WIPO DG Highlights Accessible Books Consortium’s “Excellent Results” at 2019 Assemblies

October 1, 2019

WIPO’s Director General, Mr. Francis Gurry presented his comprehensive annual report to member States and highlighted some of the organization’s many achievements, including the excellent results of the Accessible Books Consortium (ABC).

Photo of two women being trained in the use of a reading device by a third woman
Photo of two women being trained in the use of a reading device by a third woman.
Training provided through ABC and its partner, the Mitra Netra Foundation in
Indonesia, with funding from the Government of Australia.
(Photo: Mitra Netra Foundation 2018)

ABC is a public–private partnership led by WIPO that brings together all of the key players – organizations representing people who are blind, visually impaired or otherwise print-disabled, authors, publishers, collective management organizations, libraries and other authorized entities, as well as standards bodies. 

The Accessible Books Consortium was launched five years ago, to implement the goals of the WIPO administered Marrakesh Treaty, which now has 58 contracting parties covering 85 countries, since the European Union ratified the treaty as one bloc.

Through an effective international alliance of relevant state and non-state actors, ABC seeks to increase, and distribute, the number of books worldwide in accessible formats - such as Braille, audio, e-text and large print.  In this manner, it makes valuable contributions to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, and in particular to SDG No. 4 Quality Education.

ABC Results

Photo of people seated in a classroom in front of computers being trained in how to produce books in accessible formats
Photo of people seated in a classroom in front of computers being trained in how to produce
books in accessible formats. Training provided through ABC and its partner, the Innovation
Development Center of the Blind of Mongolia, with funding from the Government of Australia.
(Photo: Innovation Development Center of the Blind 2018)

ABC Global Book Service  – makes publications in accessible formats available for international exchange. Sixty-one (61) libraries for the blind, known as authorized entities, have joined the Service. The Service now has available a catalogue of over 540,000 accessible titles in 76 languages, with 425,000 of those titles available for cross-border exchange free from clearance formalities under the conditions of the Marrakesh Treaty.

Capacity Building provides training and technical assistance in the latest accessible book production techniques to authorized entities, departments of education and publishers in developing countries and LDCs.  Funding for the production of educational materials in national languages to be used by primary, secondary and university students who are print disabled is provided by ABC, so that the techniques taught during the training can be utilized immediately by the trainees.  Over 9300 accessible educational titles in national languages have been produced in five years through ABC projects.

Accessible Publishing – ABC promotes the production of “born accessible” works by publishers, that is, books that are usable from the start by both sighted persons and the print disabled.  Publishers and publisher associations around the world are invited to sign the ABC Charter for Accessible Publishing, which contains eight high-level aspirational principles relating to digital publications in accessible formats.  The past 12 months have seen a great increase in the number of adherents to the Charter, with Hachette Livre, one of the world’s largest publishers, being the 100th publisher to sign the ABC Charter.

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