WIPO’s Accessible Books Consortium Celebrates 10 Years with Premiere of Video
July 15, 2024
The Accessible Books Consortium (ABC) commemorated its first decade with a video showcasing the significant role of French organizations for the blind in promoting and utilizing accessible books, which was shown during the Assemblies of Member States of WIPO.
The video highlights the contributions of ABC’s partners in France and features Mr. Fernando Pinto da Silva, who works at the French Federation for Blind and Partially Sighted People, as well as Mr. Marc Aufrant, from the Association Valentin Haüy (AVH). AVH is one of the first libraries for the blind established in the world and is currently the no. 1 user of the ABC Global Book Service.
Monica Halil Lövblad, Head, ABC, in introducing the video stated, “This video is set in a French historical context. We see the resting place of Louis Braille; this great innovator of the 19th century was the Steve Jobs of his day. He lost his sight at a very early age and created the braille system of reading and writing when he was just 16 years old. The end of this year marks the 200th anniversary of the invention of braille. We also see the French National Institute of Blind Youth, which is the successor to the first school for the blind ever established in the world in the 18th century, and where both Fernando and Marc, the protagonists of our video, studied when they were young.”
The Association Valentin Haüy has been at the forefront of utilizing the ABC catalogue, integrating ABC’s resources into its national collection as part of a proactive policy to increase the availability of accessible format copies of works in the French language for its patrons. The ABC Global Book Service achieved a major milestone this year, hitting one million titles in 80 languages in its catalogue, including over 125,000 accessible format copies in French.
The video highlights the substantial contributions of French organizations for the blind, thereby demonstrating the importance of advocacy in promoting the availability of accessible books for people who are blind or otherwise print disabled at a national level. Mr. Pinto da Silva also makes the point that European publishers will soon be producing “born accessible” books since “starting on June 28, 2025, all publishers of the 27 member countries of the European Union are required to publish their titles born accessible for the blind.”
The European Accessibility Act requires that when e-books are created, the associated files include accessibility features, such as structured text and image descriptions, and that consumers with disabilities are informed about such features when they buy an e-book.
As ABC stakeholders celebrate its 10th anniversary, the Consortium continues to strive towards a future where everyone has equal access to knowledge, culture and information. For more information about ABC, see the 2024 Report of the Accessible Books Consortium.
Background
According to a 2017 study published in The Lancet, approximately 253 million people are blind or visually impaired world-wide. Nearly 90% of these are resident in developing countries, where the World Blind Union (WBU) estimates that people who are blind have only a one in ten chance of going to school or getting a job. A lack of accessible books remains a very real barrier to getting an education and leading an independent, productive life.
About ABC
The Accessible Books Consortium (ABC) is a public-private partnership led by WIPO that, together with its many partners around the world, has had real impact over the past decade. Since its inception, the ABC Global Book Service catalogue has quadrupled in size to one million titles thanks to the inclusion of the collections of participating authorized entities. ABC delivered a total of 164,000 accessible digital files from the ABC catalogue to persons with print disabilities through its authorized entities in 2023. In addition, through ABC’s training and technical assistance partners, 20,000 textbooks have been made accessible in over 40 low-income countries, improving access to education for thousands of young people. ABC was established in June 2014 to implement the goals of the Marrakesh Treaty.
Subscribe to receive regular ABC news updates via email
About WIPO
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is the global forum for intellectual property policy, services, information and cooperation. A specialized agency of the United Nations, WIPO assists its 193 member states in developing a balanced international IP legal framework to meet society's evolving needs. It provides business services for obtaining IP rights in multiple countries and resolving disputes. It delivers capacity-building programs to help developing countries benefit from using IP. And it provides free access to unique knowledge banks of IP information.