UNTERHALTER AJ
...
Accessible formats include Braille, audio versions, or copies of published works in
large print. For electronic versions, they include digital formats that enable the use of
screen readers. They also include adding audio descriptions to films and broadcasts,
as well as subtitles.”
[50]
Given that the majority of published books are not published in accessible format
copies, that is, formats accessible to persons with visual and print disabilities, such
persons must secure authorisation to convert books into accessible format copies. This
is difficult, often impossible, to do.
Absent authorisation, the rendering of a
literary work in which copyright subsists into accessible format copies would constitute
an infringement of copyright under section 23, and an offence under section 27of the
Copyright Act.31
[51]
The result is that persons with visual and print disabilities are denied access to
the vast majority of published literary works on the basis of their disability. The
Copyright Act is an insurmountable barrier that prevents works being locally available
in various accessible format copies.
[52]
In consequence, Blind SA contends that the Copyright Act limits the entrenched
rights of persons with visual and print disabilities. The rights so limited are the rights
to equality, human dignity, basic and further education, freedom of expression, and
participation in the cultural life of one’s choice.32 The supporting affidavits speak
trenchantly of the deprivations wrought upon persons with visual and print disabilities
by reason of the scarcity of books in accessible format copies. This, Blind SA contends,
constitutes powerful evidence of the infringement of these rights.
[53]
Mr Low is blind. He edits Spotlight, a publication of public interest health
journalism. He describes his own university education in which accessible format
31
These sections set out under which circumstances copyright will be infringed (section 23) and stipulate the
penalties and proceedings in respect of dealings which infringe copyright (section 27).
32
Sections 9, 10, 16, 29 and 30 of the Constitution.
22