Dear all,
I am facing some difficulty in signing this petition.
The webpage for the second petition is not read aloud by JAWS. When the page
is loaded, JAWS announces, "Open parent document".
In case anyone of you has signed the petition, please advise on how to go
about signing the same.
Regards,
Apoorv
---Original message----
Date: Mon, 27 May 2013 17:34:12 +0530
From: "Xavier's Resource Centre for the Visuall St. Xavier's College"
<[email protected]>
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Subject: [AI] FW: Urgent Help - Please sign the petition
Message-ID: <[email protected]>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252"
Dear All
The following email is self explanatory and needs our urgent endorsement, If
the treaty for the visually impaired is to succeed at all.Please sign the
following two online petitions and also link them to your social networking
sites. Awareness on the issue needs to go viral. It is sad that vested
interests want to derail the labour of many years and keep the blind in the
dark.
Your immediate co-operation is solicited.
The first one is as follows
Dear Friends:Blind and print-disabled people in the United States and across
the world need your help to relieve the worldwide book famine that prevents
us from receiving an education, attaining employment, and fully
participating in society. The World Intellectual Property Organization is
considering a treaty that would make more books available to blind and
print-disabled people all over the world by promoting an exception to
copyright law allowing books to be produced in special formats like Braille
and to be shared across international borders. This treaty is called the
Treaty for the Blind or the VIP Treaty. Unfortunately, publishers, big
media, and other rights holders like GE and Caterpillar, some of whom have
nothing to do with the publishing of books at all, are complicating the
negotiations in an attempt to water down or kill the treaty. You can help by
sending a strong message that you support a treaty that helps the blind and
print disabled get access to more books. Please sign the petition at
https://nfb.org/civicrm/petition/sign?sid=2
<https://nfb.org/civicrm/petition/sign?sid=2&reset=1Also> &reset=1Also,
please share the petition link with your family, friends, and others who you
feel will support this effort.Thank you for your support.John G. Par?
Jr.Executive Director for Advocacy and Policy NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE
BLIND
The second petition is It?s not typical for us to send you an email like
this, but we felt this situation was so important it was necessary. You may
already be aware, but for years negotiations have been moving forward on
what many have come to call the "Treaty for the Blind." The goal of the
international treaty is to make it possible for people who are blind, or
have other print disabilities such as dyslexia, to get access to the books
they need for education, employment and inclusion in society?no matter where
they live. It's something we already do, with great success, in the United
States through Bookshare.However, private interests are trying to alter the
treaty in such a way that it would become useless?even harmful. For example,
they?re trying to get language adopted that basically says: ?if you can buy
it, you can?t borrow it.? This is not only an attack on people around the
world with print disabilities?it?s also an attack on libraries, like
Bookshare, and could have a drastic effect on the number of books you have
access to. Our biggest worry is this becoming a treaty that could stop
Bookshare from serving our users in the United States the way we do today.
We need our government negotiating for a treaty that supports a library like
Bookshare. That?s why we?re working with a coalition of disability and
library groups, including the National Federation of the Blind and the
American Council of the Blind, to fight back against the proposed changes by
these private interests. We?ll do everything we can to secure a treaty that
both protects the access we have now and that will benefit people with print
disabilities around the world?but we need your help. We?re asking you to
take a moment to sign a petition on the White House?s website that urges the
President to step up his support:http://ow.ly/lkJVs. If we can get to
100,000 signatures, the White House is required to respond to the petition
and will, hopefully, take positive action. With your help we know we can
reach that number. We also recommend the petition at the National
Federation of the Blind?s site, which is particularly accessible. Thank you
for your time and support. Together, we believe that our collective voice
can make a real impact. If you?re interested in more background on the
treaty, here are some articles and resources you can review:Huffington Post
piece by Jim on how the treaty is being poisoned by private interests:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-fruchterman/poisoning-the-treaty-for-_b_32
25181.htmlWIRED Magazine article that gives some recent updates on the
treaty: http://ow.ly/lfP15 Sincerely,Jim Fruchterman & Betsy Beaumon,
Bookshare P.S. Please post the link to the White House petition on your
social media to help spread the word and get your friends involved! Again,
here is the link: http://ow.ly/lkJVs. Best Regards,
Dr. Sam Taraporevala
------------------------------------------
Director
Xavier's Resource Center for the Visually Challenged
(XRCVC)
St. Xavier's College, Mumbai - 400 001
[email protected]
+91 22 22623298 (D)
+91 22 22620661-5 (B); extn: 366
+91 9869378436 (M)
+91 9967028769
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