[A2k] Access to Foreign Works, for reading disabled persons

[Malini Aisola]

http://www.keionline.org/blogs/2009/04/22/access2foreign-works/
http://www.keionline.org/misc-docs/tvi/foreignlang_22april09.pdf

Access to Foreign Works, for reading disabled persons
By Malini Aisola, on April 22nd, 2009

Today Meredith Filak and I filed comments with the LOC Copyright Office
and the USPTO on the importance of access to foreign works for reading
disabled persons. A pdf of the comments are on the web at
http://www.keionline.org/misc-docs/tvi/foreignlang_22april09.pdf

The comment is filed with a lot of data, including, for example:

        According to the 2000 U.S. Census, among people aged 5 and above
        in the United States, 47 million people speak a language other
        than English at home. This constitutes 18 percent of the
        population, an increase from 14 percent in the 1990 census and
        11 percent in the 1980 census. While over 300 languages are
        spoken in the United States, Spanish is the most pervasive
        non-English language, and is spoken by 28.1 million people.
        Among the other significant populations speaking languages other
        than English are 2 million Chinese speakers, 1.6 million French
        speakers, 1.4 million German speakers, 1.2 million Tagalog
        speakers, and one million each speaking Vietnamese and Italian.

        According to a February 2006 survey prepared for the Director
        General for Education and Culture, the language most commonly
        spoken in Europe is English. Some 13 percent of Europeans speak
        English as their first language, and another 38 percent speak
        English as a second language. Together 51 percent of Europeans
        speak English. The most commonly used language in Europe by
        mother tongue (18 percent), and second most common by total
        speakers (32 percent) is German. The next most used languages in
        Europe are French and Italian, spoken by 26 percent and 16
        percent, respectively.

        Fifty six percent of Europeans speak a language other than their
        mother tongue. Twenty eight percent have mastered two languages
        other than their mother tongue. Eleven percent have mastered
        three or more languages excluding their mother tongue.
        Additionally, it is estimated that one in five Europeans are
        active language learners.

        The European Commission=E2=80=99s studies on the topic suggest that
        language skills are correlated with education, employment
        mobility and higher incomes. In fact, some 83 percent of
        Europeans surveyed believe that knowing foreign languages is or
        could be useful for them personally, and 53 percent consider
        this to be very useful. Sixty seven percent of Europeans
        surveyed reported that languages=E2=80=99 teaching should be a poli=
tical
        priority.


The analysis also discussed three areas in which a treaty on
international exceptions for accessible works would greatly benefit
reading disabled people:

        First. The sharing of works between countries that have a common
        dominant language will improve the availability of accessible
        works for their reading disabled citizens. For example, works
        that are published and made accessible in the U.K. would, for
        the first time, become available to reading disabled persons
        residing in Australia, Barbados, Bangladesh, Canada, India, Hong
        Kong, Kenya, Pakistan, Singapore, South Africa, Uganda, United
        States, New Zealand and other countries where English is spoken.
        Citizens of smaller nations with fewer resources to create
        accessible works are particularly affected by current
        restrictions on the export and import of accessible works. These
        reading disabled individuals have little to no access to
        accessible works available in other countries with which they
        share a common language.

        Second. The global sharing of accessible works would expand
        access for persons whose mother tongue is different from the
        official language of their country of residence. A treaty
        providing for the global distribution of accessible works would
        allow an Arabic speaker living in London greater access to
        accessible works in Egypt and other Arabic speaking countries. A
        native Spanish speaker who lives in the United States and is
        reading disabled could enjoy access to the collection of more
        than 20,000 accessible Spanish language works managed by the
        Argentina based Tiflolibros.

        Third. Access to libraries of accessible foreign language works
        would benefit those reading disabled persons who speak foreign
        languages in addition to their native tongue. Fifty six percent
        of Europeans speak one or more languages excluding their mother
        tongue. In fact, 38 percent of Europeans are non-native speakers
        of English. Language skills are considered useful for business,
        education, travel, entertainment and personal satisfaction.
        Global sharing of accessible works would provide reading
        disabled persons with foreign language skills the opportunity to
        avail themselves of valuable multilingual resources and
        participate more fully in the global environment. For example,
        accessible Spanish texts would be invaluable to a reading
        disabled businessman who seeks to successfully operate a
        business in Latin America.



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Malini Aisola
Knowledge Ecology International
1621 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 500, Washington DC 20009
Tel: +1.202.332.2670 Fax: +1.202.332.2673