president Muhammadu Buhari to sign the copyright bill.
The press release is supported by the Sight Savers and implemented by NAB.
Adam Ishiaku, President NAB in his speech said Persons with print disabilities require that their books and other printed materials are produces in accessible formats, which include braille, digital formats such as e-pub and audio formats such as MP3.
“In most cases, specialized and expensive equipment such as digital recorders and players and braille transcription equipment required”.
“The Treaty of Marrakesh explained, July 2013 estimates suggest that about ten percent of the books produced in developed countries are accessible to print persons with disabilities.
“In developing countries, the situation is less clear, perhaps less than one percent of books are in accessible formats”.
“Under such circumstances, the organization which produce books in accessible formats have to make difficult choices about the books to transcribe, record or make accessible.”
He stated that Books are produced, not because of their intellectual quality, but because of their market popularity.
“The situation is worsened because if an organization of the blind in one country. This became a major concern for persons with print disabilities around the world, leading to the advocacy for what is today called “The Marrakesh Treaty”
Nigeria Association of the Blind (NAB) has been involved in the advocacy to bring the treaty into existence.
NAB was one of three African blind people’s associations involved in the campaign for the adoption of the Marrakesh treaty in Geneva.
The Nigeria Association of the Blind uses this opportunity to urge the Nigerian government to domesticate The Marrakesh Treaty to remove copyright legal barriers for persons with print disabilities “Lets Read Together”.
The next stage in the process is presidential assent to the newly passed Copyright Bill.
It is crucial that Nigeria domesticates the treaty in view of the many benefits to our persons with print disabilities. These people are currently being deprived of the huge benefits that others are enjoying because of the increasing availability of reading material on every imaginable subject.
Nigeria has signed the UNCRPD, therefore voluntarily committing itself to complying with the provisions of the convention.
“This means that Nigeria owes its disability citizens the duty of providing works and material in accessible formats as provided in Article 9, 19, 21, 24, 31 and 33.3 of the UNCRPD”.
The domestication of this convention and the Marrakesh treaty through the assent to the new copyright bill will make Nigeria a society with equal reading opportunities for both print disability and nonprint disability citizens of the society, this will show how all people are able to read the same book, regardless of disability. This can be made possible if all barriers to producing books in accessible formats are removed.
NAB called on our listening President Muhammadu Buhari to sign the newly revised copyright bill into law. The association noted that the president signed the discrimination against persons with disability prohibition act 2018.
They urged the president to continue to demonstrate his commitment to equal rights for Nigerians with disabilities, Nigerians with print disabilities are anxious to demonstrate that with the removal of barriers preventing us from accessing books and educational materials, they can be equal contributors to the growth of our great country.
