Today marks World Book and Copyright Day, established by UNESCO, a day that promotes reading, publishing and copyright awareness. SECTION27 and Blind SA highlight a painful and ongoing exclusion: for blind and visually impaired people in South Africa, that world remains firmly out of reach. To commemorate the day, the organisations collaborated on a video highlighting limited access to readable materials for the blind and visually impaired.
For sighted people, reading is effortless. A book can be picked up in a shop, borrowed from a library, downloaded in seconds, or shared among friends. It is an ordinary, unremarkable freedom, so embedded in daily life that it is rarely questioned. But for blind and visually impaired people, access to reading is not a given. It is a struggle.
In South Africa today, only approximately 0.5% of all published works are available in accessible formats such as braille, audio, or large print. This is not a gap. It is a crisis, a “book famine” that systematically excludes millions from education, employment opportunities, and full participation in society.
At the heart of this book famine lies the South African government’s continued failure to ratify the Marrakesh Treaty; an international agreement specifically designed to end the book famine by facilitating the cross-border sharing of accessible published works. Ratifying the Treaty would immediately unlock access to online book consortiums which have millions of titles already available in accessible formats worldwide. Books that already exist. Knowledge that is already within reach. But without government action, they remain inaccessible.
For over a decade, Blind SA and SECTION27 have worked tirelessly to end the book famine. Blind SA, represented by SECTION27, has twice been before the Constitutional Court successfullychallenging certain provisions of the Copyright Act 98 of 1978 for criminalising anyone who converted reading materials into accessible formats, like braille or large print, without the consent of the copyright holder. With the Constitutional Court’s order and Parliament’s action, there is no barrier to the ratification of the Marrakesh Treaty.
We have marched. We have engaged policymakers. We have litigated. We have waited. And still, the doors remain closed. On this World Book and Copyright Day, we call on the Department of Trade, Industry and Competition to ensure the full ratification and implementation of the Marrakesh Treaty.
For media enquiries contact:
SECTION27: Pearl Nicodemus | nicodemus@section27.org.za | 082 298 2636
Blind SA: Princess Mathonsi | pr@blindsa.org.za | 067 152 4292
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