New technologies have opened the door to greater access for millions of people who are visually impaired, yet copyright law frequently stands in the way. This is particularly true in the developing world, where digital works are often unavailable due to legal restrictions. My weekly technology law column (Ottawa Citizen version, homepage version) notes that on June 17, delegates from around the world will gather in Marrakesh, Morocco for a diplomatic conference to negotiate the final text on a new United Nations treaty that is designed to improve access to copyrighted works for people who are blind or have other perceptual disabilities.
The Treaty for the Visually Impaired, which has been the subject of years of discussion at the World Intellectual Property Organization, seeks to address the access problem in two ways.
