Accessible Books Consortium Premiers Video of Project in Argentina
October 6, 2017
The Accessible Books Consortium (ABC) premiered a video on its capacity building project in Argentina at WIPO’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland on October 6th, 2017. This is ABC’s first project in Latin America, and the video demonstrates the work being done by ABC and Tiflolibros, a digital library for the blind in Buenos Aires.
Through funding provided by WIPO, Tiflolibros will have produced 800 accessible educational books in Spanish by December 2017 for students who are blind or print disabled in primary and secondary schools.
The video demonstrates the innovative work being done by Tiflolibros, in collaboration with Argentinian publishers. Thanks to this cooperation, Tiflolibros can increase its output significantly by obtaining the digital file behind a work from the publisher, which can then be easily converted into an accessible format such as audio or refreshable braille.
When the publisher gives us the digital file from which they create paper books, it saves us the work of having to take apart the book and digitize it.
Pablo Lecuona, Founder and Director, Tiflolibros, Digital Library for the Blind, Argentina
About the Accessible Books Consortium
ABC is a public-private partnership led by WIPO, a UN specialized agency, that aims to implement the objectives of the Marrakesh Treaty at a practical level. ABC includes authors, publishers, rights-holders’ organizations, libraries for the blind and organizations representing people who are blind, have low vision or are otherwise print disabled.
About the Marrakesh Treaty
The Marrakesh Treaty came into force one year ago and there are currently 33 countries that have joined. Latin America is leading the way, with 13 out of 19 countries in the region having ratified the Treaty. This sends a strong message to the rest of the world that the region is committed to making published works accessible to people who are visually impaired.
The video was shown during the second Marrakesh Assembly held on October 6, 2017, within the context of WIPO’s Assemblies of Member States. The video is in Spanish, with English sub-titles, and it is planned to release the English language version in the coming weeks.
Find out more
- 2017 Report on the Accessible Books Consortium
